HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM book.pdf · 1 Have Fun and Learn Through Social Media...
Transcript of HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM book.pdf · 1 Have Fun and Learn Through Social Media...
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HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM
E- GUIDE
This e-guide was designed by teachers in the 1st meeting of project 2018-1-TR01-KA229-060039
named “Have Fun and Learn Through Social Media” on January 15th 2019.
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14-19 Januray 2019 Yalova TURKEY
Thank you for the contributions of all the teachers in the project meeting.
Project Coordinator Muhittin AYCAN
19/01/2019
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Index Is Social Media Relevant? Take the Quiz ......................................................................................................... 5
The Social Media Answer ....................................................................................................................... 6
Reasons to Use Social Media ........................................................................................................................... 6
Social Media Technology in the Classroom Helps to Increase Student Knowledge.................................... 7
Improves Communication between Parents, Teachers, and Students ....................................................... 7
Allows Students to Get Help from Others ................................................................................................... 7
Can Encourage Student Participation .......................................................................................................... 8
Has a Variety of Engaging Features ............................................................................................................. 8
The Social Media Myth ................................................................................................................................ 8
Some Ways to Use Social Media In The Classrooms ....................................................................................... 9
Set an Example............................................................................................................................................. 9
Facebook .................................................................................................................................................... 10
Create a classroom community ............................................................................................................. 10
Document class adventures ................................................................................................................... 10
Use Facebook Live to provide additional help....................................................................................... 10
Poll your class ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Keep up with the news .......................................................................................................................... 11
Make announcements and post homework ......................................................................................... 11
Teach digital responsibility .................................................................................................................... 11
Share educational content..................................................................................................................... 11
Post events............................................................................................................................................. 11
Provide links to important documents .................................................................................................. 11
Make global connections ....................................................................................................................... 12
Snapchat .................................................................................................................................................... 12
One-way communication....................................................................................................................... 12
Real-life examples .................................................................................................................................. 12
Become a reporter ................................................................................................................................. 12
Vocabulary exercises ............................................................................................................................. 12
#Booksnaps ............................................................................................................................................ 13
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Instagram ................................................................................................................................................... 13
Class-account ......................................................................................................................................... 13
Student of the Week .............................................................................................................................. 13
Progression ............................................................................................................................................ 13
Hunting game......................................................................................................................................... 13
Build a team ........................................................................................................................................... 13
Twitter........................................................................................................................................................ 14
Engage parents ...................................................................................................................................... 14
Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 14
Join some of these #hashtags ................................................................................................................ 14
Explore and tweet! ................................................................................................................................ 15
Microreviews ......................................................................................................................................... 15
Keep up with trends............................................................................................................................... 15
Get feedback from students .................................................................................................................. 15
Show off your classroom ....................................................................................................................... 15
Connect with other classes .................................................................................................................... 15
Make Twitter the homework ................................................................................................................. 15
Edit tweets ............................................................................................................................................. 16
YouTube ..................................................................................................................................................... 16
EdTech school ........................................................................................................................................ 16
Literature classes ................................................................................................................................... 16
History archive ....................................................................................................................................... 16
Let the student become the creator...................................................................................................... 16
Mister Einstein ....................................................................................................................................... 16
WhatsApp .................................................................................................................................................. 17
Setting the rules ..................................................................................................................................... 18
Encourage collaboration ........................................................................................................................ 18
Extend learning time .............................................................................................................................. 18
Manage large class sizes ........................................................................................................................ 18
Flip the classroom .................................................................................................................................. 19
Build confidence .................................................................................................................................... 19
Skype .......................................................................................................................................................... 19
Use video conferencing to teach your students .................................................................................... 19
Blog ............................................................................................................................................................ 20
Pinterest ..................................................................................................................................................... 20
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Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................... 21
Support Outside of the Classroom ............................................................................................................ 21
Networking ................................................................................................................................................ 22
Parents and Social Media .......................................................................................................................... 22
Don't hesitate ............................................................................................................................................ 23
HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM
“How to use social media’’ in the classroom along with
the very popular social media tools (Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter) that our students love to log in
every day.
Social media is a big part of many young people’s
lives. Instead of fighting against social media in our
classrooms and schools, we can come alongside our
students and join them on social media! When we
bring the learning into their court, we make school
more engaging and relevant.
Is Social Media Relevant? Take the Quiz
Before we talk social media, let's talk about the relevance of social media by taking a quiz. Which
of the following is most likely to be true?
☐ Should we teach letter-writing in the classroom? Kids need
to write letters and mail them. But what if they become pen pals
with strangers and share private information with them? What if
their letter gets lost in the mail and the wrong person opens it?
Are we opening up a whole dangerous world to our students once
they mail letters to others? Surely students will send thousands
of letters through the mail in their lifetime.
☐ Should we teach email in the classroom? Kids need to email other people and should know
how to title a subject. But what if they email someone bad? What if they accidentally send it to the
wrong person? What will we do? And are we opening up a whole dangerous world to our students
once they email others? Surely students will send thousands of emails in their lifetime.
☐ Should we teach (dare we say it) social media in the classroom? We mean, they don't have to
learn microblogging on Twitter -- you can do that in Edmodo, right? You can have a private blog
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or put them on Kidblogs or Edublogs instead of letting them post long status updates on Facebook,
right? Are we opening up a whole dangerous world to our students once they are writing online and
posting comments to each other? Surely students will post thousands of status updates, pictures, and
blogs in their lifetime.
The Social Media Answer
☑ There's one form of writing that can arguably get someone fired, hired or forced to
retire faster than any other form of writing.
☑ There's one form that will most likely be read by college admissions offices and teams
of student "stalkers" hired to vet students before they receive scholarships.
☑ There's one form that will prevent some people from running for political office and get
others elected.
One form of writing is that powerful. If you guessed social media, you're right.
Reasons to Use Social Media
Social media technology in the classroom sites like Facebook and Twitter have been a prevalent part
of our society for some time now, and it’s no secret that they are here to stay. While some teachers
may frown upon using social media technology in the classroom, others say that it can actually be
useful for educational purposes. Here are a few reasons why teachers like to use social
media technology in the classroom.
Get Social
You have your unit of study and your lesson plans. Add this one
small piece: everyone– including you– pick a social media service
and follow someone who blogs, tweets, tumbls, scoops, or pins
about the topic. If you work with younger students, you can do this
as a class and use it as an opener each day or week throughout the
unit. Students can write a response to the author, which
incorporates what they learn in class or a summary for class that
can be used as a basis for discussion. You can also form small discussion groups based on platforms
or topics. The goals of this strategy are to introduce students to a variety of social media sites, teach
students how to evaluate social media sources, learn the vocabulary of various social media sites
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(i.e. the term is tweeter not “twitterer”), help students to see social media as a source of information,
and demonstrate the “social” in social media for academic purposes.
Social Media Technology in the Classroom Helps to Increase Student Knowledge
Social media has the ability to increase knowledge in a matter of minutes. By simply scrolling
through your newsfeed, you can get updates on the latest current events and news. You can also
easily search for relevant information by using hashtag #news. The ability to get timely updates is
what makes social media so great. Many teachers have found that using social media sites in the
classroom is an effective and quick way for their students to increase their knowledge about current
events. As long as you set some boundaries, and show your students what it can and cannot be used
for in the classroom, it can be an effective way to increase knowledge.
Improves Communication between Parents, Teachers, and Students
Social media has the ability to keep parents, teachers,
and students on the same page about what’s going on
in the classroom. Teachers can easily post homework
assignments, upcoming project dates, and school event
information to their social media page. Long gone are
the days where you have to sit and wait by the phone
to get a reply. Teachers love social media because you
can easily communicate with parents and students in
an instant. Sites like Facebook and Twitter make it
easy to instantly provide feedback, ask a question,
comment, or private message someone.
Allows Students to Get Help from Others
Social media sites can be useful for students to get help from their peers
or other relevant experts. If a student has a question about their homework
assignment, all they have to do is post their question and ask for help.
Students can also ask an expert by tweeting or posting to a Facebook page.
Social media also gives students the ability to private message the teacher
or post a specific question to the teacher on their wall. When students do
that, other classmates can see the question posted on the wall, and chime
in which is a great way to get the discussion started and get feedback from
one another.
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Can Encourage Student Participation
One of the great things about using social media in education is that it encourages students to
participate, especially for those shy students who don’t like to verbally talk in class. Social media
can help make these types of students more confident in speaking their opinions so that when they
are in the classroom they will feel comfortable sharing their ideas. Social media also makes it quite
easy for students to collaborate with one another. Students can work on school projects or group
assignments from home and easily contact one another via social media to work on their task.
Has a Variety of Engaging Features
Ogni social media ha diverse funzionalità che permettono i loro utenti a
fare cose diverse. Ad esempio, Twitter e Instagram sono noti per l'utilizzo
di hashtag. Quando gli studenti utilizzano questi siti e desiderano cercare
qualcosa di specifico, tutto ciò che devono fare è utilizzare un hashtag.
Ad esempio, se gli studenti stavano lavorando a un progetto su Rosa
Parks, possono utilizzare l'hashtag #Rosaparks per scoprire informazioni
specifiche su di lei. Facebook ha ciò che chiamano "Gruppi" o "Pagine"
a cui puoi unirti per trovare maggiori informazioni per il tuo progetto.
Queste caratteristiche uniche sono ciò che rende i social media così divertenti e coinvolgenti per gli
studenti.
Se sei ancora sul punto di decidere se vuoi introdurre i social media nella tua classe, allora devi
pensare che la tecnologia è destinata a rimanere e sta a te decidere se vuoi utlizzarla. Finché
imposterai filtri che impediscono agli studenti di pubblicare o guardare volgarità, puoi sfruttare gli
aspetti positivi che i social media hanno da offrire ai tuoi studenti.
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Il mito dei Social media
The myth about social media in the classroom is that if you use it, kids will be Tweeting,
Facebooking and Snapchatting while you're trying to teach. We still have to focus on the task at
hand. Don't mistake social media for socializing. They're different -- just as kids talking as they
work in groups or talking while hanging out are different.
Some Ways to Use Social Media In The
Classrooms
When you try to think of the favorite activity of today’s students, you’ll most probably come up with
the obvious answer: social media. It seems like students of all ages are obsessed by it. These social
media channels have mesmerizing power, so they can often become great distractions in the
classroom. What most teachers don’t realize is that they can use social media to their advantage.
These platforms have the power to enhance the collaboration and healthy competitive spirit in the
classroom.
In the continuation, We’ll share some great ways to use social media in the educational processes.
Set an Example
Students learn plenty of new things every single day. However, they rarely get precise instructions
on how to use social media platforms. Thus, they rely on their
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intuition and the examples they see from other users, which don’t always lead them in the right
direction. It’s time to set an example. Explain how social media can help them learn and establish a
great online reputation. Be a great example for them and introduce them to the concept of
responsible digital citizenship.
Facebook is so much more than only a social platform where we connect with old
friends or learn about events next week. Teachers can use Facebook in the classroom
for projects, to communicate, and especially to receive more engagement in the
learning process. We’ll give you some tricks and tips to open up the process:
Create a classroom community
Thanks to Facebook groups, students will share more and dare to ask questions in a more easy way.
You can help them or give the opportunity to students to help each other. Keep in mind: set some
rules in the group, such as:
• What does and what doesn’t belong in the group.
• Make some bounderies that can’t be crossed.
It also allows shy students a way to communicate in a more easy way.
Document class adventures
This generation loves to document every part of their lives; therefore, teachers should take
advantage of the ease of documenting and sharing pictures from class activities such as field trips.
Use Facebook Live to provide additional help
Facebook Live is a new feature that is
immensely useful in the classroom. It is a tool
that allows teachers to record videos which
students may view through live streaming or
later. This is a terrific way to record and share
videos of difficult lessons so that students can
watch and learn after school.
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Poll your class
Use polls as an interactive teaching tool in class. It’s a fun way of getting to know one another. Also
an easy way to measure the opinions of the students, and you show value to their opinions.
Keep up with the news
Thanks to Facebook or using social media in teaching in general, you can keep the students posted
of the latest stories, the chance to follow organisations, companies, politicians. This way you both
keep up with the latest changes.
Make announcements and post homework
Students and tutors alike can post relevant articles or websites if they find some
good resources back home. As a lot of the students will have a Facebook account,
it’s easy to give them access to the given homework. Plus it will be written down
very clear what’s expected of them and when it’s due.
Teach digital responsibility
Teach students some digital citizenship. Give them guidelines for responsible and appropriate
behavior when they are using Facebook. In this case, students have to know how to interact with
friends and strangers on their social profile.
Share educational content
Since Facebook makes it extremely easy to share materials, this is the perfect place to share
educational content. For instance, teachers can share videos and articles from reliable news sources
related to the information they are studying in class.
Post events
Students tend to sync their online calendars with Facebook. Therefore, it is helpful for students when
teachers create events for their classes that will register on their calendars like exam days.
Provide links to important documents Facebook groups also allow the users to upload important files that are only accessible to the group.
If a teacher has material that students need to keep up with all year, Facebook offers great online
storage.
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Make global connections
Finally, Facebook is a wonderful way to make global connections with other teachers and students
across the world.
Snapchat
Yes indeed, Snapchat! Students love working with Snapchat. They love sharing their
moments together. Thanks to Snapchat videos and pictures, there’s an easy way to do
that! What a fun way to use Snapchat in your classroom!
One-way communication
Snapchat can be used for one-way communication, for example a classroom/school account can be
used to broadcast content but not receive content from others. This way they can follow your account
without unnecessary reactions of students.
Real-life examples
If you’re e.g. a biology teacher, and you were teaching about a special
animal species which youu accidently ran into while doing a hike, you can
instantly show it to your students thanks to the Snapchat account. And what
about learning through social media for math? Show your students real-life
math hacks you come upon outside the classroom. This way, you prove to
your students that math is actually really useful once they’re out in the real
world.
Become a reporter
Schools or organisations can bring news to the entire community. Report on a musical play
organized by your school. Or just show them live images of a high school football play.
Vocabulary exercises
Yes, I’m saying it! Every tutor has a responsibility to teach vocabulary! By using Snapchat, you can
have students …
• … take pictures of their errors, let them mark it with the “pen” function.
• … share good experiences with one another, since they’re looking for confirmation from
each other.
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#Booksnaps
Students in any subject can easily take a Snapchat picture of what they’re reading, share their
thoughts about it and send it to others. Yes, also back to you! Which offers a lot more engagement
than standard practices?
There are a lot of people out there loving Instagram and using it every time to
highlight the best moments in their lives! How could it be your favorite social media
platform used in your classroom?
Class-account
There’s no easier way to share the best class-moments together! By using an Instagram class-
account, you can share the best memories of the time your class took a field trip.
Student of the Week
Every new week you introduce your followers to a
new student, let the student have a ‘bio’ post with
the favorite picture of themself. Don’t forget to
give some guidance, such that the content is
school-appropriate.
Progression
You, as the ‘general manager’ of your class, can
post pictures of students' work during the year
(with your students' permission of course).
Hunting game
Let students use ‘Instagram stories’ to hunt down specific things or types of things in the big, big
world around them. This way, without their knowing, you’ll open up the eyes of the students and let
them see more.
Build a team
Last but not least! Build a staff of students who are willing to manage the account correctly and with
passion. Since not everyone of us is a fan of social media, try to include everyone.
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“From breaking news and entertainment to sports and politics, get the full story with
all the live commentary.” Quoted by Twitter. Isn’t this what we need? News flashes,
entertainment, and so on.
Engage parents
Parents interested in daily classes can follow
you. Your way of tweeting will give them
more of an image about what is happening
in the classroom.
Summary
To conclude your class, ask the students to
‘tweet’ about the subject in a short summary.
Let them give opinions about the subject.
You’ll see they’ll open up to
conversation.
Join some of these #hashtags
Connect easily with other teachers and stay tuned to the latest trends regarding education by
subscribing to the #educhat or #edutech hashtag and participate in the community.
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Explore and tweet!
Nothing more fun for the students than to go out there and explore the things
they learn. Let them tweet about their experiences. This way, family
members can follow their journey and you can see the effort the students put
into the fieldtrip.
Microreviews
Give your students the opportunity to react to certain book assignments, and let them express their
thoughts. Maybe even send tweets to the author? Or summarize a book review with only 280
characters? Open up conversation, and let them become more critical readers. Let them become the
wolves, not the sheep.
Keep up with trends
Teachers and administrators talk on twitter. There are tons of education hashtags you can use to
explore what’s trending at the moment. Get new ideas and share with other professionals.
Get feedback from students
Ask students to tweet you their questions, comments, and more. Keep a running
list of what your students are saying or have questions about. You can address their
thoughts in class or on twitter.
Show off your classroom Live tweeting what’s going on is a fun way to keep parents in the loop. It also allows students to
look back on what you’ve done during the school year.
Connect with other classes
Join your classroom with another via Twitter. Let your students use a classroom twitter handle to
tweet back and forth with another class across the country or the world.
Make Twitter the homework Instead of a boring worksheet, have students tweet about assigned readings. Students can tweet a
summary of a chapter or respond to a question via twitter. The best part is, they can do this
homework from anywhere without pencil and paper.
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Edit tweets
Celebrities aren’t always the best writers, and their tweets are often riddled with grammar and
spelling errors. Have students retweet what their favorite celebs say, minus the errors.
YouTube
Let’s dive into the world of funny videos and crazy animal clips. There has to be more
to it, right? YouTube offers a dozen ways of using it for educational purposes. Let’s
turn this one-dimensional lesson into an interactive discussion that opens up the
imagination of students:
EdTech school
YouTube has lots of videos specifically created for educational purposes, are often concise and
professional in their style.
Literature classes
Play videos of artists showing their own work. There is no better way of showing the work since the
artists are the ones knowing all about it.
History archive
By using YouTube in the classroom, you can easily use some videos to show the generation of
tomorrow what it used to be. They will get a more proper idea about how people were treated differently an how their lives were unalike now.
Let the student become the creator
If your school offers the opportunity to use cameras or tablets, students can be set an assignment to
write and produce. For example, if you have a marketing class, let them create an advertisment
video.
Mister Einstein
Become the crazy science teacher you’ve always wanted to be! Who cares you haven’t got the means
to create large scale experiments, a lot of crazy peeps already have done it for you! Just search down
youtube.
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Whatever their attitude towards technology, most teachers are at least somewhat familiar with
WhatsApp and its capabilities. Maybe you, like many other teachers, already use it to stay in touch
with your friends and family. This means that it’s only a small step towards using it as a teaching
tool.
Students are also familiar with WhatsApp, with many young people actually preferring this type of
communication to face-to-face interaction. This combination of student and teacher familiarity
makes WhatsApp one of the most accessible apps to use in English language learning classrooms,
as well as potentially one of the most collaborative.
WhatsApp can help to improve students’ oral presentations. First of all, by no means will WhatsApp
take over so many tools, strategies and procedures we use to work on oral skills. WhatsApp
recordings of presentations should be just another tool and it will not cover all aspects of an oral
presentation because there will be no way of measuring body language or visual contact. Therefore,
we can incorporate this tool and combine it with the variety of activities we use to foster oral
practice.
What are the advantages of incorporating WhatsApp for students’ oral presentations?
Students are enthusiastic about using it because they get engaged very easily and they enjoy listening
to each other’s presentations in silence and the number of times they need to accomplish the task.
Those students who do not like speaking in class overcome their anxiety by being able to prepare
an audio file on their own and send it to the teacher when they feel comfortable about it.
Throughout the 2017 ELT Teacher Award, we noticed teachers around the world are using
WhatsApp in a variety of different ways to solve problems and encourage their learners. The
following are five ways to use WhatsApp in the ELT classroom – and there are many more!
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Setting the rules
It is essential that students know what the teacher wants them to do, the deadline for the different
tasks they will have to carry out and how they are going to be assessed. We recommend handing
out the project rules and assessment criteria in printed form.
Encourage collaboration
Collaborative tasks can be very productive but also very time-consuming. Encouraging students to
work together in groups outside of class time is a good way of
getting around this, but needs careful organizing to ensure they
work together successfully.
WhatsApp groups are good in this respect because they can be
used to create a closed space that is accessible by everyone at any
time, allowing for easier communication and exchange of
materials. Students are used to communicating with each other in
this medium, and are familiar with the idea of sharing messages
via screenshots or forwarding media. When using WhatsApp
students benefit from having their own personal space, and as a
result don’t feel as lost as they otherwise might in a very large
class.
Extend learning time Teachers often find themselves under pressure to cover a large number of tasks in a very short
amount of lesson time. Iranian teacher Mojtaba Jahanshahi came up with a solution for this by using
WhatsApp to extend his classroom. After noticing his learners needed to practice their productive
skills, but without sufficient time in class to address it, he set up a WhatsApp group with regular
tasks that required students to write or record their speech in English. As a result, he found that his
students became more motivated and started communicating more freely. Using WhatsApp gave
them the opportunity to practice writing and speaking in an environment they were familiar with,
and in ways for which the school timetable had not allowed sufficient time.
Manage large class sizes
Yassir El Hajel Sheikh was the winner of the 2017 Pearson ELT Teacher
Award People’s Choice for Africa and the Middle East. Yassir has a large
class of 50 elementary students, which makes it impossible for all of them to
get the same practice time and feedback in class. To try to get around this
difficulty, Yassir started a WhatsApp group where his students record voice
messages, send them to the group, listen to their peers’ messages, and then comment on them. Yassir
reviews the students’ messages himself, giving feedback to help them deal with frequent errors. He
also uses WhatsApp to record his own audio messages, questions and images. As a result, the
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students in Yassir’s class now have a direct channel to access feedback on their work, as well as a
space to receive personal support from Yassir himself.
Flip the classroom WhatsApp is also a great way to help teachers flip their classrooms. Neusa Pretzel, a teacher in
Brazil, shares links to videos via WhatsApp with her students. The students watch the videos before
class and then ask and answer questions about the videos in their WhatsApp group. In this way,
Neusa uses WhatsApp to flip the traditional teaching model on its head and give her class more
quality teaching time in the classroom. By getting her students to engage with texts as self-study,
important classroom time can be used to discuss the content, work on exercises related to it, or
develop concepts in greater detail. For teachers whose students have very limited time available,
this can be a great way to help them make the most of the time they do have.
Build confidence Mauricio Vidal Gheiler, a teacher in Peru, found out that his shyer students often turned out to be
very active communicators when they used WhatsApp and other social media apps. Furthermore,
the confidence they gained by using WhatsApp started to impact on their classroom activity too! As
many students are comfortable with using social media, this type of communication can help build
their confidence and have a positive effect on their attitude to learning in general.
Skype
Use video conferencing to teach your students Skype is not just for use with friends and families. Teachers have been using it to connect their
students with other students across the world, in a way pen pals used to connect to each other. But
you can also use it in a larger group project perspective. Matching classes that are studying the
same subject could bring in a whole other realm to studying history or literature or science. You
can also connect students to people who are working in different fields, so they can ask their
questions and get a real life perspective on what working in that field is like.
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Blog
Chances are you give students writing assignments. And chances are, you are the only one who
reads them. Yet we all know that one of the most effective
motivators for strong writing is audience. Have students set up a
blog and write for each other. Make sure that for each assignment
they are required to comment meaningfully on two other blog
posts (or else it’s not social, it’s just “media”). To avoid the
inevitable “great post!”, you should give them criteria for
meaningful feedback. In my school, we have internal WordPress
blogs for every student and teacher that are password protected.
This makes for a great sandbox and portfolio where students can
tag and track their work throughout their school years. At any
time, such as when applying for college, they are able to access
these posts and paste them to public sites to share their best work. There are also free platforms such
as Edublogs that are tailored for teachers and students.
Pinterest Pinterest is a way to visually curate your interests by “pinning” them to a virtual board. Used in a
classroom, these boards can curate any unit of study and multiple users can be given permission to
pin to one user’s board (i.e. for small group or whole class). If students are required to write a brief
analysis of each pin, each board can become a visual annotated bibliography (this could also be
achieved in a non-visual way through a social-bookmarking site such as Diigo) In a geography
class, you could have students pin things they would pack when traveling to an assigned country
(or things they would bring home). In an English class, you could have them pin the imagined
treasures of an assigned character from a novel (such as Jane
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Austen’s Emma), along with the textual support for why they chose that item. Science students
could begin with an inventor and invention then pin all the things that have resulted from it, with a
description of the connection. Finally, students in a language class could pin items in a
vocabulary category and put the word (or word in a sentence) in the description.
Tumblr Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform that is a cross between a blog and twitter. As with all social
media, the key with Tumblr is authenticity and content creation. It is very
easy to create an impressive Tumblr through retumbls but creating a tumblr
that creates new content involves more than regurgitating content that already
exists. A solution to this, which can work well for teachers, is the secondary
vs primary feature. If the teacher creates a primary public blog, then
secondary blogs can be set up as part of the primary account that are password
protected. These secondary blogs are not able to follow other blogs, like
posts, ask questions, or submit to other blogs. This limited use forces students
to seek out content to read and to create content of their own. Tumblr could
be a great way for an Activities Director to manage blogging by club
presidents, an elementary teacher to manage updates about ongoing classroom projects, or a
secondary teacher to assign ongoing updates about topics that the class is following throughout the
year.
Conclusion
Support Outside of the Classroom
Increasingly, students are looking for the ability to access answers and feedback outside of the
classroom. As the use of social media and other internet tools changes the immediacy of this contact
and connection, teachers are able to utilize social media tools to support students outside of the
classroom, and students are also able to gain support from one another.
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One social media tool that can help with this is the
incorporation of a private Facebook page for a class
to utilize outside of school. Teachers are able to post
assignments, answer questions, and provide
additional explanation for any questions students
might have, utilizing after school hours and weekends
to continue to learn. Additionally, students have the
ability to get answers and ideas from one other,
improving and increasing the feedback and
brainstorming that can be so essential in gaining
critical and creative thinking skills.
Another tool that teachers can utilize is the use of a private YouTube channel to share instruction
through video. Taping lectures and posting later to YouTube allows students to reference the
material and explanations at other times during the week, which can be particularly helpful when
working on a math problem or editing an English paper outside of normal classroom hours.
Networking
For older students, using networking tools such as LinkedIn can also help to begin to build
connections for job positions and post-secondary endeavors. Students can learn valuable tools for
professional communication skills, building a resume and portfolio, and using research skills to find
relevant materials and information for future careers and degree pursuits. Facebook also provides
lessons in networking and learning about professional communication and impressions on
employers and others.
Parents and Social Media
Another benefit of using social media in classes is the ability
for parents to stay involved and informed through every step of
a student’s education. Parents can get real time updates during
field trips, check homework, review grades, and even get
involved in support through sharing their own experiences and
knowledge with a classroom of students.
As social media continues to be an increasingly prevalent part
of society, particularly for younger generations, the use of these
tools in classrooms is advantageous for preparing for the future
of communication. Social media in the classroom is beneficial
for students and parents in various areas of educational support,
positive communication, and relevant career skill building.
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Don't hesitate
Oops… one more thing! You’ll be the expert on your course, but you probably are not an expert
when it comes to social media. Interact with your students; let them show you the way! YES,
students are happy to teach you something in return. Beware that not every student has a social
media account. Make sure to include all of them.
Resources : 1- https://www.english.com/blog/5-ways-use-whatsapp-elt-classroom/ 2- https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/loli-iglesias/whatsapp-classroom-foster-
listening-speaking 3- http://www.teachhub.com/technology-classroom-reasons-use-social-media 4- https://www.kidsdiscover.com/teacherresources/how-i-use-social-media-in-my-
classroom/ 5- https://www.edutopia.org/blog/guidebook-social-media-in-classroom-vicki-davis 6- https://www.bookwidgets.com/blog/2018/03/25-lesson-ideas-to-use-social-media-in-
the-classroom 7- https://www.teacherswithapps.com/10-great-ways-to-use-social-media-in-classroom/ 8- https://blog.sewickley.org/9-ways-to-use-social-media-in-your-classroom 9- https://www.theedadvocate.org/22-ways-use-social-media-classroom/ 10- https://www.theedadvocate.org/how-to-use-social-media-in-the-classroom/ 11- https://www.topeducationdegrees.org/faq/how-can-teachers-use-social-media-in-the-
classroom/
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HAVE FUN AND LEARN THROUGH
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MEDIA
Youtube adresleri
Web sitesi adresi