Blog Post #13

Social Media in the Classroom

      While we had a lot of assignments this semester about using technology to further the classroom, we never really talked about what most of that technology actually does for the classroom.  The basics, that every person with internet is on a lot of the time.  Social Media. Now, I have a twitter jut for this class.  I have learned so many tips and tricks about the classroom from Twitter, and I think it could be very helpful for classroom activities.  I think that while we are studying to be teachers, we should learn how to use social media in our classroom-encourage the use and not avoid it.  

Facebook:

  

      Facebook offers some really good informational sources, while allowing communications with people directly involved in certain subjects the class may be studying at the time.  Some specific examples are:

• If your class is studying the current election, use Facebook to follow politicians on the local, state, and national scale. You can even ask students to interact with the candidates, posting questions and getting feedback.
•  Plenty of games are on Facebook, and many of them are actually educational. Adopt Facebook crosswords, math games, and more as a reward in your classroom.
• Your classroom can follow journalists and media outlets on social networks, gathering past and current news clips relevant to your latest classroom discussions.
• Parents can follow along as kids post their projects, and even highlight any insightful resources they may know about.

Here's how to make a classroom Facebook page!

Twitter:

      Twitter is something I have always thought I would never take a part of.  Just constant updates of your life, no matter how uneventful they may be.  Twitter can be used to share so many important things though, with several different people: parents, students, and other teachers.  

• Set up an interesting assignment requesting that students set up Twitter for education lists following feeds relevant to their career goals and keep a daily journal on any trends that crop up along the way.
• Rather than keeping up with an e-mail train, students can use Twitter to collaborate on different projects and keep a quick reference on any changes.
• Classrooms with enough resources can allow students to tweet their own notes during lessons and share with their peers – perhaps even printing them out for home use if they do not have internet access.
• Teachers and students from around the world can collaborate on projects using Twitter as a communication tool that simultaneously educates students in different classroom and cultural protocols.

Here's how Twitter can help in the classroom!