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Social Media, just as any educational tool, can come with it's own set of issues and problems. Teacher's (and sometimes their students) are challenged with situations like technological issues, school policies, privacy, cyberbullying, and respectable use with social media. Teacher's should always strive to learn about the possibilities with social media and also understand their own responsibilities when using Social Media. In addition to this, it's important for everyone, from teachers and students, to parents and the school, to understand how valuable social media is to learning and that it isn't something that is only used for basic social interaction with friends and those in students' social lives.

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Video: Tips on Using Different Social Media Sites

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Video: Tips on Using Different Social Media Sites

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Making Social Media Work to Your Educational Advantage

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Making Social Media Work to Your Educational Advantage | Enilda Romero-Hall | TEDxUTampa

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Incorporating & Accounting for Social Media in Education

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Incorporating & accounting for Social Media in Education | Harry Dyer | TEDxNorwichED

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Harry discusses how the study of Social Media can help us better understand how youth are acting and interacting both online and offline, how young people adeptly navigate a growing and increasingly diverse assortment of social media, and how we can (and must) incorporate and account for social media in the classroom.

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Social Media used as a new medium for educational purposes seems - to many - almost taboo. However, Social Media can be one of the most useful and efficient tools to better student education. What first must come to utilize social media in the classroom requires acceptance and respect from both the student and the teacher or parent.

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Social media can be a great tool for connecting with students & their parents. However, when using social media sites it is important to stay aware of possible cyber-bullying between students. This can be avoided by teaching students the correct way to communicate online.

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Social Media in the classroom can be a great educational tool. Social media is an interactive way to bring the internet and real world into the classrooms. Social media can help by helpings students think about  lessons outside of the classroom,  it helps connect there families and you will get a better understanding of what they are thinking.

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Connecting social media to the classroom

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SOCIAL MEDIA Enhancing Student's Academic Performance

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Responsible digital citizens emerge from schools where students are taught about the rules, risks, and trust involved in the safe, respectful use of social media.

These days, social media gets a pretty bad rap. It seems like every other day there is a celebrity apology or a story about a teen who commits suicide due to cyberbullying. It's true, social media can breed some pretty awful stuff. And that awful stuff is great material for the digital citizenship unit that all of my school's incoming freshmen are expected to complete.

Acceptable Use

Our school is unique in Philadelphia in that it's one of the few public schools with a 1:1 program that allows students to take devices home. We give our students access to the world, and with that access comes a lot of responsibility. As such, it's vital that, from the beginning, we prepare students to use caution and be thoughtful when using their laptops.

Let's face it -- teenagers are on social media in school and out of school, even if their parents have told them they can't be, and even if the school has rules about being on phones during school hours. I always use the playground analogy when it comes to the internet and social media. We let our kids go to the playground knowing that they may encounter bullies there, or that they could fall and get hurt. We teach them how to climb, we help them when they fall or hurt themslves, and we instruct them about how to handle the bullies they may run into. Social media is the playground of this generation. They still need our guidance and help.

In my class, we start the year with the book, by Matt Ivester. I read chapters out loud to the kids, and we discuss the stories and content of each chapter. Students learn about how their digital footprint affects their job and college opportunities, about what cyberbullying is and how it affects people, about IP addresses and posting anonymously, and many other important topics. I supplement our readings with current articles from the news as well as a short group project about the rights and responsibilities of digital citizens. While reading the book, we also review our school and our district's acceptable use policy, reading it out loud, word for word, while discussing what each aspect of the policy means. Our freshmen do not receive their laptops until October, giving them time to review these policies and have meaningful discussions about responsible use of technology before they get their machines.

Always Learning

It is through these discussions that I learn about how students use social media, what their experiences have been, and what their beliefs are. I have also witnessed many students begin to reflect on their own social media use and the way that they interact with others online. We still have blunders that occur when students make poor choices despite everything we've discussed, but these discussions make it easier to put these poor choices into context. I can refer back to articles we've read, discussions we've had, and the ways that similar choices have affected real people.

Since our students have built such a deep understanding of their digital footprint and their digital identity as well as the responsibilities that come with using social media, our teachers feel more comfortable using social media in the classroom. For instance, our Spanish teacher had students create Vine videos to act out scenes in Spanish. In addition, students in my tech class created posters about digital citizenship and shared them on our website.

Schools and teachers don't have to be afraid of social media if they take the time to teach kids how to play on this virtual playground responsibly, ethically, and safely.

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Social Media at School: Teaching Safety on the Virtual Playground

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Responsible digital citizens emerge from schools where students are taught about the rules, risks, and trust involved in the safe, respectful use of social media. These days, social media gets a pretty bad rap. It seems like every other day there is a celebrity apology or a story about a teen who commits suicide due to cyberbullying.

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Our students spend a lot of time tweeting, composing Instagram captions, and text messaging. In the process, they are carefully observing and decoding the subtleties of social media text. They know when it's cool to replace "yes" with "yas" and how to turn a common courtesy into a sarcastic "thanksss" with just a few extra letters.

Even if internet-fueled trends like the popularity of ellipses drive you crazy, embracing social media writing still offers exciting possibilities. Our students are fluent in the language of pop culture. They spend hours of their free time writing and analyzing social media text. Instead of viewing such writing as a deficit, let's leverage the thinking that students are already doing when they write a text or engage in social media.

Language Patterns

The changing norms of social media writing don't match standard classroom English expectations, but they do follow patterns of language development. For example, you may have noticed that many students are leaving the period off the end of their text messages. The lack of punctuation may seem sloppy or haphazard to an unaware reader, but the missing period carries meaning. Many digital natives interpret the use of a period at the end of a text message as angry, overly formal, or an abrupt end to a conversation. Even if students can't tell you exactly why they didn't include a period, they can probably detect a difference in tone.

A missing period at the end of a sentence might make teachers cringe, but it's a real-life example of how readers and writers develop a shared understanding of what conventions mean and how language works in patterns. When we help students analyze this trend or others, like multiple exclamation points or the use of slashes, we're helping them analyze patterns that they use instinctively-and they can apply that kind of analysis in other, more formal contexts.

To get students to translate their knowledge of social media writing to the classroom, have students make lists of the ways that a particular convention is used in texting or tweeting. If they find multiple tweets that include periods to emphasize a point by punctuating every. single. word., they can correctly conclude that the period is being used for emphasis. Then, do the same activity with standard English examples. The comparison will provide plenty of fodder for discussing convention expectations in different writing contexts. By building on what they already know, students will be even more effective at analyzing classroom writing expectations.

Social Media Code-Switching

Of course, it's not enough just to analyze grammar. Good writers move seamlessly between writing at all levels of formality. The breezy language of an email to a friend is different from the more formal language required for a grant application. But developing writers often need specific support to code-switch between the informal language of social media or text messaging and the formal language required for school research reports.

Instead of banishing the writing students use most often, use it to help them identify the kinds of writing that a given context calls for. For example, students have no trouble identifying the different writing demands of texting their friends versus texting their parents, but they might not be able to dissect the exact ways that their writing changes between these two contexts. Consider making lists that compare informal and formal writing. Or spend a bit of class time finding examples of how writers show emotion or sincerity differently depending on the context.

Kristen Hawley Turner suggests using Flip the Switch, an activity where students translate sentences from one context to another. Students might figure out how a greeting, for example, changes between an email to a boss, a text message to a bestie, and an introductory letter to a new teacher. Acknowledging the validity of each context helps students translate their writing into the most appropriate form instead of writing off the informality of social media altogether.

Texting and social media writing aren't going away anytime soon. Linguist John McWhorter suggests viewing the changes as an "expansion of [young people's] linguistic repertoire." The changing, informal conventions of social media aren't a challenge to standard classroom English-they're an opportunity.

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Our students spend a lot of time tweeting, composing Instagram captions, and text messaging. In the process, they are carefully observing and decoding the subtleties of social media text. They know when it's cool to replace "yes" with "yas" and how to turn a common courtesy into a sarcastic "thanksss" with just a few extra letters.

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Article: 16 Ways You Can use Social Media in the Classroom

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Article: 16 Ways You Can use Social Media in the Classroom

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I found most of these ideas can be used with either Snapchat, Instagram, or Twitter unless otherwise noted.

Track student work over the course of the year. Take pictures of the progression of a student project or track their learning.

Use it to post homework. Ask them to write about the significance of a posted photo - perhaps a map, person, or document.

Share classroom news with parents and faculty. Showcase student work.

Remind students of upcoming class events.

Create out of class study groups using specific hashtags. Give the group a question and ask each member to contribute to the hashtag.

Flip the classroom by posing questions and asking the students to contribute. Students will be ready to discuss the questions in class.

Send out an occasional extra credit question.

Share field trips or extracurricular activities.

Create a tweet as a literary character. Give the students a topic and asks them to tweet as the character would.

Create a tweet as a historical character. Give the students a current event and ask them to tweet as a historical figure would have.

Use Instagram to feature a student of the week.

In language class, use Snapchat to take a picture of an item and label it in the appropriate language.

Take videos of real life examples of the content as a study guide or ask students to identify the video based on the content.

Ask students to annotate an image provided by you, identifying key elements on a map or a picture.

Use Twitter for extended office hours. Advise students that they can tweet you at certain times of the day.

Use Twitter to take a poll using a certain hashtag.

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16 Ways Teachers Can Use Social Media in the Classroom

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I found most of these ideas can be used with either Snapchat, Instagram, or Twitter unless otherwise noted. Track student work over the course of the year. Take pictures of the progression of a student project or track their learning. Use it to post homework.

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Dennis Relojo-Howell, (2019, January 19). How Can Social Media Help Education?. Psychreg on Educational Psychology. https://www.psychreg.org/social-media-education/

22,706 views

Social media has changed the way we used to share information. It's about time we give it the credit it deserves and finds a way to integrate into the education system.

The use of social media in education provides students with the ability to get more useful information, to connect with learning groups and other educational systems that make education convenient. Social network tools afford students and institutions with multiple opportunities to improve learning methods.

Social media empowers everyone including parents, teachers and students. It's an effective way to share information and build a community. According to one study, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the most popular online platforms among teens.

Fully, 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% say they are online 'almost constantly'. Some use it for only for entertainment but it can also promote positive and useful activities. For instance, students use it to find information, promote a positive story, share something useful, and collaborate with projects and what not.

Schools have different policies when it comes to adopting social media. It is a basic concern that it uses to share information and organise tasks. But it is also a reason for lack of attention students pay to their class and teachers.

The increase in adoption of social media is high as ever and students devote a considerable portion of their time to social media. They connect on it after school. It is acceptable for teachers, but they can't stand children using it during class.

Well, it's a matter of practicability because teachers can use an online universe to communicate with their students. There is no use for a case study on the use of social media in educational institutes. You need to walk down the hallway and see children of all ages are lost in their smartphones.

They are busy browsing their feed, sharing stuff on Instagram and sending each other Snapchat messages. This has become an important part of their lives. Organisations like EDsmart show how schools can do it.

How can teachers make their place in this realm?

Many learning management systems have been utilising the concept of online learning for years. Yes, these systems were in place for more than a decade. This is nothing new but it never enjoyed mainstream adoption, and we intend to change it. Teachers need to use changed technology to improve the learning process for their students. It helps the pupil to react positively.

It is crucial that teachers adapt to the way students are doing things. It is an important part of the whole educational process. It makes sense when a teacher is strict about homework but does little to nothing to ensure the students follow suit.

This helps the teacher get an insight into what their students are doing. It also lets student open up and share their opinion on important matters.

Using online platforms can help you strengthen your community. It will help improve the teacher-student bond. You can integrate social media by sharing important news, updates about upcoming events, and holding a meeting with parents. This can be done using tools such as iigers.com

It is a channel of communication because we are living in a fast-paced world today. Communication is vital, so you need all the help you can get.

Dennis Relojo-Howell is the founder of Psychreg. He interviews people within psychology, mental health, and well-being on his YouTube channel, The DRH Show.
Disclaimer: Psychreg is mainly for information purposes only. Materials on this website are not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, medical treatment, or therapy. Never disregard professional psychological or medical advice nor delay in seeking professional advice or treatment because of something you have read on this website. Read our full disclaimer here.

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How Can Social Media Help Education? | Psychreg

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Dennis Relojo-Howell, (2019, January 19). How Can Social Media Help Education?. Psychreg on Educational Psychology. https://www.psychreg.org/social-media-education/ 22,706 views Social media has changed the way we used to share information. It's about time we give it the credit it deserves and finds a way to integrate into the education system.

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In order to prepare students for effective learning in an increasingly global and digital society, educators are seeking innovative communication tools that inspire student curiosity through investigation and reflection. Periscope is a powerful new tool that is inspiring teachers and students to create content together and share their worlds in impactful ways.

As a free smartphone app, Periscope allows users to broadcast a live video stream to public or private audiences. Throughout broadcasts, followers join in and view the video in real time from anywhere in the world. The chatbox feature allows viewers to interact by adding comments or questions, and viewers can "like" content by clicking the symbolic Periscope heart. Following broadcasts, sessions can be viewed for up to 24 hours or saved to a phone's camera roll. Many Periscope users also utilize Katch.me, a separate app that connects to a Periscope account and allows for automatic archiving of broadcasts that can be saved and shared through email or social media. By offering this easy-to-use interface, the possibilities for Periscope in schools can be purposeful and transformational.

Periscope for Student Instruction

As a digital collaboration tool, Periscope affords the opportunity for students to see the world through the perspectives of others. Many educators are finding innovative ways to use this tool during instruction not only to provide a platform for expanding students' communication skills, but also to allow for meaningful connection and exchange of ideas with diverse populations and audiences. The multiple viewpoints explored through Periscope sessions can prepare students for interactions of the future while expanding their critical thinking and digital literacy skills. As participants in these powerful conversations and practices of sharing, students then become co-constructors of knowledge and creators of content while involved in learning that can be relevant and impactful. Practical examples of Periscope in instruction include:

Virtual Field Trips

In world language classes, students can take virtual field trips alongside teacher-guides from target language countries (e.g. in restaurants or at festivals). Museum tours could be experienced through the lens of a Periscope interaction, opening up opportunities to visit destinations, such as the Louvre or MoMA.

Expert Speakers or Demonstrations

With Periscope, classrooms can connect with field experts or observe scientific lab experiments. Throughout the session, students can actively engage in investigative questioning by recording information and collecting data.

Historical Accounts and Interviews

Students can take a snapshot of history by participating in live broadcasts as elders or veterans tell their life stories from historically significant locations. Teachers can gain insight on depth of student understanding through analysis of such interviews and activities.

Student Collaborations

Student-to-student interactions allow for engaging experiences and shared perspectives. During projects sponsored by organizations such as iEARN, book shares such as The Global Read Aloud, or within-school scavenger hunts such as Edventure Quests, students can express their voices and take ownership of work through networked collaboration and building relationships with a broader global audience.

Periscope for Parent Engagement

For the working parent, involvement in school activities is a priority with challenges. With the aid of the Periscope app, parents can take advantage of modern technology to assume a more active role in their child's learning environment. Periscope increases transparency for parental involvement in children's education and assists in establishing connections with teachers. Better-informed parents lead to expanding school communities that better support students' needs.

Televising School Events

Parents can be part of in-school and out-of-school events by using Periscope. Through live broadcasts of school performances, sporting events, PTA meetings, and parent-teacher conferences, parents that may be unable to attend events can be included as participants.

Student Presentations

With controls set to private, students can share individual presentations with their parents. Oral reports, student-led conferences, or debates can be privately televised, and parents can contribute with comments or questions by using the chatbox feature.

Parent Education Sessions

Throughout the year, schools can offer parent education via Periscope to share about topics such as digital citizenship, new programs, and content-area presentations. Broadcasts can be archived and shared in an online library for later viewing.

Looking Ahead

As with any virtual forum, it's important for educators to be mindful of privacy issues and diligent in understanding the social collaboration space in which students are working. For student broadcasting, the viewing audience can be defined by simply switching the settings to "private." As a powerful education tool, the Periscope app inherently allows students to be active learners and content producers within each new session. With diverse audiences and distinctive interactions, social learning and maximum engagement between contributors has the potential to spark inquiry and open dialogue in education. By allowing for investigation and presentation, Periscope empowers students and teachers to make connections with authentic content as established citizens of the world.

For more information on how educators are using Periscope in the classroom, you can visit #PeriscopeEDU and #periscopeteachers on social media.

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Periscope: Connecting Classrooms to the World | Edutopia

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In order to prepare students for effective learning in an increasingly global and digital society, educators are seeking innovative communication tools that inspire student curiosity through investigation and reflection. Periscope is a powerful new tool that is inspiring teachers and students to create content together and share their worlds in impactful ways.

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Remind

Remind is a great tool that allows teachers to connect to students through their mobile device. Teachers create a group on Remind that students join with their phone number. The teacher can send text messages to groups of students without anyone having access to anyone else's numbers. It's one-way communication, not a potentially annoying group text message.

I use Remind to connect with my students after school, sending them messages about work that's due the next day or something to lift their spirits. Sometimes a silly message is the perfect thing after a long day of testing. Remind allows users to attach pictures and PDFs, so I can send documents via text in case students lost the paper copy that went home with them. Remind gives me the opportunity to keep them informed of what's going on at school. These messages are short and to the point, and the kids have said that they love getting those reminders.

Twitter

Twitter has been another great tool for sharing and connecting. When it comes to my classroom, I use Twitter to announce the day's homework and share random thoughts and ideas with students. It's also an easy way for students to ask me questions. It's important to become familiar with your district's policies about "following" students on Twitter or interacting with them through any social media site. My district doesn't allow it, so the only Twitter communication is through public mentions. If there is no district policy regarding this, you could lead the initiative to write it.

Over the years, Twitter has become a medium for students to expand their learning in the classroom. They've used Twitter to share something they saw outside of school that related to our class conversation. A student visiting Baltimore once tweeted a picture of Edgar Allan Poe's grave because we'd just completed a unit on his stories. I've also had students reach out on Twitter to set up a time to meet before or after school to discuss their classwork. As a communication tool, many students prefer it to email because of how quickly they can get a response. Twitter allows students to contact teachers and share more of their learning that happens outside of the classroom. I've also had students live tweet class discussions and our mock trial. These interactions allow students to feel more connected to the learning, and that's what teachers really want to see from their students.

Instagram

Instagram is a fun site for taking and sharing photos, and the kids love it. Some students are much more active on Instagram than they are on Twitter. I'm a pretty avid Instagram user, and students love to check out my photos. Instagram has different filters for altering the photos that you post. It's a simple and quick tool that any teacher can use in the classroom.

One great way to extend learning beyond the classroom with Instagram is to assign a learning scavenger hunt and have students post pictures of their finds with a specific hashtag. The scavenger hunt can revolve around a specific unit or theme, and students can post photos over the course of the unit or marking period. The final piece is a discussion to see how the photos connected. This is a very cool plan that lets students use a tool they're already familiar with and connect it to their learning. This isn't a graded assignment, just something fun to add another level to the classroom. The more opportunities we give students to think about the content we're teaching, the better their understanding of the material.

Blogging

Blogging is a huge part of social media. It's not just about the writing -- it's about the commenting. If students aren't connecting with others who are writing and sharing their thoughts, it's just an online journal. There's a place for journaling, but blogging offers the chance to make connections with people from all over the world. Using Twitter with blogs has been key in connecting students to conversations outside of the classroom that enhance the learning in the classroom.

One great hashtag that every teacher should explore is #Comments4Kids. This Twitter hashtag is designed to connect people to students who are blogging, and it really works. Every time I use this hashtag with my student blogs, students and other educators have left comments. When students see the notification that they have a comment, it blows their mind. They get to read the comment, respond to it, and think more deeply about what it is they're communicating. Reading and writing for their blog is no longer limited to just the classroom. They can now use their time at home to continue thinking and interacting about the day's topics that interest them. Blogging allows for powerful connections that can enhance student learning outside of the classroom.

Another way to use these tools is reaching out to students if there's a sudden cancellation in school or change in events. Michigan is one of those states where we've had to cancel school due to severe weather. Social media has connected us with our students during these times. Teachers can change assignment due dates, reschedule tests, and let kids know what will be expected of them when they return. Keeping students connected is good for everyone.

Social media allows teachers to pass along information in ways that weren't possible before. It knocks down the classroom walls and lets learning happen anywhere and at any time. It's important for teachers to start considering how they can use social media for connecting their students to support learning in a connected world.

The tools I've discussed here are only a few of many out there. Do you have a cool way to use one of these or any other social media tools? If you do, leave them in the comments sections below.

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Remind is a great tool that allows teachers to connect to students through their mobile device. Teachers create a group on Remind that students join with their phone number. The teacher can send text messages to groups of students without anyone having access to anyone else's numbers.