Using Social Media to Reach Your Students
by Melony Brown
Technology continues to give people around the world more and more opportunities to connect and communicate. The advent of social media caused the door of communication to fling wide open. And your students were the first to hungrily run through. As social media is another form of technology, your students were eager to investigate it and master it. Have you?
Honestly, you could pass this social media opportunity by, but why would you if it has the ability to reach your students even more effectively? Some teachers may not see the benefits of integrating social media into their teaching while other teachers were as eager as their students to learn how this technology could benefit them.
Let’s examine a few of the social media opportunities and how they can increase the effectiveness of your teaching.
- Social media networks. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace are just a few of the social networking sites available. Your students likely are members of one or more of the social networks as they want to be able to quickly connect with friends and family. As a teacher, you can use these social networks to connect with your students. Be advised that a few teachers have encountered professional problems when posting their personal information on their social network. Consider creating a teacher profile in which your students can “friend” you and creating another profile for your friends and family.
Suppose you have a Facebook account. You could post a follow-up statement about a great discussion that occurred in your class. Then, encourage your students to post their viewpoints. As each student posts a comment, they will connect to the subject matter further by reading the other viewpoints of the other students who post a comment. Another option would be to encourage a student through a private Facebook email about their improvement in your class. Check out the pictures your students post; this will allow you access into the things that are important to them.
Use your Twitter account to pose critical thinking questions. Perhaps you could award a few extra credit points on a test for commenting on your Twitter statement or discussing it as a group in class.
- YouTube videos. Whereby most people who watch YouTube videos watch them for entertainment purposes, there are instructional videos available. For example, there are instructional videos about solving word problems and are taught by kids. Your students could view footage of climbers preparing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro instead of looking at a two-dimensional picture of it in their textbook. Show these videos in class and then post them on your social network page for repeat viewings. These short videos reach and engage your students as it uses many forms of technology.
- Blogs and podcasts. Blogs are a useful means of communicating with your students and their parents. Challenge your students by blogging about a different viewpoint of a topic than what you presented in class. For example, you discussed the negative impact of using non-recyclable materials, and then you could pose the opposing view of how producing those materials is income for many families around the world. Podcasts can be found on the Internet for any topic you are teaching. Use them. Additionally, you could create your own podcast, show it in class and post it on your social network page/blog for repeat viewings.
The uses of social media are endless. Some teachers might fall back on their inexperience with social media as a reason not to use it. Don’t be one of them. Ask other teachers to teach you and show you the social media outlets they have found. Once you experiment and find the social media outlet that works for you and your students, continue to use it and build upon it. Your students will thank you.
