Social Media And The Classroom

Social media is a trending topic for school districts. Should school districts embrace social media? Most students use some form of social media daily. Students are constantly checking their accounts to see how many “likes”, “tweets”, or “followers” they have. Teachers are constantly checking their cell phones or computers. Our society is becoming more and more dependent on social media. I think school districts should be involved in social media. I think the advantages of using social media outweigh the disadvantages.

Students are constantly checking their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat for the latest news. The article, “Social Media as Community,” written by Keith Hampton, indicates the average social network users had more intimate connections than those that did not. Social media allows people to connect with others from a variety of backgrounds. It gives people a chance from all over the country to connect with one another in seconds, instead of days. This gives students an opportunity to learn about different cultures and traditions, expanding their interests and knowledge. Teachers can take advantage of this and remind

Social media is defined as websites and applications used for social networking, in other words it is a way for people to interact and express themselves without being face to face. Social media has become a large part of the life of teenagers, who make up most of the population of people who are subjected to using social media in their daily lives. Many college students are faced with balancing their social lives with school and even athletics making priorities a big dilemma for them. College students in America are affected in many ways by social media whether it be their social life, their happiness, or their grades.

By using social media this way in the classroom, students can unite with other cultures and societies to become more aware of the world.

Chawinga, W. (2017). Taking social media to a university classroom: teaching and learning using Twitter and blogs. International Journal Of Educational Technology In Higher Education, 14(1), 1-19. doi:10.1186/s41239-017-0041-6

According to the video “ A vision of Students Today “ by Michael Wesch and “How Higher Education Uses Social Media” by Matt Silverman “ their is a link between social media and modern education system”. They both examine how social media and education relate to author other; in todays world people use social media for different purpose. In addition, the video and article by both authors mentioned before how we (students ) can use social media in higher education and how social media help us .

Social media has become a huge part of our lives and the younger generation is becoming more involved with this new technology. However, the use of social media has been a great debate in classroom settings. School districts have been conflicted with the two options: to teach along and incorporate social media into the classroom or to restrict the use of social media during school hours.

Social media also allowed students to work with new technologies. Because of this students are becoming more familiar with computers and other electronic devices. (Dunn)

Are we becoming less human with the passing of each day? Have we become too dependent on technology, specifically social media? In this day and age, people have different views on social media. They question its true purpose and its effect on society as a whole. With that said, although there are many thoughts concerning the topic/trend of social media something that is undoubtedly true is that social media plays an active role in the lives of the majority of people. Whether in a positive or negative way, social media influences the lives of all people. However this paper focuses on the effect of social media on college students. It addresses both the positive and negative effects of social media on those in college; focusing on a student’s academic efficiency, social interactive skills, and overall productivity.

Throughout the last decade, social media has drastically changed the way people interact with others. Websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have taken the world by storm. It has never been easier to have a conversation with family members, friends, or even strangers who live millions of miles away. Due to the rise of social media, people have become more aware of social issues and have become aware of the world around them. They can easily read the news online or catch up on the latest celebrity drama. Social media improves the way humans communicate because it allows ideas to be spread quickly and efficiently to a global audience.

Jon Russell once said, “Social Media presents a huge opportunity for schools, universities and other educational organizations to reach out and connect with students and prospective students”. With no doubt, social media has influenced the way students are educated today. For those of you who do not know the exact definition of social media, the social media means ways of sharing information, opinions, images, videos using the Internet, especially social networking sites. Because of the Internet, people started finding ways to socialize through social websites and exchange information. Popular social network on the Internet such as YouTube became a sensation for me ever since I became a student in college. Today social media can be used for educational purposes. The ways social media is changing education has affected how the students express themselves, behave, and interact with each other.

Social media are the most ordinarily used media to connect with the world because of its many advantages and benefits. Many students are already involved in social networks and using it their daily activities including educational purposes. Social media have changed the ways of learning and providing pieces of information on education. It has been used in education nowadays more than ever and showing beneficial results out of that. Uses of social media are increasing continuously in education and both students and educators are becoming dependent on it. The reason behind this is, it is simple to access, effortless to use and easy availability. Among many of the advantages of social media in education, applying it for communication purposes, sharing class materials, files etc. for classroom projects as well as uses of QR codes are some of the leading ones.

In addition to this Poore (2013) argued that the new social media has reformed the traditional media resources such as the usage of newspapers, books and magazines have reduced due to the availability of information on online resources such as Moodle and WebCT. Hence, it also provides intellectual benefits such as children can learn how to analyze, interpret and synthesize the information. Okoro (2012) acknowledge that integrating social media technologies into higher education can enhance ongoing communication between teacher and student which helps in promoting collaborative learning activities. His findings laid stress on effectiveness of teaching and student learning outcomes with an appropriate example of understanding the usage of electronic media in making strategies and practicing skills in business

The term “social media” simply refers to the websites or applications that can either be created or used and a medium of social networking. It has become one of the basic need of today’s generation. It is supposed to be the most useful tool in life, but it has been a major distraction for students. It has become one of the biggest social issue today and a controversial topic. Some society consider it as a boon whereas there are many cultures which believe, it is the biggest curse to young generation.

While it was not possible to determine if using the site and increased academic self-efficacy users were seen attending more orientation programs and users were seen to help each other adjust to campus life(DeAndrea 18-19). Teachers are seeing different benefits from using social media. One benefit is more engagement from students, a theater class at the University of North Carolina used a video game to enter a social universe set in Shakespeare’s Globe theater. The class would act out plays in the virtual setting, the professor noticed more engagement and excitement from the more quiet and shy students(Blankenship 40). Not all teachers, and students, are receptive or willing to integrate social media into the classroom. One argument against implementation is that not all students have the ability to access the Internet when not on school grounds and requiring the school to provide technology outside of the classroom would be impractical or impossible to achieve(Blankenship 41). Another argument that is used is that social media is its impersonal nature “the best ideas often come from sharing an actual space with someone” (Blankenship 41). Educators are still researching social media’s place in education and the classroom is one of the best places to experiment.