Social Media in Education

Initially I was completely against the idea of social media in the classroom. After reading the articles for this blog assignment I have changed my mind a bit. There are some times where I am still against social media in the classroom and times I can see its use. First, I think there are some ages where we should not encourage social media. I think in middle school social media use can start to be incorporated into the classroom on a limited basis. In high school I think, social media use will be most appropriate. I also think that not every classroom can use social media effectively. For example, I can't think of many ways social media can help in math classes. However, some subjects like English that can benefit from social media use. I can image an assignment where a teacher posts something on social media and the students have to comment on the writing. Overall, I would rather create a website or blog such as this one where students can posts their assignments and make comments. I would also use a classroom website to remind students of any assignments that are due and keep them informed of any news. 

There are so many social media sites out there and not all will be useful to teachers and students. The most popular sites now are Facebook and Twitter but maybe in the near future another social media site will take over. For the most part, I would not encourage Twitter or Facebook use for students in the classroom. I can imagine how it can be problematic and I would rather not allow something that can potentially cause more harm than good. Here are some of the cons of using Facebook and Twitter in the classroom. 

• students can engage in inappropriate behavior in social media like making rude comments about each others work
• students can bully each other online and engage in fights that can be brought into the classroom
• students can misinterpret things the students and the teacher posts
• the teacher can ultimately be blamed for any inappropriate use of any social media they have allowed 

I do fee very optimistic about social media use for teachers to connect with other teachers. In the article we read by David Wetzel, he points out that one of the main reasons teachers leave the profession is isolation. I do think social media can be a useful tool for teachers to collaborate with other teachers, self reflect, and build professional networks with other teachers. I think that social media can be of great use especially in the first years of teaching to ask other teachers for help and ideas to use in the classroom. I think there are a lot of teachers out there that are willing to help. I really like using twitter chats to engage in conversations. I looked at the #sschat and #edchat and they had very interesting things to contribute. I do see myself engaging with other teachers through social media in the future.