Tool Trade-Offs

I think that there are some trade-offs to using social medias in a learning context. You see how learners will interact with each other outside of the traditional learning environment and you see how they learn outside of the traditional learning environment. This is huge for upper grade levels, like high school, and for higher education, like undergrad and grad students. Learning doesn't just have to be something that fits nicely into the classroom anymore. There are so many tools out there that allow for learning and it should take some pressure off of the teacher. 

However, I think that the other trade-off is, for students who are elementary and middle school age, they don't get these opportunities because those platforms aren't the most appropriate for them to learn. They are still developing into their own types of learners and far be it from us to force another way of learning onto them. 

I think that social media has a time and a place to be used in the classroom. Making sure that you are using the appropriate platforms is necessary. I don't think very many parents and administrators would approve of 3rd graders using Instagram as a learning tool. However, I know that most, if not all, would be okay with students using shared documents, Padlet, Jamboard, Kahoot, etc. because those tools are more traditionally centered around education. 

It will be interesting to see how much further down the age groups social media can creep.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A List of Favorites

Who would I be if I weren't consistent? The discussion board has once again got me thinking about the topic of this blog post. So without further ado, here is my list of favorites from this semester!  Favorite Challenge: The Week Long Twitter Challenge! So fun getting to interact with each other and not have to be so formal, like discussion board posts!  Favorite Tool:  It's a tie between Padlet and Trello. They are super similar, but both have unique features that allow you to do different things.  Favorite Week/Topic: Week 2, Digital Natives & Produsage. This is the week that thinks really started to take shape in my mind, so it stands out as the favorite for me!  Favorite Assignment:  Definitely the Produsage assignment. It allowed me to be creative and to think outside of my comfort zone, which is what I need sometimes :) Favorite Discussion Question:  This was a hard one. I did a lot of searching through the discussion boards, but ultimate de...
Read more

Teaching + Social Media

It's for some and by some, I mean a select few.  I, for one, have no desire to use social media in my classroom. I'll just add it to my already never-ending list of things to do during a school day. Half the time, I'm just trying to get all of my subjects taught during the day. However, I do think that there are benefits to using social media to teach.  Students now have access to way more information than that of any other generation. Everything they need to know is right at their fingertips. They know how to use Google, Alexa, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, etc. Teachers could use this to their advantage. I love the projects where teachers assign students to create a social media profile for historical figures or literary characters. When I was in high school it was a Facebook profile, now it's more like Instagram. It gives students a sense of ownership in their own learning.  I've seen TikToks get made by students who are posting for a class. They have certain para...
Read more

What a Week

This week has been L O N G. We finished up testing this week at school and we are in our final countdown of "______ Days 'Til Summer" (it's 8 btw!!) We are also in the process of wrapping up meetings and making sure that students who need summer school are good to go. It's going to be a long last 8 days as well. However, this week got me thinking about the terms in this class and how often I use them. Social media is part of my daily life. I connect with people all the time through it. And I don't even mean like finding old friends or anything like that. I mean I connect with people I already know like sending them posts, tagging them in giveaways and tweeting at them. I think that connect with them through social media has helped me develop a sort of online community. I'm hopeful that this doesn't really change as the years go on, because I love getting to learn and discover new things through the lens of social media. 
Read more