The Role of Social Media in The Classroom

Every few years a new social media platform arises, bringing along with it the question of the role of social media in the classroom, if there even is one at all. In the times of  Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat it can be hard to distinguish what is appropriate to use as a learning tool, and what can be designated as mindless entertainment. The truth falls somewhere in between. Social media does not have to be seen as education’s evil counterpart. But rather, they can work alongside one another to improve learning.

Personally, I have had many teachers who scoffed at the very idea of using social media in the classroom. These teachers were not always older in age, as one would expect, just more traditional in their mindsets. Many of them would argue that because they learned without the use of Youtube and Twitter, we could too. However, the thing they neglected to realize was the fact that as the world progresses, education must progress along with it. Modifying education to keep up with the new world will allow it to continue to grow, and educate students in a way that will help them in life.

I had one teacher in high school who was a strong advocate for social media integration in the classroom. Of course, using social media for our own mindless entertainment was not allowed, but she would often assign us homework that involved using Twitter to communicate our ideas about we were learning. She would create a “hashtag” for each one of our class meetings that related to what we were learning. Then, as part of our homework, we would have to use our personal twitters to discuss what we thought about the class, what we had learned, questions we still had etc.

Through this, my class was able to learn several key lessons about social media. The first, and most important to me, was how to professionally present yourself on social media. Knowing our teacher could search the hashtags and see what we were saying made us word them much more carefully than we would normally. There were no emojis, or slang used. Composing these tweets made me truly think about what I put into the world, and how I wanted to present myself. Depending on your privacy settings, Twitter is a public place, and anyone who can search your name has the ability to find your page. Even if your page is set to private, it is important to consider how you are presenting yourself to your friends who follow you.

Another very beneficial aspect of these “Twitter chats” was that it allowed us to see what everyone in your class thought. Even those who were typically shy and did not talk much in class had to participate in this assignment, and share their thoughts. Without even being required to, my class would often end up engaging in conversation via Twitter about our class discussion. Using Twitter as a way of communication made it more casual and fun and we were having sophisticated and education discussions (within the 140 character limit of course) without having them feel like work.

Although social media use is definitely something which varies by teacher and their beliefs, I can say that my experience with it has been nothing but positive. However, the role of social media in the classroom will depend on whose classroom it is. It can be both a tool and a distraction, and as with all technology, must be handled with care as to not take away from the point of education- to learn.

Amanda De Moraes

Boston Tutoring Services