Social Media in the Classroom

Some say that using social media in the classroom is too distracting, but there are actually many ways to use it to improve school for students. Here are some examples of different online platforms and positive ways to use social media in the classroom.

1. Blogs

Students get writing assignments in school all the time. Instead of just turning them in to the teacher, why not post them online and reach a wider audience? Knowing that other people may read their writing can serve as a very effective motivating factor. Set up a classroom blog and have students write content for each other, and make it a requirement to comment meaningfully on one another’s posts. It’s quicker than workshopping writing in class, and chances are that students are already well used to this format!

2. Twitter

Twitter is a great platform for quick homework assignments that can spark future class discussions. For example, students could tweet a picture of their favorite book or an article they can use for research, as well as retweet their classmate’s posts. Be sure to have students set up a separate school twitter account and create a class hashtag to link up the tweets.

3. Pinterest

Did you know that Pinterest has a function that allows multiple users to post to a single board? This makes it a great tool for the classroom, as you can create one board for the whole class. For a few examples, in a geography class, you could have students pin things they would bring home when traveling to an assigned country. In an English class, you could have them pin the imagined treasures of an assigned character from a novel. Science students could begin with an invention and then pin all of the things that have resulted from it with a description of the connection. You can even use Pinterest to study vocabulary by pinning items in a category and placing the word into the description. 

4. Skype
People around the world already use this messaging platform to modernize pen pals. Skype has its own network for educators that can link classrooms based on what you teach and the projects you are interested in doing. Skype is not just for international connections, however. For example, schools in Charleston and Gettysburg simultaneously analyzing the civil war could be very meaningful and expand the meaning of the lesson far beyond the classroom.

5. Goodreads

On Goodreads, students can keep track of every book they read by sorting them into lists of books they’ve “read,” “want to read,” or are “currently reading.” You can also create custom lists based on anything you can think of. By friending fellow students through the website, kids can keep track of what their classmates are reading and find even more books they want to read.

For even more tips on other social media platforms, click here.

Allison Green
Boston Tutoring Services