As a math teacher, I feel like social media, for me, has few uses that are directly pedagogical. Twitter and Snapchat do not pedagogically help me instruct mathematics in anyway that a Learning Management System does not. If I want to share a resource or video, I can post it to my class agenda. I don’t need students following me on Twitter to reach them. Now, where social media is useful is in making problems come to life. Statistics in particular can strongly leverage social media as a context to work in and is highly engaging to students. The above infographic could set the stage for dozens of great lessons. Students could consider which platform would be the best for a particular business based on the statistics above. Students could practice using percent proportions to figure out exactly what the percents in the infographic correlate to and see how Twitter’s 9% is very different from Instagram’s 12%. Again, nothing about social media makes with the actual instruction, but it can certainly engage students and leverage some critical thinking skills. Aside from mathematics instruction, I feel like I have a responsibility as a teacher. Our social skills curriculum is partially rolled out in math classes. Our school supports the 6 C’s and 21st Century Skills. Even though instructional time is a precious resource, math is not the only content I need to cover. Teaching digital citizenship is very much tied into the modern classroom. Social media SHOULD be incorporated in the classroom, even if it is not being directly used for instruction. It creates opportunities to discuss the impact of social media, creates space for students to share their thoughts. It allows me as a teacher to provide some context for students to think about how they manage their social media. Every year at my site, I hear of students who get in trouble for social media use. Whether it is group chats on Kik or bullying on Twitter or gossip accounts on Instagram, every year students push the boundaries too far. Students have access to social media and are using it. It is our reality as educators. If we choose to turn a blind eye to it or to ban it from our room, we are surrendering our ability to have an impact in that area of a student’s life. It is like how teachers used to turn a blind eye to bullying because it was not their place, not their content area. If we do not develop our students digital citizenship, then we are allowing negative or destructive social media use to continue. So, if we do engage with social media and see a student post something inappropriate? Not illegal or related to school, but perhaps related to language or relationships that are outside the realm of authority as a teacher? I believe it depends on the student. Obviously you have some relationship with the student because you are connected by social media. You need to judge if your relationship with your student gives you a good opportunity to have a non-threatening discussion about it. Non-threatening is key. If a student feels judged by the people following them, they can simply block them. Now, you have lost our ability to make an impact. So, I really think it needs to be case by case. However, I think self-realization is the best way to deal with it. If an adult tells a student, “hey your social media is inappropriate and makes a bad impression on you,” it might not make a deep impact. Adults reading this, try to remember how you took advice from adults about the music you listened to or the clothes you wore. How did you react to adults critiquing your “image?” I would bet in many cases, your teenage self did not make radical life changes due to that critique. If, however, a student comes to understand how social media can affect your future and then comes to the idea of reflecting on their own social media use, that can be a powerful agent for change. So, if I started seeing bad posts, I would pull some lessons from Common Sense Media on digital footprints and see if students come to the conclusion on their own. I believe that is where students will begin to develop safe social media habits.
4 Comments
6/25/2017 08:20:12 pm
I agree with you about adding social media guidelines are important but keeping the lines of communication open is even more important. I've found showing examples of how other people have hurt their future by social media has painted a much stronger image in their minds. I know in this class we read about Stanford students in the media. You are on track and I'm with you on showing examples not preaching.
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Nai Saelee
6/26/2017 12:55:17 pm
Patrick,
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Dan
6/26/2017 05:43:45 pm
I relate to some parts of social media. Wing useful and others not. In thinking about useful ways to use it for me I think I can use things like twitter to share game updates, locations and scores. I agree teaching them about consequences is important.
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james
6/27/2017 02:53:07 pm
Patrick,
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