In what ways do you use social media sites in the classroom? How do students respond?

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Social networks and online public forums have allowed for a 24x7 access to discussion boards customized for educational needs. Students can use Facebook, Twitter, and similar sites to talk and discuss about specific assignments or projects not only with their peers but also with the teachers. Online public forums also are there to help students.
 

Here's a Prezi I present to teachers with some examples of social media use in the classroom.

But you can't just leave then to it! All over the internet and forums everywhere, including this one we have people who participate and people who just read. Our students need very clear guidelines of how we expect them to interact with any pages we provide for them. 

In my view, social media is something which cannot be overlooked as it provides us with a good resource on updates related to field of work which might be very relevant at times for making the kids aware. We may take input from such platforms in a way to devise some fun activities too which would help in learning process as well.

For any informative and useful resources we can use social media in classroom. But we should not encourage it too often as students might get diverted.

I have used social media discussion boards and students responded very well to them.  I do have guidelines for students about participation.  

i chat with my students + homework reminders using social media.  this approach seemed to be very well received by my students and their parents (as they are clearly on it too..)

Social media play an important role in each student's life. They can learn new things by discussing on any topic. It is the best platform which connects peoples of similar knowledge. In social media, persons share photos, video, articles and other materials, so that connected peoples can enhance knowledge according the current trends.

There are a lot of ways of using social media in the classroom. The most practiced ones I will describe a little bit. First is giving more pieces of information than there are in books. You can find a great educational video which is not too long - why not to show that to your students? Also, it is very helpful for teaching languages: you have a possibility to record different accents and so on. Also, social media can (and should) be used for a contact between teachers and students: in this way, they will always have the support when there are some misunderstandings. So, social media are useful when we use them correctly.

In my opinion, the safest way to use social media in the classroom is to have a closed format where you are totally in control, especially if you are working with elementary students. Google Classroom is safe and effective. Imagine proposing a question regarding a main idea or theme of a story or an opinion on a social issue and having 32 students all responding to the prompt and also responding to each other. Very powerful! All students have a voice in this type of forum and they respond at their level of  understanding.

Google Classroom, check it out. It's free.

Straight Ahead!

Joel Garcia

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