Schools and Social Media

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In my experience it seems as though every generation is worried about the next. The proliferation of the term “kids these days” is driven by the constant worry about the next generation’s inability to understand the trials of the previous ones.

Kids these days aren’t disciplined the way we used to be.

Kids these days don’t understand how to live without.

Kids these days don’t know what hard work looks like.

And now, Kids these days can’t see anything past the screens of their phones.

And that really is the focus today, isn’t it? Social Media is shaping the lives of kids everywhere. I hesitate to say that it has a negative impact. After all, in spite of the concerns of our parents, here we are, still surviving.  Though I will say that as a teacher, social media is drastically changing how students learn, think, and communicate. The question is, to what extent and are schools supposed to be involved with social media?

Organizations for teachers like Edutopia are supplying countless resources that implement social media into the classroom. And it seems that integrating social media into the classroom is almost necessary for teachers who want student engagement. A high school student, writing for edweek, says “The best teachers I’ve ever had have used technology to enhance learning, including using Facebook pages for upcoming projects or planned online chats about books we read in class. These teachers were interesting to listen to, and the projects were fun and challenging.”  Katie Benmar expands on this in her article,My Favorite Teachers Use Social Media: A Student Perspective.”

However, there are those who disagree. For example, research has been done that shows a negative relationship between social media use and academic performance (see here). There are also concerns of communication, if a student is only participating through a screen, how will they ever learn to engage in conversations with other human beings? Not to mention, a decreased emphasis on language, resulting in less attention to detail and the art of writing.

Contradictions like these make me wonder if the schools (that have the means) should keep up with social media. So I’ll ask you, students, parents, and teachers, is Social Media a positive or negative force in education? Should we stop trying to integrate it or integrate it more? Or is social media too big now, whether we like it or not? Do we have to address it in the classroom?

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