Social Networking-A World Outside the Classroom

I must admit, I am one of those individuals who has seen and heard all of the negative stories regarding Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. I agreed when I would hear about how it encourages cyberbullying, sexting, pornography and social isolation. I have 12 year-old twin boys and I found social media a scary place that I planned on discouraging them from using for as long as possible.

After reading the article from USA Today, "Social Media Finds Place in the Classroom," I have since changed my perspective entirely. The article begins talking about Eric Sheninger, a principal in the New Milford school district. His school uses Facebook as a tool for communicating with teachers, parents and students. Rather than banning cell phone use, they are used as a positive classroom tool for taking surveys or using Twitter.

There is further discussion that talks about media resources the teachers in his school use to expand their lessons. Social media is used by students to do research, do performances, and accomplish "authentic" work that can be shared by classmates and the world around them. The use of Twitter can be used to obtain breaking news in a Social Studies class. This is information that is not just in a textbook, but is real world occurrences happening in real time. Textbooks should still have a valuable place in the classroom, however, students will really pay attention by using their cellphones to connect to what is happening around them is a way to make a connection using real tools like their cellphones and real current events. YouTube is another fantastic resource to use in a classroom. Students can look at pictures of hurricanes in a textbook, however, to actually look at them in a YouTube video makes them realistic as students see them actually taking place. For an ESL classroom, students can look at a video of part of speech with someone singing the verbs or nouns, this can help with their listening skills also.

James Lerman, an author of several books, says we need to help students "get to the good stuff," We should help students by not treating social media as a forbidden fruit, but rather show them the benefits it has to help them learn. Technology is not going away, therefore, we can teach them about copyrighting, how to navigate sites and create different ways of learning using Facebook.

There also should be a middle ground. Students should still be taught online safety and traditional classroom tools should still be used. Social media should be used to further enhance learning as an additional teaching strategy, not the only strategy. Teachers should also have the knowledge to use media effectively, otherwise it will not serve the intended purpose.

I agree with one of the 5th grade teachers, Ms. Highfall, when she says there is risk in anything we do. We were taught to look both ways when crossing the street, instead of being told not to cross the street at all because of the potential danger it imposes. The same goes for Social Media - we need to tell our students to look out for danger and use it efficiently, rather than to stop using it.