How to Use Social Media as a Learning Tool

Social media is an ingrained part of today’s society. Our students are constantly on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and likely many sites we’re not hip enough to know about, and by reading this blog, you’re interacting with social media at this very moment. If you want to bring the “real world” into the classroom, consider integrating social media into your lessons.

No Longer a Distraction

Image via Flickr by Sean MacEntee

When used carefully, social media can be a useful tool rather than a distraction. A recent Edutopia blog post argues that using social media not only brings current technology to the classroom, but it also helps bridge the digital divide among lower-income students. These students may not have the constant access to social media that their counterparts do. Why should they be left behind as technology continues to march forward?

Education-based sites such as Edmodo, Edublog, and Kidblog provide alternative social media sites for posting status updates and announcements, blogging, and microblogging. But even the commercialized sites can be useful for demonstrating social media to students.

Create a Class Facebook Group

Facebook is known as a place to post status updates, announcements, photos, and video — all things that we likely use in our classes anyway. Create a Facebook group for each class, on which you can post assignments, make announcements, and remind students about important deadlines. Parents can also access the site to monitor what is going on in your class.

A Facebook group also creates a space for students to ask and answer questions. When students get home and begin working on their homework, they can post a question to the group’s wall that either you or a classmate can answer. Since students often learn from others, having students share their questions, insights, or experiences with a topic can expand learning for other students. In short, it extends the classroom discussion beyond the classroom.

A Facebook group is also ideal for teachers using the flipped classroom. Post videos, photos, documents, and other resources on the group’s wall so that students can access them before class or while working on their assignments.

Of course, content management systems can offer the same opportunities for announcements and resources. However, because many older students and parents already have Facebook on their phones and tablets, they have constant access to course information without having to log in to a completely different system.

Start a Topical Twitter Feed

Like Facebook, Twitter offers a quick way to post class announcements and reminders as well as real-time information on class field trips (perfect for parents who can’t tag along). Twitter also helps classes track information on a topic.

For instance, for a class discussing a current event or topic such as career ideas, Twitter can provide up-to-date information, eliminating the need for extensive research. By following the Twitter feeds of experts in the field or even hashtags focused on a current world issue, students can learn more about what is happening in the world around them. You can use this information in a variety of class discussions, research, and writing projects.

Twitter is made not only for reading, but also for responding. Encourage students to interact with others via Twitter by posting their favorite quotes or facts from a particular lesson. Have them interact with experts by tweeting questions or comments. Many organizations offer Twitter chat sessions with which students can interact.

Require Students to Blog

Student writing improves the more they do it. Instead of traditional writing projects, blogs create great opportunities for students to write and display their writing on a larger scale. The topic ideas are endless. Have students reflect on lessons or field trips, document research for a larger project; or review movies, books, or audio recordings. Ask students to illustrate their thoughts with photos or videos.

By having students read each other’s blog posts, they will create a stronger community with one another, discovering shared experiences and reactions. Because their work becomes part of the greater World Wide Web, students have increased motivation to carefully consider their language, spelling, and grammar usage as well as how they draw in outside information. In this vein, blogging can be an excellent segue into a discussion on plagiarism, voice, and writing style.

Post Student Videos to YouTube

Like Facebook, YouTube is an excellent option for flipped classrooms in that students can watch lectures and resources before entering the classroom. We have all probably shown a YouTube clip or two to illustrate a point in the classroom. Instead of watching material created by others, why not have students create their own material?

Similar to blogging, the opportunities for student-created video are plenty. Students will enjoy watching each other explain a concept, review a book or movie, stage their own interpretation of a scene from a play, create public service announcements, or report on news stories. Again, like blogging, since the material will be seen by a wider audience, students will be more apt to do their very best in creating a video, and they will enjoy being able to express their creativity as they connect more deeply with course material.

Showcase Student Work on Instagram

If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what a carefully crafted class Instagram feed can say. Instagram can showcase student work by offering a place to feature student artwork or even interesting details about a student (i.e., a “meet a student” photo journal). Start a scavenger hunt in which students post pictures of items focused on a certain letter or theme. Have students post photos of items related to their favorite book or historical figure.

A Final World on Social Media

Privacy concerns are always an issue whether using social media for personal or educational use. Please read all social media platforms’ privacy pages, and ensure that your class feeds are set to private to protect students’ work. Review your school’s social media policy and if necessary, have parents sign consent forms for posting their child’s work online. Furthermore, make sure that students are well versed in etiquette and other proper use of technology.

In Short

Since students are already using social media away from the classroom, integrating it into the classroom helps students learn best practices for social media and offers an interesting new twist on lessons.

Digitally Speaking / Using Social Media to Reach Your Community

To the dismay of television producers who count on viewers spending free time on the couch passively consuming content, citizens of most developed nations are spending more free time connecting with one another through social media.

Consider that

• 61 percent of adults who regularly go online—and 73 percent of online teens—interact with one another on social networking websites (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010; Madden, 2010).
• People spend 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook. The average Facebook user spends 55 minutes per day on the site (Facebook, 2010; Hepburn, 2010a).
• 50 million messages daily (or 600 messages per second) are posted on Twitter, a microblogging site with 145 million users (Alexa, 2010; Compete, 2010; Hepburn, 2010b; Weil, 2010).
• YouTube has 24 hours of new video uploaded every minute and receives 2 billion daily page views (Hepburn, 2010c).

Mirroring these trends, educators are now increasingly taking advantage of social media services and tools. A recent survey showed that 61 percent of teachers, principals, and librarians are active in at least one social media space. Many use those spaces for professional development—attending webinars, watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts, or participating on blogs (edWeb.net, 2010).

What's frustrating—particularly to many younger teachers—is that the same social media spaces widely embraced outside schools are routinely blocked within schools by district firewalls. Fears—driven by concerns about cyberbullying or inappropriate postings—cause school leaders to think twice about whether the advantages of social media outweigh the potential consequences of misuse.

For schools who've embraced social media spaces as tools for reaching out, however, the rewards are real. As Eric Sheninger, principal of New Milford High School in New Jersey, a school with an active Twitter account (http://twitter.com/newmilfordhs) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pages/New-Milford-NJ/New-Milford-High-School/114382501908040) explains,

Unlike traditional forms of communication such as snail mail and press releases, I can provide updates in real time as events happen, on Twitter and in Facebook. Since society as a whole is actively using social media, it only makes sense to connect with my community through these means. (E. Sheninger, personal communication, September 30, 2010)

Connecting is exactly what Sheninger does through Facebook and Twitter. Explore his posts in both places and you'll see messages that celebrate the school's athletic victories, spotlight student work, and promote functions like parent nights and performances. You'll also see parents and other community members interacting with teachers and with one another—lending congratulations, asking questions, sharing opinions. Finally, you'll see Sheninger eagerly sharing photographs from school events and links to local newspaper articles, videos, and resources connected to student learning. New Milford High stakeholders can receive information on school events, student accomplishments, and innovations in the classroom from any Internet-connected computer or mobile device any time.

Perhaps most exciting for Sheninger is that participation in social media spaces enables him to tap into the thoughts and feelings of students—a group often overlooked in conversations about teaching and learning. "My students took notice of my affinity for Twitter during a meeting with members of student government," he explains. "They conveyed that Facebook was a more appropriate medium to reach them and disseminate the same information." So now, many New Milford High School students follow the school's Facebook page, joining in community conversations that they hadn't been a part of before.

Proceed with Caution

Although Sheninger is proud of the work that he is doing in social media, he has also walked cautiously. All the messages he shares are connected to learning or to school events. He also has every family complete a new media release form before sharing pictures or video featuring students, and he regularly communicates with stakeholders about the purposes of New Milford's social media efforts. With these precautions in place, Sheninger told me, the school district has enthusiastically supported his efforts.

So what would Sheninger recommend to leaders interested in using social media to reach out to school communities? "The first step is to lurk and learn," he explains.

Watch what other principals are doing to get a good idea of information and content being shared with stakeholders. Begin to establish a vision and some goals as to what you want to accomplish using social media. I do not suggest diving right in. As you become more comfortable, begin to gradually share information relating to your school, students, staff, and the education profession. Finally, as with any new endeavor, communicate with the appropriate supervisors to elicit their support. (E. Sheninger, personal communication, September 30, 2010)

Integrating social media tools into a school's work is essential if leaders hope to build meaningful relationships with stakeholders. Although encouraging teachers to integrate social media into instructionmay not be a risk you're ready to take, integrating these tools into your school's communication plans is an excellent first step.

Connecting a Classroom: Reflections on Using Social Media With Students

Through Twitter, Instagram, Skype, Flickr, and blogging, my students published their projects and writing to an audience beyond their peers and me. Along the way, we reflected on what social media added to our classroom as well as what it required of us. I want to share some reflections as I enter a second year facilitating a connected high school classroom.

Why Connect?

Connected classrooms can reach beyond physical barriers to create conversations with people from other classrooms, cultures, and communities. Social media provides venues for students to share their stories both within and beyond the classroom. It also grants opportunities for them to hear stories from beyond their school. Finally, being connected helps students recognize the power of personal voice.

When I asked my students mid-year what they thought social media added to our classroom, they offered the following responses:

• “Social media can expand our thoughts and ideas and connect us to what is going on in the rest of the world. It would be cool getting ideas that are actually present outside our community.” Michael A.
• “We could use social media as a class to compare and contrast ideas on different projects…[it] could be used to begin discussions.” Mandy S.
• “It is cool how we have posted pictures on Instagram of what we are doing in class...We should also look at other classes from other schools and see if they give us any good ideas about stuff we can do in class.” Daniel S.

Overwhelmingly, students agreed they liked expanding learning through social media platforms. They also understood the value of seeking out different perspectives, ideas, and feedback from a greater community.

I recently asked a parent her opinion of our connected classroom. She affirmed that she loved it: “My daughter tends to be quiet. Even when I would ask her about her day and what she learned, she often gave me short, concise answers. By following your classroom’s social media, I was able to get a window into her day--what she was learning and what she was working on.”

What is your purpose for connecting your classroom? Before you can think about how to connect, you need to understand why. Do you want to engage parents? Maybe connect with other classrooms? Teach your students important digital literacy skills? Perhaps all three. Once you establish the priorities and purpose of connecting your classroom, you are ready to tackle the “how.”

Choose a Platform

First, choose a platform that make sense. Here are some questions to guide you:

• What platform(s) are you most comfortable with in your own personal or professional life? Starting from a place of some experience is always helpful when doing something new in your classroom.
• What platform(s) will help you access your target audience? If your primary target is to connect with parents, find out what social media platform they are on. Choosing a platform parents are using will more likely encourage them to interact with your classroom feed.
• What platform(s) will work best on the devices you have in class as well as your district’s policies? For example, posting to Instagram is limited to the mobile device app found on smartphones and tablets, but posting from Twitter is possible from both mobile devices and laptops. Some districts may block certain sites. Understand your technology parameters before choosing the tools.

Freshman student Meghan wrote in her mid-year reflection: “I like connecting to other classrooms, but I feel we should channel our energy into one or two platforms.” After trying to develop our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and blogging platforms simultaneously, I agree that starting with one or two platforms makes sense. However, if you know how to connect platforms, cross-posting can be as simple as one-click.

Communication Is Key

Once a platform(s) is chosen, contact your building administration for advice on following district policies and messaging your use of social media to the community. Find a way to communicate to parents your purpose and platform for connecting your classroom. For students under the age of 18, permission from parents is often needed to publish pictures, videos, and work of students. Be sure to consider family’s privacy and rights before sharing.

I found that for most parents, an email or letter was all that was needed to establish permission and trust. For the few parents who were hesitant, I reached out through a phone call to discuss their fears. Although this felt intimidating, I found these calls helpful in educating parents about the importance of modeling social media for learning in our classrooms. Many parents were thankful that another adult could help their son/daughter develop these skills, and all signed that their child could be involved if he/she chose.

The Importance of Co-Ownership

When introducing the platform in your classroom, ask students to help develop ways to use that platform to connect within and beyond your classroom. Co-create virtual community with students rather than for them. This obviously looks different for elementary classrooms than for secondary, but all students should feel a sense of ownership over the classroom accounts.

Last year, driven by a suggestion from a student, we created “social media teams” based on student preference. This year, I will again offer that option, but integrate class time for those teams to work. I also will not make it optional--each person has to commit to sharing through one of our classroom platforms.

In elementary classrooms, teachers may create “Tweet slips” for all students to practice sharing ideas in 140 characters. The class might vote on which tweet should be posted from the class account. Some elementary teachers reward students with the role of being the “Twitter reporter” for the period or day. That student asks peers for Tweetable quotes, takes pictures of class activities to summarize and tweet out, and engages other classrooms by tweeting out questions related to a current class discussion.

Build Connection Into Your Classroom Culture

Be intentional about communicating with your students about how social media or blogging enhances the learning already taking place in the classroom. Instead of an exit slip, ask students to tweet or post a summary from the day. To share out from small group work, ask students to post an image to the class Instagram with a caption explaining their work. Invite experts to chime in on class discussions by having a student post thoughtful questions through social media or blogs.

For additional resources, see these two presentations: Using Social Writing and Media in the Classroom and A Connected Classroom. These will provide more examples and ideas to help connect your classroom and expand the learning beyond your four walls. Connect with us and share your journey!

Kahalagahan ng Paggamit ng Multimedia sa Pagtuturo

Sa panahong tinatawag na digital,  nagigigng mahalaga ang kakayahan at talento ng bawat indibidwal. Nagbabago na ang mga pamaraan sa pag-oorganisa ng mga bagay. Ang teknolohiya ay nakapag-aambag na rin sa inaasahang pagbabago sa larangan ng pagtuturo at pagkatuto. Ang tekholohiya ngayon ay nagbibigay na ng malawak na oportunidad para sa pagkatuto ng mga mag-aaral, lalo na ang access sa midya. Sa panahon na tinatawag nating “knowledge explosion”, ang guro sa makabagong panahon ay maaaring hindi kayang ibigay lahat ng kailangang hinahanap ng kanyang mga mag-aaral. Katulad ng maraming bagong kasanayan at kaalaman na kailangan sa curriculum development at pagtataya, mga bagong pedagohiya naman ang nalilikha habang ginagamit ng mga guro at mag-aaral ang teknolohiya sa pananaliksik at pagkatuto. Ang suliranin ukol sa umaapaw na impormasyon ay tototo kaya ang mga guro ay napipilitang mamili tungkol sa paggamit ng teknolohiya na maaaring magagamit sa pananaliksik at paghahanap ng mga inobatibong lapit at estratehiya sa pagtuturo. 

            Ayon kay Lardizabal (1995), ang pagtuturo ay isang proseso ng komunikasyon ng guro at mag-aaral. Ang pagtuturo ay hindi na nakasalig lamang sa berbal na komunikasyon ng guro at mag-aaral. Maraming kagamitan ang pagtuturo at pagkatuto. Ang kagamitan pampagtuturo o kagamitang instruksyonal ay anumang karanasan o bagay na ginagamit ng guro bilang pantulong sa paghahatid ng impormasyon, kasanayan, saloobin, palagay, katotohanan, pag-unawa at pagpapahalaga sa mga mag-aaral upang lalong maging konkreto, tunay, dinamiko at ganap ang pagkatuto.

            Sa paghahanda ng mga midyang instruksyonal ay kailangang alamin ang karakteristik at pangangailangan ng estudyante. Tiyakin ang layunin, balangkasin ang nilalaman, iplano ang suportang kakailanganin at isaalang-alang din ang mga materyal na paghahanguan. Sa pagsusulat, ihanay ng maayos ang mga ideya, pag-isipan at simulang buuin ang mga gawain at fidbak, humanap ng mga halimbawa at umisip ng mga grafiks.

            Sinasabi ngang walang kagamitang panturo ang maipapalit sa isang mabuting guro, ngunit isang katotohanang hindi maitatanggi na ang mabuting guro ay gumagamit ng mga kagamitang pampagtuturo tungo sa mabisang pagkatuto ng mga estudyante.

            Ayon kina Abad at Ruedas (2001), ang mga kagamitang pampagtuturo, tulad ng midyang instruksyonal ay nagbibigay ng kongkretong pundasyon sa pag-katuto, halimbawa:

• Nagbubunga ito ng wastong gawi sa pag-aaral;
• Nakagaganyak ito sa kawilihan ng mga mag-aaral sapagkat higit na napasisigla at napagagaan ang proseso ng pagtuturo at pagkatuto;
• Nagdudulot ito ng maayos, madali, makahulugan at mabisang pagtuturo at pagkatuto;
• Nag-aambag ito ng iba’t ibang karanasan sa mga mag-aaral tungo sa pagtatamo nila ng mga minimithing kaalaman, pagkakamit ng kasanayan at pagpapahalaga sa kanilang sarili at kapaligiran;
• Nagbibigay ito ng mga tunay at iba’t ibang kalagayan upang mapasigla ang pansariling gawain ng mag-aaral;
• Nagkakaroon ng tiwala sa sarili ang mag-aaral at guro sapagkat may direksyon ang pagtuturo at pagkatuto;
• Nagkakaroon din ang mga guro ng kawilihan, magaan at sistematikong pagtuturo;
• Nababawasan ang pagiging dominante ng guro sa pag-sasalitao pagtalakay ng aralin sa loob ng silid-aralan.

Gayunpaman, may mga limitasyon din ang paggamit ng multimedia sa silid-aralan tulad ng; kaamitang panteknolohiya (hard-ware at software), kakayahang panteknolohiya (para sa mga mag-aaral at mga guro) at oras o panahon na kakailanganin sa pagpaplano, pagdidisenyo, pag-linang at pagtatasa sa mga gawaing pang ultimedia.

Technology Will Make Collaboration Your Next Competitive Advantage

Editor’s note: Today we begin a new monthly topic in Business Impact at Technology Review: Collaboration Tools. Powerful software and widespread Internet connectivity are making it easier than ever for people to work together no matter where they happen to be. Throughout March we will look at the latest tools for collaboration within and between organizations. We’ll analyze why some technology-enabled collaborations work and why others don’t. We’ll explain why some collaboration tools have failed to prove useful to the employees meant to benefit from them. We’ll present case studies, profiles, and interviews that help you understand how to make the people in your organization more collaborative and more productive. 

Since the dawn of managerial capitalism, collaboration and work have almost always been synonymous. People need other people to realize their greatest impact, and innovation, perhaps the most valuable activity in business, depends critically on the kind of cross-pollination of ideas that collaboration enables.

But technology has changed how we collaborate, especially since the communications revolution began 150 years ago with the telegraph and the telephone. This wave of change continued with the commercialization of the fax machine in the 1970s and of e-mail in the 1980s. The last 20 years have brought a convergence of communications and computing technologies that has expanded the possibilities for technology-enabled collaboration, whether synchronous or asynchronous, proximal or distant. With voice mail, videoconferencing, instant messaging, chat forums, blogs, wikis, social networking, microblogging (through services such as Twitter and Foursquare), voice-over-IP, telepresence, and, of course, mobile communications and computing, never have we had so many ways to collaborate without having to be in the same place at the same time.

Technology-based platforms explicitly designed for collaboration arose in the late 1980s with the concept of “groupware” or “collaborative work environments.” These made it possible for people to join forces even though they were working in different places and in different time zones. Lotus Notes brought the notion to the corporate market at a time when business use of the Internet was still in its infancy. As the journalist David Kirkpatrick wrote in 1992, “If groupware really makes a difference in productivity long term, the very definition of an office may change.” With admirable prescience, he noted: “You will be able to work efficiently as a member of a group wherever you have your computer. As computers become smaller and more powerful, that will mean anywhere.”

That prediction has become reality, especially since the recent financial downturn. As businesses cut back on workers and resources, the number of professionals who defined themselves as freelancers increased to 30 million in the United States alone, and many of them turned to social-networking sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, to build their businesses. Many people who remained employed used the same strategies as an insurance policy against the next reduction in force. They also compensated for leaner IT budgets by supplying their own hardware, leading to new acronyms such as BYOD (“bring your own device”) and BYOC (“bring your own computer”). In fact, Kraft Foods “coöpted” employee-owned smart phones and tablets, explicitly welcoming and supporting “third-party” devices not directly purchased by the company.

Such policies, in turn, created a new meaning for BYOC: “bring your own culture.” Why? Workers equipped with their own smart phones and notebooks became accustomed to using those devices in whatever ways they chose. They demanded freedom of access to rich media websites (like YouTube), social-networking platforms, and certain content providers (such as WikiLeaks and publishers of its documents, like the New York Times and CNN.com) that many corporations and government entities had blocked for reasons of bandwidth costs, data protection, and corporate security. One senior Dell executive I’ve come across argued that if he was going to spend 60 to 80 hours a week at work, the company had no business deeming any content on the Web off limits. The corporate firewall, designed to make a stark distinction between internal and external information resources, was an artifact of a bygone era. The Dell executive prevailed.

As we’ll see in this month’s articles, interviews, and case studies in Business Impact, network-enabled collaboration both within and between firms is changing work in fundamental ways.

To fuel this revolution, established companies and startups are offering tools and platforms that support ever more powerful means of collaboration. Their business propositions are predicated on Metcalfe’s Law: as linkages among individuals increase arithmetically, collaboration as a result of those linkages rises in value geometrically. That’s why many companies seeking to accelerate the pace of innovation turn to open innovation.