Livening Up Education through Social Media
There are so many excellent ways that social media can be used in education, as listed and described by many companies, institutions, researchers and publications across those realms. Because teachers and professors usually organize content and connect with students by using software used by their parent institution, such as UB’s use of Blackboard and Brightspace, it seems that what is most useful beyond those basic platforms is anything that enables and encourages active learning and connectivism. Live exchange for language education, such as that analyzed by Lambton-Howard & Kharrufa (2021), offers much-needed practicing opportunities that might not otherwise be accessible. It’s also noted by Chugh & Ruhi(2018) that “the majority of young people adopt the role of consumers rather than full participants”; working in smaller, online study groups may make students feel more comfortable and therefore facilitate better learning. In the “Social media in the classroom” section of Sprout Social’s 15 Ways to Use Social Media for Education, points #2, #4 & #5 are ideas that could help facilitate that connectivism.
They include another great idea in that realm for point #7: Prep for post-graduation and create alumni relationships” by using social media for current students to begin networking with alumni, thereby “Flexing these career muscles could help them earn internships, gain mentors and secure job offers before they walk across the stage on graduation day.”, which I imagine could be done with live career fairs in addition to the institutions’ alumni groups.
Chugh, R., & Ruhi, U. (2018). Social media in higher education: A literature review of Facebook. Education and Information Technologies, 23, 605-616.
Lambton-Howard, D., Kiaer, J., & Kharrufa, A. (2021). ‘Social media is their space’: student and teacher use and perception of features of social media in language education. Behaviour & Information Technology, 40(16), 1700-1715.
Active learning and connecitivism. As we see just from using platforms like Blackboard and Brightspace, that connecitvism promotes active learning. Teacher giving lecture, student taking notes, tests and papers...this is no longer the norm in many college courses, nor should it be in high school. And frankly, getting teens to talk to each other in person is a battle. Which is OK! As I shared in my blog, this is where teens are right now and that is where we need to meet them in order to get the best out of them. So if typing and chatting on social media is an easier way to get them focusing and learning, then finding ways to work toward that should be a goal in education. I have always found typing my thoughts and ideas works better for me than speaking them.
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ReplyDeleteThe suggestion to begin establishing a network of mentors before graduation is a great one. What an advantage for a new grad to have when navigating a new job and all the other changes and stressors that can accompany life after graduation. Incorporating it with career fairs makes sense, too. The environment isn't as high stress to meet new people in as it would be during an actual interview.