Blog #6, Social Media

Social Media can be considered to be any website which allows collaboration and connectivity between users, having some objective or purpose. For example, Twitter allows people to connect to each other and share their thoughts in 'Tweets". "Social" implies that collaboration is facilitated, and "Media" implies the purpose behind it, being communication of some sort of media. There are many ways that social media can be used in the classroom. The diagram above illustrates the possible uses of several of the larger social media websites. For example, YouTube or iPadio could be used to share to any audio or video presentation that students do. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Pintrest could all be used as the platform for a class-wide brainstorm forum. With the trend towards more and more reliance on technology for communication and production, using these tools is evolving from helpful to almost essential. Students must learn to collaborate using technology and using these sites in classroom in very helpful in reaching that goal. Using these could also increase student interest and effort, and humans are naturally built for collaboration and community. However, some of these social networks have a downside when used in the classroom. Websites like Facebook and Twitter which are often used outside of class, and have more strictly social uses could be a distraction to students which could hinder their focus. That being said, all social media sites include some degree of non-educational uses. So, a good guideline to follow when using social media in classrooms could be to use the sites which are less popular, and so fewer students would be prone to distraction. Not only that, students will then "learn to learn" how to use technology, which will help them be able to adapt as more and more ways of collaborating online are developed.