Sunday, November 30, 2014

Social Media in the Classroom

   Social Media is the hottest media there is right now in my opinion. From parents on Pinterest, to teacher’s blogging, to students on Facebook, everybody uses social media in some shape or fashion. In chapter 7 of Crafting Digital Writing by Troy Hicks there is a quote by Kristen Turner that is so true. It states that:

 "In digital world adolescents choose the communities to which they belong; they decide to what extent they will engage in the norms of those communities; they determine the level of language play that will mark their individual identities. In school, however, this power to choose often does not exist, and tasks assigned have little value to teens beyond the assessment. "(40)

This quote goes with everyday life in social media, people look for a particular social media that they are going to fit into. If we had more social media in schools that was geared toward schools then that would be great. A few that are mentioned in Chapter 7 are Edmodo, Schoology and Twiducate. At my school we are using Edmodo and Schoology, and the students seem to enjoy getting their assignments online. I asked a student about having Facebook for school and they were all for it. The only downfall that I can see using social media in the schools’, is the students abusing thier ability to post and have pictures. IT only takes one student to do something off the wall and it’s blocked from the schools systems.

As stated in Chapter 8 in a quote from Mills, “teachers can extend the multimodal literacies that are valued in youth networks to give students recognition in the global communications environment." (42)

Below are two video links of social media being used in the classroom, the first link is a video of students using cell phones in the classroom. The second video is a walk-through of using Edmodo. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaYIvdv4jFs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lqBMgEpYlc



Refrences
 

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

1 comment:

  1. I definitely agree that people will gravitate to social media outlets that they enjoy and can relate to. It is a sad reality that some students will inevitably abuse the privilege of social media interaction. Just today, I heard murmurs of a new social media app called "Brighten" which is available for Apple users. The purpose of the app is to share anonymous complements with people to brighten their day, but I have already heard of students using the app to anonymously share insults and remarks that carry digital harassment overtones. For this reason, I will be having a "come to Jesus" talk with each of my classes about the seriousness of digital harassment. I am not sure if any of my students are participating in such atrocities, but if I can encourage positive interactions to as many students as possible, it may turn into a passing fad (much like the "Yik yak" app), and more students will be reminded that digital harassment is against the law. Thank you for sharing!

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