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On one hand, it is a wonderful tool for collaboration, to spread ideas, and as a social networking platform that can help students connect with each other, teachers across the nation, and a world in general.
On the other hand, social media has become another tool for social control. Because of the way social media works, every time someone is seen in public, they are tracked, monitored, and can be attacked. In this sense, the more social media you use, the more likely you are to be tracked, monitored, and attacked.
There is a saying that goes something like this: “If you like something, you wouldn’t be the person it’s being applied to.” I can totally see the “if you like something, you wouldn’t be the person it’s being applied to” in social media. We’ve all been there. There’s so much time and energy wasted scrolling through Facebook and Twitter to find something you really like, instead of actually doing something with it.
Many people use social media as a means to communicate with friends and family, so it makes sense that you would use it as a means to communicate with teachers. But social media also has the benefit of making the world smaller. When you are constantly bombarded by things and people, it makes it harder for you to focus on what you want to achieve. But if you want to be a teacher, you have to have a social media presence to be on the cutting edge of the technology.
The thing about social media in education is that it is hard to break out of the echo chambers. Everyone talks about what they think everyone else thinks, so it’s hard to start a conversation with people you don’t know very well, no matter how nice they are to you. But it may not be that hard to start a conversation with someone who already has an active social media presence; you just have to figure out how to make them feel comfortable with you.
In the age of Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, the school-to-prison pipeline is an old story. But if you want to have a conversation with someone who has already established a presence in the system, there’s a simple way to do it. Start a blog and post links to the things you want to talk about.
You don’t need to have a social media page to do this. You can just start a conversation with someone on their personal blog. However, they might be hesitant on the idea of talking things out of their comfort zone. So if you have to talk to someone on their personal blog first, you might want to try using a blog platform like Google+ to start the conversation first.
The pros of social media can be great. One is that everyone likes to be around others because this allows one to reach out to a larger audience. Another is that you can find out things that you weren’t able to find out in person. For instance, I have a friend who is a new blogger and I would like to know if she is an avid reader. I was able to find out this information on social media, but I would love to hear from the person herself if she was.
Social media is great for sharing information. But if you’re teaching a class you have to make sure you can be open and honest with your students about things you might be unsure about. You can find out a lot about your students from people they follow and the information you put in their feed can be very valuable to them. A lot of times you can learn something and they are just flat out amazed that you might be able to do this.
I like to think of social media as a way for students to learn from the pros and cons of their own education. Students who are in a school that relies on a lot of online interactions are best served by social media. They are less likely to rely on teachers, and you can show something to your students that will make them think twice about what they might be seeing on the outside world.
