Social Media in the Classroom

As some districts ban the use of social media in and out of classrooms, and others encourage its use, how do you explain such polar viewpoints?

So much of the debate over the use of social media in education has to do with understanding student safety, best practices, CIPA and COPPA regulations as they relate to e-rate funding, and community awareness of internet safety. Limiting, and even prohibiting, the use of social media in and out of the classroom often has to do with violations of ethics code and a lack of education by community members. If parents are only getting information about social media from exposes like To Catch a Predator, the natural instincts of protection and fear will take over. Teachers who do not information themselves about government regulations (CIPA and COPPA) and how they relate to e-rate funding for schools are putting their school districts at risk of losing significant government funding for electronic resources. For teachers with students under the age of 13, this is a very real obstacle when dealing with social media.

On the flip side, classrooms and schools that embrace social media are often those who are making conscious efforts to inform students, parents, and community members about internet safety and best practices with social media. They accept the idea that there will be missteps, but they use these instances as a way to inform and improve. These are the individuals and groups that have decided that the benefits of harnessing social media for informational purposes outweigh the obstacles that come with that commitment. They understand the curricular and social benefits for parents and students, considering the void that this method fills that couldn’t be done as effectively another way.

So, where do I stand?

My classroom has a Twitter account. You can follow us at http://twitter.com/mrshinesclass. We will not follow you back. I will not respond to direct messages from this account, and you cannot access me this way. Our Twitter account is only for me to share information about what we are doing and learning.

You can follow our class blog at http://khinesclass.blogspot.com. It is our 180 Days of Learning blog, where we are tracking things we are learning and highlighting our accomplishments. Parents, students, and other classes around the country can follow our learning journey.

I use Remind 101 to send text messages for parents. I don’t see their phone numbers. They don’t have mine. I can schedule texts for parents as reminders, send web-based emergency texts (like inclement weather changes), and it doesn’t stay as 2 way communication. If parents have questions about any of these things, they have to contact me via phone or email in a more personal way.