Social media has taken over the world!! Of course, if the students use social media, the “next big thing” in education must be to use social media in the classroom. I can relate to both viewpoints when it comes to social media in the classroom.
I will say that I have used twitter in the classroom, and I am now looking into using instagram. Twitter, as of now, seems to be a fail. I use it in middle school, in which some students are still not allowed to have social media because their parents will not let them. The other students that have Twitter accounts still haven’t caught on. I don’t think students realize what we can actually use twitter for in the classroom, or they don’t want me to see their profile. 🙂
I’d love to try instagram (doesn’t hurt to try). I take A LOT of pictures in the classroom doing activities and experiments. We could even have a hashtag #mrsnorvillesclass. We will see how it goes.
The other viewpoint is banning social media, and I can see why. There are those students who participate correctly and make learning exciting, but there are also those students who abuse it. Students may post vulgar and negative things as well as possibly bullying. However, I feel that with any new method of teaching, those types of students will always be there. They should be properly punished for any wrong doings.
I don’t think that the “bad” students should stop teachers from trying something new. You never know what will help students to learn. If it doesn’t work, you can learn and move on!