'Socialising' in the Classroom

In today's society it would be virtually impossible to ignore the effects of social media. It should be used as a tool to transport learners into different worlds and different information resources while still in the classroom. Social media should be used to expand the learning environment, not be a distraction from the teacher and classroom. It was interesting to see how Davis named some sites, like Fakebook and Edublogs, that can be used in class to simulate popular social media sites.

I think social media is a very important aspect of teaching today and will only increase in importance in the future. In my curriculum studies subjects: Life Orientation and Physical Education I will definitely use different social media sites as teaching resources. For example, Life Orientation is a subject that deals with the holistic development of the learner in their society, and so social media is definitely a huge part of their society that needs to be addressed in class. This is seen with cyber-bullying, threatening messages and peer pressure over social media. In relation to this I would use social media resources to teach learners how to safely use the internet and the different websites available. YouTube is a good source of educational videos for different topics in Life Orientation and students can even create their own videos on topics and post them for their class to evaluate and comment on. Blogging is also a way for learners to express themselves. In my classroom I would use blogging as a way for students to reflect on the topics discussed and they can use it to ask questions. As we do in our PGCE class, learners could post the links to their blogs for each other to read. Also, as blogging can be anonymous students may feel more comfortable asking difficult questions via a blog rather than in class.

In Physical Education I think it would be fun to use Instagram as a method for students to create a collection of pictures over their year. They can post pictures as ‘evidence’ of completing certain tasks, for example, they could go to a different physical activity or play a different sport every weekend and document it. It can also be a platform for them to show their progress with certain aspects of physical education. They could do before and after pictures of certain skills and performances. Twitter is a good way for sharing ideas and relevant information in any classroom. It can also allow us as teachers to keep a record of everything that is written, thanks to the hashtag! Twitter and Instagram, as Provenzano states can be used to share information learners see outside of school that they wish to share with the class. I think in both my curriculum subjects learners would love to see pictures and posts on Instagram and Twitter about their class kept by the teacher – this would be a fun way to look back on the year.    

I think social media is a way to get learners more involved in their school work because they see the information when they are already on social media and are more likely to take the time to read it than when they have to put their devices down. Social media is a tool we must utilize in schools to make use of its positive and globally relevant aspects.