I learned a lot about social media in the schools through my preparation for class. What we were supposed to do for class was research about one of the social media websites that we were all assigned to. My social media source that I was assigned to was facebook. I did some research about facebook and how to use it in the classroom and found lots of information. In the article “Teaching Digital Kids”, it talks about how important it is for children to get familiar with social media because that is the way that the world is turning to and that our students need to become “digital citizens” and “media literate” because these are important skills to learn for the future. I also read the article “Introducing Social Media to Elementary Students”, which talks about the benefits of elementary students being able to use social media because it allows them to connect to people all over the world and gets children involved with discussions. This allows the students to be able to express their ideas in new ways that will help them to use these tools in the future. It also talks about some downsides to showing social media to students this young: because there is inapropriate content and it can be distracting, causing les face to face contact, which most children need in order to learn. The article “Social Media Should Be a Part of the Elementary School Curriculum” talks about how over half of 10 year olds have already used social media before the age of 10, so why not embrace it? So many children are exploring social media on their own, it would be a great idea for teachers to help navigate them through it so they know how to use it properly. Preparing for class gave me a well-rounded look at the goods and bads of using social media in elementary classrooms.
- “Sewickley Academy’s Private School Blog: 9 Ways to Use Social Media in Your Classroom.” Web. 29 Nov. 2015. This website “Sewickley Academy’s Private School Blog: 9 Ways to Use Social Media in Your Classroom.” This resource is a blog from Sewickley Academy where teachers have blogged about the 9 different types of social media tools that you can use as a teacher and what you should do with them in the classroom. It goes through the different types of social media and gives examples of what you should do on each site in order to get the students involved and engaged in the material. There is also a part at the bottom of the website where you can add a comment, question, or idea for others to see and respond to. This gets you connected with teachers who are trying out or thinking about trying out social media just like you so you can share ideas with others. This is a great web source because it is very informational and gives great examples about how to use each site. If I were thinking about using social media in my classroom, I would definitely use this website as a reference.
- “Leveraging Social Media in the Elementary Classroom.” Web. 29 Nov. 2015. This website “Leveraging Social Media in the Elementary Classroom” is a resource from the National Association of Elementary School Principals discussing the usage of social media in elementary schools by giving an example of how well it work in a school in Mooresville, North Carolina. It talks about the benefits of blogging in class, being a digital citizen, and skype. The author of this webpage believes that blogging helps students with their writing, grammar, expressiveness, and working on writing elements. The author also believes that it is important for students to become digital citizens because it helps the students to know how to use the internet and social media safely for when they are off doing it on their own. Also, the author believes in the idea of skyping other classrooms from around the world and talking to them through social media because it broadens the students’ perspectives and gives them more experience from other places. This is a great resource because it gives different ideas about how to use different sources of social media in the classroom and why. This source really shows the positives of social media.
My understanding of the topic changed from the beginning where I was not very well informed to now where I have prepared and gone to class to learn about the information. I learned that social media has its goods and bads, just like pretty much everything else in the world. I also found out that there are actually a lot more uses for social media than I thought and more classrooms are using it than I thought. I would have to say that my opinion about this topic has remained unchanged, even after educating myself on the issue. I do not believe that children are ready for social media at such a young age. You are not even “legally” allowed to have one until you are 13. It was very interesting to learn about this and seeing it implemented in classrooms.