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What You Need to Know About Social Media in Your Classroom
Introduction
"The use of social media is on the rise in the classroom"(Pearson 2010; Seaman & Tinti-Kane 2013 as cited in Blaschke, 2014). There is increasing pressure on teachers to use social media as a tool in their professional lives and their classrooms. There are a multitude of various social media tools and their use is growing worldwide at an unprecedented rate (further documentation at http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/ ).
While there is more pressure to bring technology into the classroom, there is also a counter-movement to restrict the use of mobile device's.
For the purpose of this artifact, I am defining social media or social media technologies (SMT) as referring "to web-based and mobile applications that allow individuals and organizations to create, engage, and share new user-generated or existing content, in digital environments through multi-way communications" (Davis III, Deil-Amen, Rios-Aguilar, Canche, 2012, p. 5).
Although they do not fit some definitions of SMT, I am including educational Learning and Content Management Systems such as Desire2Learn, Blackboard, and eLearning Suite as I believe they are essentially, closed networking sites providing one and two way communication, accountability and oversight for schools and their programs.
"The use of social media is on the rise in the classroom"(Pearson 2010; Seaman & Tinti-Kane 2013 as cited in Blaschke, 2014). There is increasing pressure on teachers to use social media as a tool in their professional lives and their classrooms. There are a multitude of various social media tools and their use is growing worldwide at an unprecedented rate (further documentation at http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/ ).
While there is more pressure to bring technology into the classroom, there is also a counter-movement to restrict the use of mobile device's.
- There is a diversity of priorities and goals around the use of social media in education.
- There is a lack of Information Communication Technology expertise.
- Is an inconsistent knowledge base and training for students, teachers, parents and administrators in Digital Literacy and the effective use of social media in an educational setting.
- There is also a need for educators to amend their pedagogical style in order to get the very best results from social media incorporation. This is a separate issue and not addressed in this document (further documentation at http://www.edutopia.org/blog/guidebook-social-media-in-classroom-vicki-davis ) (more documentation at http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/21635/pdf_1 ).
For the purpose of this artifact, I am defining social media or social media technologies (SMT) as referring "to web-based and mobile applications that allow individuals and organizations to create, engage, and share new user-generated or existing content, in digital environments through multi-way communications" (Davis III, Deil-Amen, Rios-Aguilar, Canche, 2012, p. 5).
Although they do not fit some definitions of SMT, I am including educational Learning and Content Management Systems such as Desire2Learn, Blackboard, and eLearning Suite as I believe they are essentially, closed networking sites providing one and two way communication, accountability and oversight for schools and their programs.