Using Social Media in Learning

Activity 6: Using social online networks in teaching or professional development

Social media has become a ubiquitous form of communications and marketing tool for a growing number of schools, and teachers are utilizing social media in the classroom to engage students in the learning process. Although I am not an ‘out there’ user of social media in the classroom, I am active personally on several social media platforms (having had my own teenage children and children living overseas makes this essential). At school, our approach to using social media for learning is far more conservative. This has been prominently for two reasons, as a boarding school, the digital department are very protective of the students and as a result the students are prohibited from accessing social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The other reason is, as an educational community, we are still ‘feeling our way’ and are having discussions, and have begun trialing some of the ideas we are learning about regarding using social media safely, and effectively in our classrooms. 

Over the past 6 months we have used ‘Seesaw’, an educational, ‘safe and friendly’, software that empowers students to independently document their learning and provides an audience for their work—their peers, parents, and a blog that is shared globally. The main benefits from using Seesaw in my classroom have been the sense of community it fosters among the students, and the ability for the students to share their learning and learn from others. It is naturally collaborative, as the students critique and comment on each other’s assignments. They work in teams to create content, often posting videos of their learning and then easily accessing each other and the teacher with questions. 

Furthermore, the ability to participate instantly with parents and to receive feedback has made a huge impact on the learning for the students. Student engagement and excitement for learning has grown as they participate in a “Facebook’ like environment, one that is very familiar to what they use, to communicate with at home. Students are also using this software at home to add and comment on their and others’ learning. 

The success of this software, and the fact that it is ‘free’, has enabled deeper conversations around the use of social media, its safety and the value it adds to learning in the classroom. As a group of educators in a digitally rich environment (our school) we are currently looking at more ways we can enable social media to engage the learning of our students.