Social Media

How do we manage to keep our students focused on the material we have to cover in such a short amount of time with so many distractions around them?

One article we read, “Pros and Cons of Social Media in the Classroom” gives us some insight on both sides of the fence.

However I don’t think we have to pick a side! Why can’t we be right in the middle? Or on top of the fence?

The article discusses the Pros and Cons of Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter in the classroom. In my opinion, the majority of students are already aware of and using these sites that are so easily accessible. So I believe we should incorporate social media into our lessons to some extent. No, I am not saying our students should be online all day every day, but it’s there, so let’s use it to our advantage.

Lessons

One: use your resources!

Two: use them responsibly.

Three: show others respect.

Four: hold yourself accountable for what you write and publish online and in life.

So what do you think? Are student’s texting and tweeting too much? I believe there is a way we, as educators can take the ball back into our court and use these social media resources to reach our students on their level. 

Edmodo is a topic a group of my peers covered in their presentation. They compared it a lot to how Facebook and other networking sites operate. I think this could be a great alternative to look into for your classroom or school district. It is basically a way for students, parents and teacher to be able to communicate all in one place about things such as assignments, homework, exams, progress, missing work, extra help available or anything you, your students or their parents want to discuss. Very cool!

Thank you Kyle and Julia for giving us some insight about Edmodo and how educators may like to use it in their classes.