Social Media…in Education…Really??? I’m Not Ready!!! Or Am I?

 

From one perspective, social media undoubtedly has the potential to transform the educational system into a classroom without cultural boundaries. While this is true, I am also aware of some of the challenges, hazards, and obstacles identified by Karen Lederer, involved with incorporating social media into the classroom. Admittedly, I am not an avid user of social media. Yes, I have accounts on both Facebook and Twitter, but I rarely post on either site, after all, creating and posting this blog has been a new and challenging experience.

A number of studies indicate that although higher education faculty agrees that social media has value, there remains a great deal of hesitation and reservation about adopting this innovation in the classroom. A major factor from my experience and perspective is due to a lack of knowledge and comfort with utilizing and incorporating social media into the curriculum. Additionally, because I am working with learners who must learn to have direct contact, positive and effective interactions with children and families it makes it even harder to embrace SOCIAL media fully.

Overall, my goal is to assist the learners that I encounter with developing the capacity to interact positively with young learners. While there is a place for social media in education, I am still working through how it fits within my work with the pre-service early educator. With this in mind, I decided to use this blog post to assist with increasing my comfort level with social media and incorporating it into the higher education curriculum. Incorporating Social Media into the Classroom is a slide share slideshow that provided explanations for and examples of how to incorporate social media into the higher education classroom.

Incorporating Social Media into the Classroom from Florida State College at Jacksonville - Open Campus

Patrick Mott also created a blog titled Incorporating Social Media in Your Classroom. In his blog, Mott identified specific social media and activities as a means of incorporating  social media into the classroom. How Teachers Use Social Media In The Classroom To Beef Up Instruction was another article that provided discussion on how to incorporate social media. Additional resources that identified social media sites specifically for educators included an article found on the Education World website, Best Social Media Sites for Teachers and on the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning website, The Top 18 Educational Social Networking Websites for Teachers.  

As stated earlier, I am working on improving my comfort level. As I begin a new semester with new learners, I plan to step out of my comfort zone and utilize one or two of the approaches presented in the articles. Specifically, Pinterest is a social media that I can envision myself incorporating and utilizing as a means for students to secure and share activity ideas. I can also envision myself incorporating Linkin as tool for students to develop a professional online appearance as well as make contacts with other professionals.  I will keep you posted on how things develop.