Social Media in the Classroom

Image of Social Media Icons
by Flickr

According to Hicks (2013), "Social networks are becoming the way most people experience life online" (p. 137). Social media allows the user to connect with friends from across the world, keep up with global news, and share one's life with other users. Due to the constant use of social media platforms, most users can identify the various traps that it presents. As adults, we are more likely to notice scams, be mindful of what we post, identify false accounts, and understand that not everyone on social media has friendly intentions. However, what about students that are not as knowledgeable about social media? Sure, most social media sites require the user to be 13 or older, but younger users have found ways to get around this age requirement. Therefore, they are more likely to fall for the traps social media presents. Additionally, just by viewing social media, students are being exposed to content that may not be ideal. The content may contain misconceptions, promote only one side of the argument, or being completely false. The legitimacy of content is something to consider since students may be unknowingly soaking up the content and storing it for later use. So the question is, how exactly can we, as educators, use social media in a way that not only benefits students' learning academically but also informs students of the dangerous side of social media?

Video by Jessica Bizzle Verrett

As with learning about anything, the first step is exposure. As educators, the best way to teach students about social media and all of its traps is through exposure and later on hands-on experiences. Thus, we want to show students examples of productive uses of social media and the negative uses of social media. An excellent way to determine whether any social media content is beneficial is by utilizing Turner and Hicks' acronym "MAPS" (Turner & Hicks, 2017, p. 13-14). MAPS stands for mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation. Below are screenshots of a Facebook post, comments included, that I have analyzed utilizing the acronym MAPS.

Snapshots of Facebook post
Collage created using Canva

To start with, the media used to produce this post was Facebook, whereas the overall mode of the post was informative. The post was published in a Facebook group created for 1st-grade teachers around the world, making the members of this group the audience. This group is utilized by its members to share information on the different aspects of teaching. The reason behind the creation of this group creates the situation for this post, to receive helpful information. The owner of this post is inquiring about the best way to teach reading groups utilizing digital resources. Thus the post's purpose was to receive guidance on how to teach reading groups online, while the comments' purpose was to offer that guidance.  When looking at the comments, one can see how, with each new reply, the information given is helpful and builds off the previous comments. If the user was replying to a particular response or asking an additional question, the user tagged the person they were referring too. This kept the information flowing up until the last comment was given.

Looking back over this post and how it lines up with Turner and Hicks's acronym MAPS, as an educator, I would utilize this post as a mentor text for creating inquiry posts on a social media site. However, having students view a successful social media post is only half of the lesson. After students come to understand what a successful post looks like, they must be allowed to create one themselves. Therefore, as educators, we must look for opportunities to utilize social media in the classroom. With older grades, this may come through having students create a blog, post questions on Twitter, or publish a webpage of their own with desired content. But what about the younger grades? As a 1st grade teacher, I would not want my students to utilize unsafe social media in my classroom. However, if one were to utilize an educational form of social media, such as Edmodo, then one is still exposing students to social media in a safer environment. Thus, allowing younger students to practice creating social media post, without the risk of them being exposed to harmful content.

Despite one's feeling for the use of social media, we are living in the digital age. Social media is growing more popular every day. Therefore, as educators, we must start to integrate it into the classroom as well. According to Chloe West (2019), "integrating the use of these into the classroom is more natural than before, given how acclimated many students are to them" (West, 2019, pp. 3). There are many other ways to utilize social media in the classroom if one can be creative. So the question is, would you use social media with your class?

Resources

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres. Portsmouth, 
      NH: Heinemann.

Turner, K., & Hicks, T. (2017) Argument in the real world: Teaching adolescents to 

      read and write digital texts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Verrett, J. B. (2017, August 30). Social media in the classroom [video]. Youtube. Retrieved
      from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76rWPnzrBl8
West, C. (2019, November 6). 12 Ways to use social media for education [Blog post]. Retrieved 

      from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-for-education

Promoting Positive Video Content in the Classroom

Video by: Common Sense Education

In this digital era, every student has watched at least one video online, frequently from YouTube. However, how often might students consider the content of the viewed video. In this day and era, one can never be sure what students are storing information while they are browsing the wide variety of videos offered online. Is the information correct or a misconception? Is it a fact or an opinion? Is it positive or negative? These are a few questions students are not considering when viewing online videos. As an educator, it is a scary thought to know that students are not paying attention to the content of the video, but instead are only interested in how "cool" it is. According to Hicks (2013), "we need to understand that anything they watch, purposefully or incidentally, can be a mentor text" (p. 107). This simple quote should make any educator stop and think about the videos they have shown to their students. As a teacher, I tend to preview any video I show beforehand. This is one way I monitor the information they are absorbing from online videos. I make a conscious effort only to promote positive content to my students, but what if we as educators take it a step further? After all, students should not merely watch a video; instead "they should also have something to say about it" (Higgin, 2018, par. 3). So, why not utilize the videos offered online to discuss how videos can construct a digital argument? Turner and Hicks(2017) state that "It is not that they are making a video; they are using the medium of video to make an argument" (p.84).  Perhaps if students understand that videos are a form of digital arguments, they may view each videos' content differently. Then students might move away from the mindset that a video's content should be "cool" and instead start to consider the overall message of the content. Once students realize that it is the message in the content that makes a video memorable, they will begin to contribute positively through their video productions. Of course, as educators, we must model this process ourselves.

Students watching videos on computers
By: Pxhere.com

At the beginning of this course, I recorded a short introduction video in my classroom containing information about myself. Before recording the video, I drafted out a few key points of information about myself that I wanted to include. However, I did not put the information in any particular order. In addition, the video was recorded during my break, which led me to rush the process of recording my video. Instead of allowing myself an unlimited amount of recordings, I only gave myself two chances to get the desired footage. When creating or viewing any digital argument, Hicks (2013) proposes using the acronym "MAPS"(p. 106). Hicks (2013) uses "MAPS" to stands for "mode, media, audience, purpose, and situation" (p. 106). Utilizing this acronym to review my video, I can say that there is room for improvement.

When recording the initial introductory video, I knew that the audience was going to be my classmates and the purpose was to introduce myself to them. Therefore I did not give much thought towards the professionalism displayed in the content past my appearance. While I was in my teacher's dress and recording in my classroom, the angle of the camera and how I presented the information I was providing about myself did not promote a professional appearance. For I was holding the camera myself at an awkward angle, and despite having an outline on what information I wanted to provide about myself, my thoughts were jumbled and led me to ramble throughout. Thus not making this video ideal to utilize to introduce myself to the parents of my students.

While the revision video displayed below is still not perfect, I do believe that it is a better model for how a digital argument should look. For this recording, I paid more attention to the overall quality of the video. I kept the audience in mind and created a better drawn out script as opposed to the notes I utilized in my initial introduction video. In addition, I provided myself with enough time to record the video as many times as needed to get the desired result. These small changes made a big difference in the overall appearance of the video. Thus, this experience has provided me with the background knowledge I need so that I can be of better service to my students when it comes to creating digital arguments with videos.

References

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres. Portsmouth, 
      NH: Heinemann.

Higgin, T. (2018, August 16). Using video effectively in the classroom. Common Sense 
      Education. https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/using-video-effectively-in-the-
      classroom

Turner, K., & Hicks, T. (2017) Argument in the real world: Teaching adolescents to 

      read and write digital texts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.