Use of social media in classrooms

Social media comprises of activities that involve socializing and networking online through words, pictures and videos. Social media is redefining how we relate to each other as humans and how we as humans relate to the organizations that serve us. It is about dialogue – two way discussions bringing people together to discover and share information. The figure below shows example of such media tools.

Ideas for use in teaching

Blogs have become a central tool for academic research and for teaching and learning over the last five years. Many programs require students to blog reflectively on their progress throughout a course and submit this as graded work. These blogs provide a great space for reflection, for recording progress with academic readings and developing ideas, and for discussion with peers from the wider world.

In schools, there are greater risks to address in terms of privacy and access to resources but there is also huge potential for innovation. The award winning "I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here!" initiative (see Resources) used a talent show format to connect practicing scientists with school children. Over the course of two weeks, social media tools such as YouTube and real-time chat tools enabled school children to ask any science question, which was then answered by a research scientist within 24 hours. The students voted for their favorite scientist throughout the show and the winning scientist won a small grant to further their research.

A number of sites are also experimenting with entirely new ways to teach that takes inspiration from, or connects with, social media. The Khan Academy (see Resources) is one of the most interesting of these. The site is a free learning space combining specially produced videos, practice tasks, and instructor tools with game-like progression and achievement badges that can be shared through email or social media sites. The Codeacademy (see Resources) is another innovative self-led learning site focusing on making programming skills interactive and accessible. These types of sites build upon the wider Open Educational Resources (OER) movement that supports the open sharing and reuse of learning materials and materials in the public domain (see Resources).