Social Media in the Classroom

Many people have mixed feelings about using social media in the classroom.  Teachers everywhere are incorporating sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger to educate their students.  Some people worry that there are to many risks in using social media in the classroom.  Guildford County Schools in North Carolina has some rules for their teachers regarding social media in the classroom.  Some of their rules include:

• Do not have personal relationships with students or their parents
• Do not write about, use video or a picture, of a student or colleague without their permission
• Make sure you keep your personal and professional social media accounts separate
• Do not post anything that is considered inappropriate on your page
• Keep in mind that you are always representing your school district

Teachers are held to very high standards when using social media in the classroom.  They must be extremely careful in what they post, and where they post it.  Teachers must take the school district, and their representation into consideration when they post a picture or a comment on social media.  If a teacher post something inappropriate about the school district, their students, or a colleague the school can use disciplinary measures against the teacher.  All of these guidelines created by the school district are put in place to help the students.

In years past students have been taught the social media of their time.  Students were taught how to write proper thank you notes, use proper telephone etiquette, and how to properly construct an email.  These things were taught to students at a young age to introduce the idea, not to use it as a main teaching technique.  Teachers across the country, and the world, have started to introduce social media into the classroom.

Ms. Wideen's grade 1/2 students have been using social media in their classroom to interact with other classrooms across the country.  Students use twitter and other social media sites to discuss classroom content and ask questions.

An example of using social media in the classroom would be Ms. Cassidy's classroom.

References
Holland, B. (2013, Jun 18). Introducing Social Media to Elementary Students. Edutopia.com. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/introducing-social-media-lower-elementary-beth-holland

tvoparents. (2013, May 21). Using Social Media in the Classroom [video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno

[Untitled image from laptop]. (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://www.mediavisioninteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/shutterstock_193510199.jpg