Social Media

I can remember back in 2008 when a friend of mine called me and asked why I was not on Facebook yet.  My response was, “What is Facebook?”  He laughed and chastised me saying, “Dude, you have never heard of Facebook?”  

He explained it was kind of like MySpace but not as cheesy.  I laughed and figured I would give it a try. 

Eight years and 868 friends later, I must say that rarely a day goes by when I have not checked my Facebook account.  I remember that initial surge of friend requests that came pouring in minutes after I created my account.   It was then that I began to realize the potential power of social media and networking.  All of a sudden, friends who I had not spoken to since grade school were reaching out to me to say hello.  I was reunited with family members that I hadn’t seen in decades.  My Uncle moved to Florida after some rough family issues he experienced here.  None of our family members knew where he moved to or what he was doing with his life.  We weren’t even sure he was still alive.  Until one day, I found him on a Facebook search.  Now, even though we still have not gotten back to person, we check in with each other once a month and follow each other’s status updates.  The power of social media in general is unbelievable. 

It could have the same effect within education.  I think it is frustrating that so many schools and teachers are hesitant to adopt social media in the classroom.   According to the  “University of Phoenix® College of Education survey conducted online by Harris Poll in April among 1,002 U.S. K-12 teachers finds only 13 percent of today’s K-12 teachers have integrated social media into classroom learning, with an overwhelming majority (87 percent) reporting they have not embraced social platforms.” I believe there is a reluctancy to adopt because teachers are naturally protective of their students.  When people can talk behind a keyboard they may say things that they wouldn’t say face to face.  This can open up the door to bullying and inappropriate comments.  Teachers don’t want to open up gateways that could lead to bigger issues.  Security is also a concern.  Parents and teacher wonder, who else can view the student’s information?  There is a fear out there that once something is posted on the web, it is always out there.  There is also an understandable fear that pedophiles may be lurking looking to impersonate other young kids and approach them online.  Social media has potential vulnerabilities from this perspective and therefore needs to be used with some caution.  However, many apps, such as Edmodo have created safe social media environments for education.  Teachers must give out codes to students for them to be able to access a virtual classroom.  Everything that is posted inside of Edmodo is monitored by the teacher just as it would be in a real classroom environment.  Edmodo is not unique.  There are many safe educational platforms for teachers to use.  I think educators, just need to get over the stigma that it is unsafe.  Once a safe environments is created, teachers are able to communicate with students and their parents like never before.  The potential pros that social media can bring to the classroom within a safe environment far outweigh the cons. 

Part of what I want to do as an Ed Tech consultant is to help open the eyes of educators who are hesitant to adopt technology and show them new ways to use social media, social photos and social videos,   According to an August 2015  press release from the University of Phoenix, one of the reasons teachers don’t implement technology within the classroom is because of a lack of tools and training.  “Almost all (95 percent) of K-12 teachers say they have had some level of training related to integrating technology in the classroom; however, more than half (62 percent) have had minimal or no training in the area of interacting with students and parents through social media. Nearly half (48 percent) of K-12 teachers express the desire to learn more about integrating technology into the classroom.” This is exciting to me because it means there is a lot of opportunity out there.  My goal is to help educators overcome the fear of technology and learn new and exciting ways to leverage technology to engage their students and make their jobs easier.  This will be challenging but one of the reasons I chose this major was because this was where my passion lies.