Blog Post – Pros & Cons of Social Media

This week we continued to discuss how we can use social media in the classroom. While there are many positive aspects to using social media there can also be some negative ones as well. It was really interesting to hear what everyone came up with, while most of them were similar there were definitely some that I hadn’t though about before.
                The ones that stuck out to me as potential problems in the an early years classroom were privacy, cyber bullying and of course distractions. The big worry I believe is privacy. It plays a huge role more for the parents than the actual students. Parents can be very worried about their child’s picture or name being put online so they may ask that their student is not captured in any pictures or written about in any kind of blogs. One thing I have heard of is explaining to parents that when you put the picture up of the student it will not include their name and visa versa. This protects their full identity becoming available online. Another solutions would be to have a private account for parents to follow to see what their kiddos are up to but not for anyone else to see.
                As for cyber bullying the only thing we can really do is just educate them on the consequences of cyber bullying and trying to instill empathy in our students. Explain to them that even if it is online it still hurts just as much as face to face and that we need to treat others with kindness. Lastly distractions can be a problem in any classroom activity, especially with young students, but adding in technology enhances that. I believe that if you take the time to develop expectations or a “contract” with the students for when they are using technology, then you can hold them accountable if they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing. Along with this also comes routine, the more you use technology in your classroom and make it part of their everyday, the less likely they will be to become distracted when they get the opportunity to use it.
                Some of the positive things about social media are of course helping students develop digital identity, which I have mentioned in previous blog posts, access to information and engagement. The one that I see as the most important is the access to information. With social media at their fingertips, they are able to see what is happening across the world at any given moment. They also have access to facts on different animals, ecosystems, countries and so much more. Students have so much information they can find, it is our job as educators to teach them how to differentiate between what is real and what is not. The other positive to social media is how engaging it can be. Students love technology and anytime it has been brought into my classrooms during placements the students have been so engaged and excited! Social media really is changing the way we teach, and I cant wait to see where it takes us in the future.