Social Media and Elementary Students
Reading Can Public Education Co-exist with Participatory Culture? by Elizabeth Losh and Henry Jenkins I thought more about the struggles teachers are facing with weather to embrace things like social media in the classroom. I have received the feeling that it is not very acceptable in my elementary school while just about every other form of technology is widely accepted and improved in my district. I went in search of more experiences by teachers in the field and their use of social media with Elementary Students. After all I feel that the younger we start teaching the appropriate use and tools it can provide the better these students will use it as teenagers. I came across the following article:
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/introducing-social-media-lower-elementary-beth-holland
Perhaps it was how she began her article that it caught me.
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/introducing-social-media-lower-elementary-beth-holland
Perhaps it was how she began her article that it caught me.
"Let me begin this post by saying, "I agree."
I agree that students should have recess and play outside.
I agree that young children need to interact in a face-to-face setting.
I agree that it is developmentally critical to engage with paper, paint, blocks, crayons and even the dirt on the ground, because elementary students need to experience the physical world."
I agree that it is developmentally critical to engage with paper, paint, blocks, crayons and even the dirt on the ground, because elementary students need to experience the physical world."
I think far too often parents and some people in general feel that if there is this large embrace of the use of social media especially in the classroom that it is giving their children even more screen time and doing some sort of harm. However it can be quite the contrary. It all depends on how it is used. In the above article the 3 whys of using social media with young children is as follows:
1. Extends the classroom-Using social media such as Twitter classrooms can connect and share work and information with other classrooms all over the world.
2. Connected and Empowered Learners- Students are able to have more control in their own learning and peers learning without needing so much adult filtering.
3. Getting Started: Developing a voice-Teachers are able to give students the building blocks and then the student can start to develop a healthy use of social media.
I think one things is clear in both Holland's article and Jenkin's is that strong adult support is crucial to the healthy development of technology use in young people. Teachers and parents have the ability to provide this for young children. We can see technology and social media will only improve and change so I feel it is important we start to embrace as many of them as possible and help mold a positive use of them.
Yes, I agree that teachers can help students give students the building blocks and support to navigate social media effectively. I also like the idea that students can be empowered to control their own learning and expand their knowledge. Like you noted, it is still difficult to determine the best way to integrate social media into the classroom. Despite the benefits as noted before, there is also the worries by families and the district as a whole that we are opening students up to potential dangers. In addition, not every guardian may be comfortable with their child publishing information online and engaging with people outside the school community. As a result, there still seems to be little consensus as to how we should approach the topic.
ReplyDeleteThere are great examples (including teachers who have done this course in the past) of teachers being really well informed about what they want children to do in their classroom, why those things are important, and then how to ensure that children's privacy will be protected. Working with families over several weeks before project starts, with plenty of time for questions and concerns to be addressed, these teachers have been able to launch projects that students and their families have seen as valuable and educative. "doing social media" is never a good idea". Sharing writing with peers in distant places is one example of a more focused and valuable goal. Having a class twitter account to communicate with scientists and authors is also becoming more common. We do much more of this work in next quarter's course :)
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