Using Social Media enhance Education and Build Communites

It’s no secret social media is transforming the world. Facebook has more users then some small countries. It is also the first stop of the day for many people. Social media is now changing education, and how students are taught. There have been many critics of using social media in the classroom, calling it a distraction. Some schools have gone as far as to ban all social media sites on campuses.

Then there are schools that are embracing it, they are using sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and others to enhance classroom discussion, and engage discussion. These schools are embracing the community aspect of social media and building virtual classroom communities, for students, alumni, parents, and prospective students.

Tweeting the Classics

Steve Rayburn, a teacher at the University Laboratory High School, had his students read Dante’s Divine Comedy. His assignment called “ Twitter in Hell” required students to read the classic and write 140 character tweets describing each level in hell as if they were Dante writing to Beatrice. This assignment not only required that students read the assignments but also got them excited about it, and thinking about what they would post.

Virtual tutors

Marquette University is using Skype to teach Spanish to English-learning counterpart from South America and engages in frequent webcam chats with their digital pen-pal. Professor Janet Banhidi claims that by using Skype each student gets an authentic experience and has access to their own personal tutor.

Other schools are also embracing video conferencing for the use of virtual field trips. These virtual trips are giving students a chance to visit museums, zoos, and other distant places all from their classroom. Pennsylvania’s Mt. Lebanon School District was able to offer its middle school students a chance to see a volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.

The Twitter Experiment

University of Texas at Dallas Professor Monica Rankin uses twitter in her history class lectures. Each year Rankin sets up twitter accounts for her 300 students and uses Twitter to encourage classroom participation. She assigns hashtags for each lecture which is included on the syllabus.

Stanford University

Stanford University uses its fan page on Facebook as the ultimate resource for students. Students have access to faculty and student projects and can get inspiration for their own projects there. The university has multiple pages, making it easy to locate information on the Green Library, hospital and a number of the colleges and departments. Stanford University also offers Facebook office hours, at which time faculty is available to answer questions on Facebook. Students (fans) post questions to the wall for a specific faculty member and that faculty member answers the questions during his/her assigned “office hours” via video or the wall. Stanford’s online office hours do not replace in person office hours at the university, but they do make it easier for students to find answers to questions quickly, without leaving their dorm room.

There are many tips available on how to incorporate social media into classrooms. Below is list of resources from some popular sources.

100 Inspiring ways to use social media in the classroom

4 Tips for Integrating Social Media