Why Embrace Social Media in the Class Room?

Is social media in the class room relevant? I say yes, of cause it is relevant! Through the use of social media teachers can encourage learners to share work socially. Students can share their work on a variety of platforms and can evaluate each other's work. Both learners and teachers can use Twitter to tweet or post status updates, write blogs posts and reflect about their learning experiences, Facebook can be used to get feedback from learners and YouTube can be used by learners to host a show or podcast. These are only a few of many ways in which social media can be used in the class room. Social media can be used as an alternative way to communicate and it allows teachers to pass along information in ways that were not possible before. Social media knocks down the class room walls and lets learning happen anywhere and at any time. Often the quietest students in class speak the loudest on social media, social media is after all the youth's language.

If social media is so great and has all these advantages to it, why are so many teachers resistant to using social media in the class room? Well, many educators fear the unknown or fear that they need to be experts before they can implement something new. Or maybe they still feel that the traditional methods are still the best solutions to learning. Some feel so overwhelmed already with their workload; there just simply is not enough time to implement new techniques. It is very important for educators to trust that their learners are making the right choices and treat them as professionals.