Incorporating Social Media into the Classroom

INCORPORATING SOCIAL MEDIA IN HISTORY AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

The common thought on incorporating social media into the classroom is that it would merely act as a distraction in the sense that the students’ attention would wane from the teacher and the content being taught, to the more interesting and exciting prospects Facebook, Twitter and SnapChat (among others) offer. This view is a rather negative one and can be seen as a complete myth. The reason for this is that social media can become a vital and extremely useful resource in the teaching of specific subjects. 

This is emphasized by Vicki Davis, who feels it is important to distinguish social media from the practice of socializing. According to her, if used appropriately, it could enhance the learning that takes place within the classroom and also introduce the students to what is currently happening in the world. It is also beneficial for teachers as they are also exposed to a broader context, thus allowing them to engage with other teachers in the field. She has therefore compiled 12 different ways in which social media is currently being used in the classroom (some of which I will mention with application to my specific subject areas).

Nicholas Provenzano agrees with Davis as he sees the use of social media as a tool to expand teaching and expanding the reach of learning to beyond the classroom. Admitting that he was at first hesitant about the use of social media in the classroom, he came to realize that it was also a means for the students to connect with others in the field of academics. In his opinion, applications such as Remind, Twitter and Instagram can play an instrumental role in the teaching as well as the learning of students. He also promotes the practice of blogging, as the comments of other students encourages the sharing of thoughts. 

With the guidance of Davis and Provenzano, it becomes a rather easy task to incorporate social media into the contexts of History and English Language teaching. For History specifically, online blogs, Twitter and YouTube will be particularly useful. The students can thus write blogs on the content presented in class and give feedback on each other’s work through commenting on the blogs or via Twitter. YouTube is useful in the sense that they can be exposed to other aspects of the subject area. English Language teaching can also benefit from blogging in the sense that the students can connect with each other and also others all over the world. 

Social Media is therefore the future of education and in my opinion, should be incorporated into the classroom right away!