6.1 Social Media Reflection

1. What is your opinion about using social media in the classroom - any social media such as Facebook (Fakebook), Instagram, SnapChat - not just (but including) Twitter.

In my opinion, using social media in the K-12 classroom does indeed decrease the seriousness of the learning environment, and bleeds together the personal/professional line in a way that is unnecessary at best and dangerous at worst. 

2. Do you use social media in your classroom?  If yes - Share how you have leveraged any social media platform or strategy with your students.  Include the successes, level of engagement, and issues that arose. How might you change the activity for the next iteration? If no - Please explain why not. Share an activity you might try with your students and tell us why it would be engaging and the obstacles you might face.

I have never used social media with students at my job. Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to have social media accounts. TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Pinterest, YouTube, Snapchat, and Facebook all have mechanisms designed to keep children under the age of 13 from making accounts. These companies have made these restrictions in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which is designed to protect children from the collection and selling of their personal information to advertisers. This means that children in Kindergarten through 8th grade would not be able to use these websites at all. I have no plans to utilize these programs at my K-8 schools. While children over the age of 13 are permitted to use social media, many require the use of a smartphone or tablet, which poses a socioeconomic problem. The problems that social media can cause for children in middle school and high school are prevalent and studies suggest that the increase of social media use has coincided with increased self-harm and suicide ideation among young people under the age of 18. In my opinion, opening the door to social media in the classroom is an unnecessary can of worms. 

3. How has the move to remote and blended learning affected your view on peer to peer (colleague to colleague) communication and collaboration? How does the use of social media potentially fit into this new scope?

Both my schools have Facebook accounts where they share information with parents about school events, snow days, and fundraising opportunities. This information is intended for communication with parents, not with students.

While these resources focus on classroom utilization, apply the concepts to your learning environment - does it decrease professionalism or seriousness or possibly inappropriately blur the lines between professional and personal? 

While there are some good ideas shared in our readings this week of ways to integrate learning and social media, I think one benefit of the move to remote and blended learning has been high quality programs that are designed for students to share their learning with one another, teachers, and parents, in a safe way. Programs such as SeeSaw are designed to hold portfolios of student work, allow for comment and interaction from parents, teachers, and fellow students, while maintaining the privacy and protections of students. Of course, these programs are not free and schools that use them will need to plan in advance and budget accordingly.