How Can Teachers Use Social Media in Schools for Learning Purposes?

Social media has proliferated the world of communication and has made an impact in every industry it has touched. Inevitably, education has also been influenced deeply by the presence of social media.

How can social media add to traditional classroom teaching and learning resources? We have put together a list of how teachers use social media in schools for learning purposes.

Using Facebook for Alerts and Reminders

Can teaching be enhanced by social media? By all means, Facebook proves that it can. In mainstream schooling, assignment details are communicated only once by teachers. Students have only these as resources.

Teachers now use Facebook pages to update assignment details and give students alerts about any changes. Students can now ask questions. Parents are also kept in the loop. Together, it makes for easy communication across an accessible medium for teachers, students, and parents.

Using Facebook for Live Streams

Want to introduce a prolific speaker to your class? Perhaps you simply want to be able to reach your students in real-time over the holidays. In comes Facebook Live and other streaming platforms to get students engaging in lectures over the web.

Students can interact online and a video copy of your interactions remains online for anyone to access. From parents to other educators, you can make these live streams an education resource for all. It is also an excellent way to connect to classrooms across the globe and enable global learning initiatives.

Getting Creative with Social Media

With the introduction of multimedia through social media, students have the freedom to engage in creative projects in real-world scenarios. Teachers are now using Instagram and other visual applications to get students to curate images and photo essays that promote creative learning.

How can teachers go about this? Get your students to create Instagram accounts specific to your class. They can post their work and assignments on it. Once the course has ended, students can delete the account or continue with it if they like. The method also promotes personal expression and gives students more autonomy in classrooms.

Create an Online Resource for a Class

When you think of curating content, Pinterest is a great option. How do teachers promote peer-learning using Pinterest? Give your class access to a Pinterest board that they can pin content to each time they find any useful content, they can pin it to the board.

The content remains on the board and all students from your class can access the board. The activity promotes collaboration and can lead to a wealth of resources. Teachers may also choose to carry over a few content pieces and share them with the next batch that takes their course.

Concluding Thoughts

There is more to social media than previously thought. It can be used in education to cover needs from marketing to sales, and even education. By incorporating social media in classrooms, teachers expose students to a world of creative learning that can be very beneficial.