Social Media in a Classroom - Thing 14

   After reading the interesting article How Should Social Media be Taught in Schools by Matt Renwick  I found what he says to be very true. If teachers model appropriate behavior when using social media in front of their students, students will realize the value of an audience with regard to posting their projects. This value allows for a purpose to their writing. The students begin to take ownership of their work when they see that others are reading and commenting on their writing. This gives them a motivation to publish their best work. After all, we are often our own worst critics.

I introduced KidBlog to my class rather late in the school year, but I was very interested in implementing it and I knew my class was ready. I read what others had done to introduce blogging to their primary students and modeled how to do write an appropriate blog post. We discussed etiquette, writing kind comments and purposeful comments to others - ask questions, show you are interested. By modeling this on a whole class blog post a couple of times a week, the class slowly understand what was expected of them.

At first, I just didn't get Twitter. I thought it was just social media for friends. However, I started to read various articles about expanding my PLN (Personal Learning Network  -which at first I had no earthly idea what these 3 letters meant!) for education purposes.  Then, in the Spring, I decided to see what all the hubbub about Twitter was - I  joined and began connecting with other teachers slowly and since, have learned amazing things about opening up my classroom, making connections with other teachers, learning about what others are doing. I also saw that classrooms actually had their own Twitter accounts. At first I wasn't sure, but after reading how other classrooms in grade one were using Twitter, I thought, why not? So, come this fall, I will set up a Twitter account for my classroom.  I will model and explain to my students why we will use Twitter and how we will use it to communicate with not only our families about what we are learning and sharing our work, but also to other classrooms around the world that may be interested in reading what we are doing and maybe even want to connect with us in some way.

Classroom 2.0 is incredible site where educators can connect with each other within specific topics of interest.  I have only just joined, but already I am excited to browse through and read about some of the topics.

Again, when we use social media appropriately, it is such a powerhouse of a tool.  I strongly encourage you to try it out, if you have not yet taken the plunge.