The Role of Social Media in Education

What is the role that social media plays in education?

The use of social media has positive and negative effects for students, teachers and parents. This is very important to know, because these days we are being told over and over that social media is all bad, but, every negative comes with a positive!

Positive Effects

Good learning resource: It isn't all about followers and memes online, there are also a ton of accounts on various social media sites that are helpful for education. Sites like "twiducate" allow teachers to connect with their students and share information in a new, fresh way that can make important notes and documents easy for students to access. It also enables students to share their hard work with their teachers with just a click of a button. "The Wonderment" is a site that brings together students from all over the world. This gives students a broader understanding of the events going on in the world and can help them learn important life skills from each other such as empathy, and what it means to have a good work ethic. 

Easy to collaborate: Back in the day, group projects were a lot tougher than today, and it's all because of social media. Social media has given students a platform where they can communicate with each other without even leaving their house, and I know from experience how helpful that can be and how much quicker it is to get group projects done. It's also handy in case you might forget what your homework is or what page you have to work on, you can just flick someone in your class a text and you'll know in seconds, instead of not getting your work done just because you forgot what the homework was. 

Keeping parents in the loop: A lot of students tend to not tell parents about what's happening at school, but for parents, it's extremely important to know what's going on with their child's education. Social media provides a platform for parents to see what their kids are learning, as well as how they might be doing in their classes. This gives parents an honest, real look at what their children are up to instead of getting only half of the story; this can help parents make good, well thought out decisions for what's best for their child's education. It also allows teachers to form a good communication system with their student's parents. Even though we have parent-teacher interviews, sometimes the 15 or so minutes given aren't long enough to discuss everything. Teachers want the best for their students, and while they don't necessarily have the power to help make the student's decisions, their parents do and allow teachers to put their input into crucial life decisions.  

Make students more aware: It can be hard to motivate students, but, a good way to make them aware of some of the events going on in the world is the use of social media.  A lot of sites have areas where users can read the news, such as Buzzfeed and Snapchat. Knowing what's going on can help students develop qualities such as empathy, and being aware can also help you in making decisions such as job decisions and subject selections! Sometimes seeing something that is going on that you feel passionately about can put things into a different perspective.

Negative Effects

More Bullying: There has always been bullying, especially in schools, but now with social media, it's possible for the bullying to leave school grounds and enter student's safe spaces. 20 years ago, if a student was getting bullied, they probably got picked on at school but once they left it was all over, and bullying wasn't considered that bad then with the common belief that being roughed up a little builds character. However, these days cyberbullying has shed quite a lot of light on how being bullied can truly affect a young person.  

Less socializing: In this age of technology, it's very easy to get addicted to social media. While social media can help people connect, it also limits the amount of face-to-face time that people have with each other. Why leave the house and talk to your friend when you could just text them? Most people find it a lot easier to talk to their loved ones online than in real life, which is good for long-distance relationships, but it doesn't do anything for that individual's social skills. 

Less focus/ Lack of Sleep/ Using social media in class: It's already hard to get students focused on school, and social media doesn't help that. Social Media can distract students in a few ways, firstly using social media in class. A lot of students would much rather Keep up with the Kardashians than do their schoolwork, which won't help them at all in the long run. Obviously, if you're scrolling through Instagram while in class you're not going to be focused at the work at hand, this will promote a bad work ethic in the student, which will make it very hard for that individual to get a job in the future. Another thing, students would rather be using social media than sleeping. Teenagers need 9 to 9 and a half hours of sleep, but they're only getting 7 hours on average. Studies from professor Katherine Keyes at Columbia University show that as our world has developed in technology, teenagers have been getting less and less sleep. Even if students want to focus in class if they don't get enough sleep that won't be possible. 

  

Reading and writing skills will decline: Online, students tend to abbreviate words so they can send their message faster, unfortunately, this isn't good news for their reading and writing skills. If they just write an abbreviation of a word or phrase it won't teach them how to spell or pronounce that word, which can hurt their grades in tests and other assessments. They're also taught to rely on spell check which we, unfortunately, don't have for pen and paper. A lot of the time, spellcheck isn't even correct because it is normally told to spell words the American way, which won't help New Zealand students.  

So what is the role of social media in education?

The world has changed dramatically over the past few decades, and as we have entered the technology age society has been shaped like never before, and as society has changed, the education system has changed with it. I think it's safe to say that social media use in education comes with many positive and negative aspects; it's up to the student whether they choose to harness the assets of social media for their education, or let it distract them and therefore affect their grades, and social life.