Bold and Innovative Ways to Use Social Media in Lessons #EducationDay
People mistake social media for socialising. WRONG. People do socialise on social media, but that's just a tiny part of how we use social.
Social is used for learning, collaboration, productivity, writing, curation, entertainment, storytelling. Not just socialising with friends.
Students natively use social media to communicate, curate, and share ideas online.
As teachers, this gives you a great opportunity to increase their passion for learning. Giving access and implementing strong educational resources is a great way to engage students both inside and outside the classroom.
It’s important to incorporate your lesson materials using this new medium. It reaches students through a medium they use everyday. And it also chronicles all the tips, lessons and answers you provide in your stream.
Finding bold and innovative ways to use social media is a great way for your school to progress into this new generation. These are just a few ideas that you can infuse social media into your lesson plans to.
Using Snapchat for Quizzes
Schools are seriously misunderstanding Snapchat, and how people use it. Snapchat is trying to replace TV. It understands that people are moving away from tradition television into YouTube, Netflix, and other mobile channels.
Big media companies (Sky, Daily Mail, National Geographic) have set up their own channels on Snapchat because they understand that's where people are spending their time looking for entertainment.
Because of Snapchat's ephermal nature, teachers can use it for memory quizzes. Simply set the time (1-10 seconds) that you want the image or video to appear, and publish your story to Snapchat.
Here is an example of how you can use Snapchat in the classroom...can you guess these 10 capital cities?
Sharing Great Learning Resources
Use your school's social media feed to share facts about particular topics being taught. This tactic works for all types of classes.
Tweet interesting and helpful facts
Share an informative article via Facebook
Upload an infographic to Pinterest about a topic
These are just a few ways you can help your pupils learn using social media.
Curate Creative Arts on Pinterest
Pinterest is a great tool for curating images - and schools can adopt Pinterest to curate creative resources for art, design, technology, textiles, and more.
Boards can be set up for specific areas within these topics - architectural designs, pop-art, 19th century fashion etc.
Teachers can curate great examples, are share these within lessons.
Take a look at how Bedford Girls' School use their Pinterest board for art.
Encourage Students to Share Their Work
There’s a class on iTunes U from Penn State University entitled Art 10: Introduction to Visual Studies. After each lesson, the virtual students had to evaluate each other’s work. To accomplish this task, they turned to Twitter.
Your students can take a similar approach. Have them come up with a hashtag for the class. Then use that throughout the year for collaboration on projects.
Answer Questions from Students
Sometimes homework leaves students stumped and confused.
But thanks to the emergence of social media, teachers can provide answers and information throughout the evening. Setup a classroom Twitter account that students can use to ask questions about their assignments.
They can include the Twitter handle, then write the question.
For example, a math student could attach a picture of their equation and ask the teacher if they had gotten it correct. Not only does this help students learn, but it gives shy students a platform to speak up. Some may never speak out in class, but they won’t hesitate to engage online.
Learning Blogs
Blogs are just a way for schools to write, collect, and curate ideas - it's nothing scary! In fact, it can be inspiring.
Take a look at how Surbiton High School have created a beautiful learning space for their pupils (and the world!).
View the blog at learn.surbitonhigh.com.
Anybody in the world can arrive at this space on the web and learn from the inspiring teachers at Surbiton High.
All schools have inspiring teachers and pupils. Why are their stories not being shared?
Do you have any other ideas for how teachers can use social media? If so, share your idea in the comments below! We’d love to hear any innovative thoughts you may have!