Techniques of how social media can be used in the classroom

“Social media is here. It's just another resource and doesn't have to be a distraction from learning objectives. Social media is another tool that you can use to make your classroom more engaging, relevant and culturally diverse”.

These are the words of Vicki Davis, a digital pedagogue enthusiast. As I read her article “A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom”, along with the article “Social Media Can Be Your Ally “written by Nicholas Provenzano, I realised that there are thousands of ways in which social media can be used in the classroom to enhance the learning experience of students. And as a future South African teacher, specialising in accounting and business studies, I thought some of these social media techniques could come in handy in my class next year.

The following few techniques have come to my mind as I was thinking about which techniques I can use to improve accounting and business studies by using social media. I came to the conclusion that these are two difficult subjects and that I should use different methods of social media, in such a way as to improve the learners ability to learn. So I have come up with the following ideas:

•          Learners can tweet on the work that they have done in class and their peers can comment on their tweets or ask questions and start a conversation on how they understand the work. Learners can also ask each other about their views on the work.
•          Learners that are shy can use twitter during class time to ask questions and to get answers from peers or from the teacher.   
•          Learners can engage with each other and with the teacher after school by using facebook or twitter to ask questions if they are unsure of something and especially the day (or night) before a test or handing in a project.
•          A teacher posting a comment on social media benefits all as every learner can get access to the same information and parents can also view the post and carry the message over to their children. This saves the teacher a lot of time as responding to each and every email takes up time and effort and it’s usually the same questions that get asked over and over again.
•          When learners post tweets and comment about what they have learned in class, parents can view it and see if their child is keeping up with the workload. This is also a good means of comparing their child to the rest of the class to see whether the child’s progress is on standard. If they notice that the child is struggling, they can arrange for extra help at a very young age.
•          Learners can be given a task of writing a blog every second week on their thoughts of how they feel about the subject, what they have learned and with what they are struggling. The teacher- that would be me- and their peers would be able to comment on their blogs and maybe give advice or ask similar questions. This is also a great place where parents would be able to track the progress of their child.
•          A group can be formed on facebook where the whole grade can join in as to check up on how the other classes of, for example accounting, are progressing and whether they are doing the same things in class and whether their teacher might have mentioned a better way of understanding or had given a better example for something. 
•          Teachers can also share information with each other on social media about their subject content or even just on ways of disciplining ones class that have proved to be working.
•          Learners can be asked to make a YouTube video on different sections of the work and their peers will be responsible for commenting on their video, to give ideas for improvement and to criticise their video by using valid statements.
•          Homework tasks will be put on platforms such as twitter and facebook so that learners can quickly go back to check if all their homework is done for the day.
•          A social problem can also be addressed by using something such as an accounting project to let learners create an idea on blogger for a fundraiser and to set up a budget for the event. The most popular idea (voted by people from outside and their peers) will win a prize and the idea will be practically implemented to raise money for a social issue.
•          Instagram can also be used to gather pictures (maybe one picture per week) to compile a project on their idea of the micro-, market- and macro environment in business studies.

These are all wonderful ideas that will excite the children and enhance their learning experience, but it is rather important to note that parents are very protective over their children and some parents wouldn’t want their children to be posting and tweeting on social media. For this reason one has to make sure it is soci

ally acceptable to connect online with the learners and the parents must also be aware that their child and his/her teacher are connected on social media. An easier and perhaps more acceptable forms of social media for children are ones such as Edublogs, Kidblog and edmodo or Faketweet. These sites will expose children to the online society but without putting the child in danger. As you progress in teaching your learners about social media, you will also be able to teach then about the dangers and the effects of using social media in the wrong way. This will prevent children from making mistake later in their life- which could cause them to lose their job.  

Digital Pedagogy VS Online teaching

In a recent article I read written by Sean Michael Morris, there was a dispute about whether digital pedagogy and online teaching is the same thing. He concluded his article by saying that the answer to this question was NO.

I think when most people hear digital pedagogy, they think that it means learning through technology, and this is most definitely not the case! Online teaching is nothing but a mere method of teaching, as is teaching a subject in a classroom is, with the only difference being the fact that it is available on the internet and that you might have never met your “online teacher”. According to Morris (2013), teachers are not yet ready to teach online and I fully agree with him. Firstly, online teaching- the way in which it is set up at this stage- is not interactive at all and no learner will receive any better education than what they will receive in most classrooms. A learner’s engagements in classrooms with fellow students are also not limited to academic interaction but also to learn about each other’s cultures and ways of doing things. We do learn a lot from our fellow classmates by going to school and learn how to become a citizen in our community. Now none of this can be learned by watching a few YouTube videos. Another important point is that with online tests, it is difficult to determine whether a student has learned as tests are online and the info can be searched.

Now back to the digital pedagogy. Digital, in digital pedagogy, means to make use of electronic elements. This means that technology is used as a mere tool to enhance the learning process. Pedagogy, on the other hand, is the instantaneous, momentary, vital exchange that takes place between both a learner and a teacher or between two learners. It also means to teach in such a way so that learners are willing to open-up themselves for lifelong learning as they will engage with each other and with their subject content. They will be willing to learn as they would enjoy what they are doing and the teacher will entertain them by practising different types of digital pedagogy as to keep the learning experience enjoyable.

Finally, to become pedagogues is not something that usually happens overnight. It is a process that one has to go through and there are no available resources that can teach one how to master this skill. It is something which you will learn through experience and through daily practice. In a second article written by Jesse Stommel, she says: “The digital pedagogue teaches her tools and doesn’t let them teach her. So you must use what is available and not looking only at the available technology, but looking at the ways in which they can creatively be used in a classroom.

I hope this helps you to notice the difference between online teaching and digital pedagogy as well as the difference between using technology and practicing digital pedagogy.  

“Teaching without digital technology is an irresponsible pedagogy”

“Technology is NOTHING. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them” – Steve Jobs

As I read an article written by Fyfe (2011) I could relate to the fact that we live in an ever changing world and with the technology growing so rapidly, we need to incorporate it in every aspect of life. Even more so, we need to use it to our advantage in our workspace! That’s why we- as teachers- should also jump on the technology wagon and steer our learners to be technologically equipped.

The quote by David Parry that states: “Teaching without digital technology is an irresponsible pedagogy” is a very true and very real fact. Technology is part of the way in which learners grow up these days and iPads, tablets, smartphones and laptops can be found in almost every learner’s backpack. They live in a time where technology is the key to their future, and yet still, we as teachers fight with them to leave their electronic devices at home. As the teachers of the future, we should be the ones encouraging learners to engage with all the technology options which is available to them. We should teach learners about social media, about the internet and about how to access information in an easy way! If technology is the language that learners understand, then why not use it to teach them? And by technology I’m not only referring to power points and pictures on the board, but rather to interactive whiteboards, to giving them tasks in class where they can do research on their devices and to  let them engage with each other, to ask questions and to think critically about what they have found.

Resources such as YouTube videos can also play a critical role in education as concepts and real life situations are regularly better understood by practical examples. A video, for example on the working of a human heart, will add much more value to a learner’s understanding than reading a bunch of difficult concepts in a textbook. Other forms of technology should also be employed such as podcasts, social media and skype.  We have all these astonishing information and tools at the tips of our fingers, so why not use it to its full potential?