Social Media in the Classroom

Social media is currently one of the preferred methods of communication for teens.  Teachers can take advantage of their students' interest in social media platforms by incorporating them into classroom activities.  Services like Facebook and Twitter can be used to engage students in collaboration and conversations about their learning.  However, since students use these applications in their personal lives, they may be reluctant to share their online identities with their teachers and mix school with their social lives.  Additionally, many parents do not allow their children to use these social networking sites and may be reluctant to allow their child to sign up for a public site like Facebook for school purposes.  An alternative to these mainstream social networking sites are services like Edmodo and My Big Campus.  They are structured like mainstream social networking sites but are designed specifically for schools.  Teachers and students can set up profiles, communicate with each other, and share resources in a space that does not allow access to the general public.  Parents may be more at ease allowing their children to participate in these social networking sites that are specific to school settings.