Social media in the classroom. Say what????

When I was at school many many moons ago, social media did not even exist. Almost all of us had those blue and grey/white nokia 3310's and Mxit just became a thing.  Now look at me, I'm blogging and Tweeting for Pete's sake! This has sure been an interesting life so far but sometimes I feel like I'm just not wired the same as the 90's kids who grew up in much more advanced technological times. I drag my feet when it comes to jumping on the bandwagon concerning technology, but I must admit by experiencing it first hand in this class, I cannot and will not deny the value in it.

Having read Davis and Provenzano's helpful suggestions on how to use social media in your classroom, I feel a new sense of excitement for next year when we all go out into the big bad world and have our own classrooms full of eager learners which we are supposed to somehow both inspire and educate (shivers down my spine). 

Using social media in my subjects, English, History and Life Orientation seems like a wonderful tool to engage with your learners and inspire and motivate beyond the classroom. In English we can use social media in various ways. You can let the learners form groups and record them acting out certain parts of a prescribed text/play, then post it on a protected social media site and let them comment on each others work. Or let them blog about things that are happening at school, in the media, in class, the community and so on. By doing this you are enhancing both reading and writing skills and stimulating critical thinking as well. You can also share interesting and relative literature on a social media platform for those who are interested.  

In History, a helpful social media tool might be Instagram, using pictures of historic figures and buildings to enhance understanding of certain concepts. The learners can also blog some of their critical essays, and get their peers’ opinions before handing in their final essays. They can also use social media to create groups where you share certain shared views.
Most of the above can be applied in Life Orientation as well. You as a teacher can also use social media like twitter to announce homework or assignments and to remind the learners of due dates or just to encourage them by sending them something inspirational or motivational.

The above mentioned, is discussed very, very briefly, I would love to ramble on about this for pages and go into detail about the various ways in which social media can be incorporated in the classroom, but alas...I would just like to mention that even though this is exciting and I would definitely like to make use of social media next year and every year after that, there are some pitfalls that we as teachers should also be aware of such as potential violation of the teachers and the learners’ privacy and school regulations.   If you can avoid these, social media in the classroom is the way to go!