Social Media in the Classroom

by Lisa Shurtz

Social media needs to become an integrated part of a teacher’s pedagogy in today’s US high schools.  We are teaching the first generation who have been influenced by the internet and technology from the day they were born.  These Digital Natives construct their social and cultural identity through social media (Churcher, Downs, & Tewksbury).  By incorporating Facebook, blogs, and wikis into the classroom, we create a learning pathway that interests the students, activates prior knowledge, and can even remain with them after they leave the classroom setting.  Once students are interested in what we are teaching, they are then able to develop the cognitive skills of critical thinking, reflection, and thoughtful dialogue.  These skills are also essential for successful careers.  Most companies want employees who can collaborate, be creative, and solve problems in order to develop a competitive advantage in the marketplace.  High school students are capable of developing these skills while learning new academic concepts and using social applications that are an integral part of their lives outside of school.

Why Incorporate Social Media?

   We are living in a rapidly evolving world of social media, and many students are better versed in these than their teachers. Today, Facebook has over one billion active users (www.facebook.com); Twitter has over 300 million active users (www.twitter.com); and there are well over 100 blogs in existence globally (Wikipedia).  According to a 2010 Pew Research Center study, 93% of US teens (ages 12-17) and young adults (ages 18-29) are online, and 73% of those teens use social networking (Churcher, Downs, & Tewksbury).  Within the smaller population of higher education faculty, Seaman and Tinti-Kane revealed that 70% of faculty actively use social media, but only 41% incorporate it into their teaching (Blaschke).  All of these statistics indicate that educators need to become more familiar with the various social media applications, actively use them in their daily lives, and then effectively introduce them into the classroom.  Active use may involve learning from the students.  While some teachers shy away from relinquishing control of the learning process to the students, in this case, student control does not threaten the teacher’s authority.  Instead, it allows students to learn how to instruct, to better understand how others learn, and to educate someone older than them, which although potentially uncomfortable will be necessary in the working world.  Success in this endeavor can also boost a student’s self-confidence in the classroom.  Some educators are concerned that students will focus more on their personal activities on social media rather than the academic activities.  Are they concerned that, when in groups, students chat more about their social lives than discuss the academic topic at hand?  No.  They have observed that group discussion is an effective collaboration and learning tool, so they incorporate into their teaching toolbox.  Social media can be incorporated in the same manner.  

How Should We Incorporate Social Media?

Facebook, blogs and wikis can be incorporated into the classroom to complement lectures, readings, videos, and interactive learning.  The key to successful incorporation is choosing the right social media tools to support the learning objectives and academic subject matter and the ones that students are competent using.  We move beyond successful incorporation if we can also link what they are learning to life outside the classroom and learning beyond their high school careers.  

Teachers can create a Facebook group for each of their classes and invite students to post articles and information on various topics, to react to a statement or question about the literature they are studying, and to help students further connect with each other.  For example, the teacher can post a question to the group and allow the groups to ask clarifying questions and comments.  Students can also post examples of key concepts and terms related to what they were learning in class.  Churcher, Downs, & Tewksbury studied these activities in a classroom and asked the students about what they learned.  When surveyed about group learning and sharing diverse viewpoints, 90% of the students responded that they learned more about their classmates’ opinions and 50% believed they learned more because they actively participated in the Facebook exercises.  Their comments included that it made them think about how different people interpret different messages, how people interact with each other (because they don’t talk to each other in class), and how people were able to share their views on controversial topics in a safe and educational manner.  In addition, they found that students corrected each other and clarified points to help those that posted incorrect or incomplete information.  Communicating in a safe environment in school prepares students to collaborate with others and share their viewpoints to ensure that all voices are heard even after they leave the classroom and move into adulthood.  

Facebook is a good tool for teachers to use to connect classroom learning to “real world” experience.  Simply posting articles that relate the discussion topic to a current event can illustrate how relates to real events.  As the students use Facebook to read the articles and delve more into the topics, they may not even realize they are developing the critical skills needed for their future.  Instead, they simply see a familiar tool supplementing their classroom learning.

Wikis and blogs are effective tools for generating creativity and encouraging collaboration.  They can also be used for classroom projects and student resumes for colleges or jobs after high school.  Research studies offer strong examples of implementing wikis and blogs in very different ways in the classroom and still achieving successful results.  In one study, a professor instructed the students to create their own final exam and, in doing so, evaluated the collaborative learning environment and its effect on knowledge retention (Churcher, Downs, & Tewksbury).  Upon completion of the exam, students were asked to respond to an anonymous survey.  They mentioned that they knew the information better through the collaboration and exam-development approach.  The instructor was also positive about the results, which included active learning through social media collaboration and discursive interaction between students where they learned from each other.  In another study, Blaschke used an e-portfolio to test how social media affected the development of cognitive and meta-cognitive skills in the classroom and those skills that could be used in the workforce.  Students were asked to create a wiki or blog to be used as an e-portfolio that contained a reflective learning journal and artifacts to capture the students’ academic achievements and reflections on them. The e-portfolios were intended to encourage critical thinking, creativity, and reflection.  After surveying the students, Blaschke found that “over 70% of the students agreed that the tools helped them construct new knowledge, reflect on and better understand course context and their individual learning process, as well as give them skills they could use in their work environment.”  One of the most interesting studies asked students to describe and illustrate their biographical information, such as hometown, extracurricular activities, and family, in a package for colleges and universities to access (Moody).  High school seniors were able to highlight their job skills, strengths, aspirations, goals and internships for recruiters and potential employers as well as the colleges and universities.  Moody found that “this project cultivates creativity, builds on previous assignments, and prepares students for future jobs.”  It allows the students to develop the skills of collaborating with and managing others beyond just gaining academic knowledge.

Wikis and blogs allow teachers to see what the students really think and feel.  They can see student creativity because wikis and blogs are fairly open to narrative and illustrative interpretation and ingenuity.  Students can respond in a manner that plays to their strengths and allows them to communicate in their most effective way.  They problem solve as they put together their e-portfolios and projects because they have to make decisions about what to highlight, what to omit, and how to incorporate their ideas.  When assigned collaborative work, they also learn how to work with others, approach assignments from different perspectives, and incorporate various views in the final product.

What is the Impact Beyond the Classroom?

By incorporating social media into the classroom alongside other learning tools, teachers can prepare students for life beyond their classrooms.  Social media can help teach creativity, problem solving, and collaboration.  Those skills are not only required in the classroom, but they are also successful criteria for employees in the workforce.  If we examine the corporate values of four Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies, they all have similar qualities and skills required in their employees.  These are also skills that students can apply to any endeavor they pursue after high school.  For example, teachers and artists need creativity.  Athletes and sales associates leverage collaboration and teamwork to be successful.  Soldiers and farmers adapt on a daily basis to their changing environments.  The student e-portfolio in Moody’s study allowed students to be creative in expressing themselves, their interests, and their experiences.  The visual composition skills can be used in presenting marketing campaigns, corporate strategies, and new products for companies.  Wikis and Facebook help students problem-solve as they answer questions or build exams much like they consider company data and sales statistics to adjust a product or sell to a targeted group of consumers.  All three social media tools easily facilitate collaboration.  Students work together much like they do in traditional group discussions.  They share their views, ask critical questions, and provide feedback to each other.   This collaboration teaches them to respect others’ ideas, work together, and produce what is best for the corporation as a whole.  The added benefit is their knowledge of social media use in the learning environment and their personal lives.  That knowledge can be an advantage in the corporate world where social media is an important pillar of business and marketing plans.  All of these skills can be taught in the classroom alongside the academic knowledge that we share with our students.  

Table – Cognitive Skills in Fortune’s Top Companies (per their websites)

Conclusion

Social media promotes collaboration, creativity, and classroom discussion amongst students.  They interact verbally and in writing.  This collaboration leads to discussions that lead to creative thinking.  When the students apply their knowledge in this manner, the information that emerges from the collaboration can be greater than the sum of its parts.  By critically engaging with our students using common tools, we provide them the crucial interactions needed to prepare them for the world beyond the classroom.  However, we must remember that social media is not the only tool we should have in our box of pedagogy.  “Students today still consider technology basically a tool in the classroom and continue to appreciate interpersonal interaction with teachers, in-class presentations, and, most importantly, real-world applicability to course content” (Flippin-Winn).  It serves to compliment the written text, lectures, role play, and other teaching methods.  As teachers, we have to strike the right balance between all of these tools, and we may use different tools for different groups of students.  Our challenge is to find ways to connect with them through what they already know and what they are interested in so that we can then fill them with more skills and knowledge.  Those connections and the growth that the students experience will certainly help them succeed long after they leave our classrooms.

Works Cited

Blaschke, Lisa Marie. (2014) Using social media to engage and develop the online learner in self-determined learning.  Research in Learning Technology. Vol. 22.

Churcher, Kalen M. A., Downs, Edward, & Tewksbury, Doug. (2014) “‘Friending’ Vygotsky: A Social Constructivist Pedagogy of Knowledge Building Through Classroom Social Media Use”.  The Journal of Effective Teaching, Vol. 14, No. 1, 33-50.

Moody, Mia. (Spring 2010) Teaching Twitter and Beyond:  Tips for Incorporating Social Media in Traditional Courses.  Journal of Magazine & New Media Research, Vol. 11, No. 2.