We need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher’s hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world.” – David Warlick
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Throughout my elementary school education, technology wasn't a primary tool my teacher's used to help my classmates and I understand concepts. We watched a few videos on the television (I was always so excited when this happened) however that was the extent of technology in my classroom. It wasn't until late middle school that we started to have access to more technology. Five computers were installed in each classroom and my teachers were able to book the computer lab for us a few times a week to complete technological projects/research. In grade 9, I learned how to type and I am very appreciative for the skills I gained in my ICT class. Technology is now considered to be essential when it comes to classroom learning. We use smartboards to teach lessons, take attendance, and show videos. We have access to iPads with downloaded apps to help students with the math skills, literacy skills, listen to educational podcasts, and much more. We have access to websites that read to students such as tumble books. The list goes on and on so I will leave it there for now. I believe that teachers are doing students a disservice if they purposely choose NOT to integrate technology into their classrooms. I put a quote at the top of my blog that aligns with my position on the matter. Our students live in a world where technology is in EVERY PART OF THEIR LIVES. It is important that teachers integrate technology into their classroom because it enriches their lessons and makes way for healthy conversation surrounding digital citizenship and safety while participating in online activities. Along with technology use, social media use within classrooms has started to become popular. If you would like further understanding of my view on social media, I will link my blog post about social media here! That blog post in short shared about how I have been leery about using social media in my own classroom after taking my educator and the law class. My perspective has started to change thanks to our discussion with Andrew Mead, principal of the remote learning center here in Manitoba. Since I am still unsure of how I will integrate social media in the classroom, I decided to look into some critical research and see what other people have to say about integrating social media into my classroom.
The article I have chosen to discuss is entitled
Toward Making Social Media Effective in our Classrooms: A 9-Point Method. Prior to even reading the article, I thought that it would be an interesting read. I'll be honest, sometimes I struggle to read through research. I know that they purposely use lots of big technical words to bring their point across however I find it hard to track with over a ten to fifteen page article. This article was easy read and I was able to follow what the researcher's were saying. The researcher's don't have a rational research question. Instead, they have what they call "a problem statement. (Nawaila, et. all, pg. 60, 2018)." The researchers begin the article with discussing how social media use has increased drastically in both peoples personal and professional lives. They emphasize how social media is part of everyone's lives so we should use it in our classrooms. The aim of their research was to assist teachers in knowing how best to use social media in their classroom. They continue their paper by sharing some of the literature that exists on social media use it with our students. The first statistic that stood out to me in the literature review was "According to data collected by Ofcom at the beginning of 2017, 66% of all grownups aged 16 above have a minimum of one social network account (Nawaila, et all, pg. 62, 2018)." Although this statement may not be shocking to most people, I do believe that it showcases the need for students to have access to social media in all aspects of life, including school. The second statistic I'd like to share about states "social media has the advantages of allowing students, researchers and people in general interact and communicate in ways that ignore institutional limits (Nawaila, et all, pg. 62, 2018)." The ongoing pandemic has proven to us that it is okay to go outside of the box and teach in ways that are unconventional. Our students also deserve to teach them through different means that they personally understand and relate to. Next, they share the specifics of what their research methods were. They started by collecting data of how teachers use social media in their own classrooms. Next, they split their subjects into two groups. In the experimental group, they shared their nine methods for social media use in the classroom. In short, the nine point method are nine lessons that are all developed with social media at the forefront. The control group continued on with the amount of social media use they used prior to this experiment. Both were given an open ended questionnaire and their results were compared. In the end, both the experiential and control group had similar use of social media in their personal lives however the group of students in the experiential group were happier with the use of social media use in their classrooms. Two of the limitations of their study were sample size and lack of diversity among their sample.
You are all probably wondering what makes this research important for classrooms across Canada. I think that it is important to recognize that social media use is on the rise in all aspects of life. We see the use of social media by teaching professionals to share their own lessons, ideas and to help showcase their students work. Thirdly we see our students accessing social media accounts at a younger age every year. One of our jobs as teachers is to prepare our students for the real world. Based on social media use throughout the world, it would be doing a disservice to our students if we chose not to incorporate social media into our classrooms. According to these researchers, their experiential participants found more satisfaction in having their lessons centered around social media whereas the control group had teachers use social media as they normally would. Unfortunately, we don't know what these teacher's lessons were and how much social media played a role which means that it is hard to make an accurate comparison between the two. I know that for me personally, I have struggled to understand how I can utilize social media in my own classroom. Over the past five weeks, my eyes have been opened to the opportunities of utilizing social media in my classroom. Yesterday, I was lucky to hear Tyler Letkeman, a teachers at Vincent Massey share how he utilizes social media in his classroom. He brought up how he gets his students engaged in the material that they are reading by having them create Instagram posts from the characters perspectives and then have other characters make comments. This is a unique way to have students dissect a classic piece of literature while also using a modern based platform that helps them share their thoughts and ideas. As a future early years educator, I will ponder more about the possibility of bringing in social media ideas into my classroom lessons and assessment.
I would argue that more research needs to be done into social media use in the classroom. There is some research in this area however since it is fairly new, not much time has been invested into primary research studies. Future research would benefit from having a larger sample size and to have a more diverse sample group (teachers with limited use of social media to teachers who consistently use social media in their classroom). I would also argue that there are some teachers out there who simply aren't comfortable with the idea of using social media in their classrooms at all who would benefit from having this type of research presented to them. As I continue on in my career, I look forward to seeing how social media use continues to evolve in our education system. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Sources
Nawaila, Muhammad, Kanbul, Sezer,
& Uzunboylu, Huseyin. (2018). Toward Making Social Media Effective in our
Classrooms: A 9-Point Method. International Journal of Interactive Mobile
Technologies, 12(4), 59–71. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v12i4.9201
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