Social+Media

toc Social media is something that plays a vital role in the daily lives of many people. Most people check sites such as Facebook and Twitter multiple times a day. We have to acknowledge the ubiquity of social media. Social media is something that is easy to bring into a classroom because many students already have accounts. It is something that can help enhance the classroom learning process by boosting student engagement since it is something that students enjoy using. Social media sites allow people to connect with others across the world, create pages for events or historical figures, and express their opinions. Social media allows you to incorporate real-world experiences into your classroom. It allows a teacher to become better connected to their students when handling situations such as cyber bullying and being responsible online. Teachers can improve their own knowledge and skills as educators. Social media enhances the availability of resources and improvement of research and communication skills. Most importantly, it offers educators thepotential to appeal to different learning styles. However, educators often have to learn and develop comfort levels with social media policy and new concepts associated with social media tools to limit distractions and promote learning in the classroom.

=About= Social media sites like Facebook have been around since 2004 and they allow people from all over the globe to connect with each other, expressing opinions, sharing pictures, or just to tell funny stories. The use of social media has drastically changed one's daily life and is now working its way into the classroom. Students are able to put away the old poster boards and markers for creating a page on a historical figure and log into Facebook and personalize their very own page to covey all the same information with even more detail than you could on a poster. It is recommended to use social media sites with students who are at least at the high school level.

=Specific Tools= Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest

Facebook
Facebook is a social media site that has been around since 2004 and it has continued to grow in popularity since then. People from all over the world use it to connect with family and friends who are close and far away. You are able to create like pages, post pictures and videos, comment on people's status updates, along with many other things.

How to Use
This tool can be used to create pages for historical figures, share comments about what people may have said or thought back in that time frame, as well as creating an about me and posting a picture for the person.

__**Online Resources**__
 * [|100 Ways You Should Be Using Facebook In The Classroom]

Twitter
Twitter is a social media site that allows you to create tweets (like a status update) that can be up to 140 characters long. Twitter is a fast and effective way to get your thoughts and opinions across to multiple people. Some people use this to tell about their day, important events going on, or even to make other's laugh with a funny quote. You are able to hashtag words on twitter, which is another way to find people with similar interests. When you use "#" and put a word or phrase after it others can search for these things. You can comment to other by using an "@" sign before putting their name.

How to Use
Twitter is easy to use effectively in any classroom by allowing students to post comments about the class, ask questions, or even create a twitter account related to the class material and have them post tweets about their assigned topic.


 * __Online Resources__**
 * [|50 Ways To Use Twitter In The Classroom]

Tumblr
Tumblr is a microblogging website. It is used mainly by young adolescents. You can create and edit your own posts, but the most commonly used function is "reblog."

How to Use
Tumblr is a great way to inspire and collect pictures, videos, and text.

Pinterest
Pinterest is a social media site that allows users to pin things to boards. What this does is allows you to create multiple "boards" or groups of pictures and links. People create boards for things such as: exercise, recipes, classroom ideas, travel plans, fashion, wedding ideas, and home decor.

How to Use
Pinterest can be used in a health class for example by having students pin things to boards for a healthy living such as good recipes to use and exercise routines.


 * __Online Resources__**
 * [|16 Ways Educators Can Use Pintrest]

=Implementation Ideas=

English

 * Create a Facebook page for characters in a book. Like pages the character would like, friend people they would get along with, and create statuses with things the character might say.

Mathematics

 * Have students create a board on Pinterest to show objects that are a variety of different shapes.
 * Have students tweet any questions they have during the lesson so they aren't afraid to ask questions in front of the class.

Science

 * Have students tweet as they go through the process of making a science experiment or what they thought about an experiment you did in class.
 * Have students create a board on Pinterest of ideas for science fair projects.

Social Studies

 * Create a Facebook page for historical figure. Friend people that person may have been friends with back in that time frame, write an about me for the person, and post statuses that relate to ideas they may have expressed back in the day.

=Opinions & Feedback=
 * General**
 * I think that social media is something that can be very effective in the education system if it is implemented in the right way. Something that you will have to watch out for if you do choose to use this in your classroom is students using their rights to these sites for fun rather than as a learning tool.
 * English**
 * Social media sties can be highly effective in english classrooms because it all has to do with being able to express yourself and telling a story.
 * Mathematics**
 * It is a little harder to come up with ways to use social media sites in math courses, but it can be done.
 * Science**


 * Social Studies**
 * I think the best use of social media sites for social studies classrooms are to have the students create a Facebook page about a historical figure.