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November 1, 2019
Vol. 61
No. 11

Can Social Media Make You Smarter?

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TechnologyInstructional Strategies
Teachers report that many students, despite being "digital natives," need guidance on how to use social media beyond entertainment purposes. Three educators share their tactics for incorporating social media to expand students' sense of what learning can be.

Meet the Experts:

Ai Addyson-Zhang is a digital learning consultant and the founder of Classroom without Walls.
Ainee Fatima (@mrsfatima) is an English teacher at East Leyden High School in Chicago.
Megan Poore is the PhD academic and research skills advisor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. She is the author of Using Social Media in the Classroom (SAGE Publications, 2015).

Why did you start incorporating social media into your classroom?

Addyson-Zhang: So-called digital natives are savvy in terms of entertainment use but don't really know how to use social media for networking, learning, personal branding, or career development. Social media and creative technologies, when used right, can be powerful teaching tools. I started a livestreaming channel to show my students and educators that they don't have to go to a physical classroom to learn or teach. The sage-on-the-stage model is over. Creative technologies allow us to cocreate knowledge with students in a collaborative space ripe for intergenerational and crosscultural learning. I think that's what makes these platforms so powerful: They allow students to interact with a wide range of students, educators, and professionals from all walks of life.
Fatima: I show students my own social media when it's appropriate. I highlight public figures, scholars, and experts I follow and the type of content I post. It's also important to be transparent about the dangers of social media online. I have a whole unit on misinformation and fake news and teach skills to identify what manipulates people's perceptions of reality, influences politics, promotes advertising, or incites conflict among populations. CommonLit and Newsela are two websites I like to use.
Poore: The digital divide these days isn't about access to hardware. It's about access to knowledge, networks, and the ways in which people use technologies to take part in daily social life. Those who will succeed are those who can manage online relationships and use social media to build "social capital." That doesn't mean that people should be online 24–7 massaging their profiles (and their egos!) by posting selfies and tweeting what their dog is doing in the backyard. It means, instead, that students need to be taught the limitations of the online environment as well as how to take part in positive social action or appropriately express a political viewpoint, as opposed to spreading misinformation and gossip. We can't just expect students to learn these skills by osmosis, especially if all they are looking at on social media is the equivalent of junk food.

How has social media changed the way you teach?

Addyson-Zhang: I create a Facebook group and a class hashtag for every class I teach; I've noticed that students are more likely to open up in an online learning environment compared to traditional face-to-face classes. Using Facebook Groups, students openly share their opinions, have in-depth discussions, and do surveys related to class subject matter. I also collaborate with schools and teachers who are teaching similar subjects.
One semester, I did a Twitter activity with two other schools in New Jersey. We created a common hashtag, and each week, students had a specific reflection to share, such as describing the challenges of transitioning from high school to college. Students use Adobe Spark to do research, term papers, and reflections, which allows them to be creative storytellers and problem-solvers. Sharing their work with a broader professional community builds their network and personal brand, which can eventually benefit their careers.
Fatima: I use Twitter during our research paper unit. Students summarize their thesis into a tweet and connect online with someone who is an expert in the field or topic they're researching.
I also started using meme stickers for grading after reading a ridiculous response from a student and thinking, I wish she could see my face as I'm grading! I printed out a sticker of a Nick Young meme where he looks absolutely confused and stuck it next to her answer. Students looked at each other's quizzes and discussed the answers they got wrong, all because of the stickers. This was so different from my own experience with getting a quiz or exam back; I always shoved it in my backpack and never looked at it again.
My video of the stickers received more than 10.5 million views and 123,000 retweets in 72 hours. I used the viral situation as a teaching moment to show how students can navigate through the desire to become popular online. Many of my students "vlog," so this was something that they were interested in.

What advice do you have for teaching with social media?

Poore: Start by defining your broader purposes: What is the intellectual focus of what you are doing? What types of "exchanges" do you want from students?
Yes, there's a lot to consider—copyright, privacy, accessibility, cyberbullying, data control, reliability of the service—but with some forethought and a sensible attitude, you can develop a risk-management plan that will help keep you, your students, and your institution safe. The thing you absolutely should not do is launch enthusiastically into a class-based social media project without doing your due diligence.
There needs to be a pedagogical justification for why you would use one tool over another—just as there should be when you are choosing an essay over an oral presentation. Then, you need to plan for how you want students to use the tool: Will students use their real names or aliases? How frequently should they contribute? How will you deal with bad behavior? Indeed, you might be a digital native, but that doesn't exempt you from planning how to use social media to its best effect in your teaching and learning.
Responses edited lightly for length and clarity. A longer version of this article first appeared in ASCD Express.

Kate Stoltzfus is a freelance editor and writer for ASCD.

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