Using Social Media As An Educational Tool

Using Social Media As An Educational Tool

Educational institutes still have a lot to do before current and prospective students start utilizing their social media presence as reliable sources of information.  A report by Michigan State professor Christine Greenhow reveals that students who were actively engaging with the course professor and their classmates on Twitter developed more interest in coursework and managed to achieve better grades.

Florida State College has even listed policies and procedures for social media on its official website and a study carried out by University of Massachusetts on different colleges found 100% of them have opened to social media in one way or another. Similarly, colleges in Grand Rapids like Cornerstrone and universities in other cities have published social media directories, which allows prospective and current students connect with alumni, sports department, student government etc.

If you’re a teacher looking to effectively use social media to educate your students in a traditional or virtual classroom, here are some tips to help you out:

1.  Encourage group discussion

Social media gives you a platform to start a group discussion among the students of your class. Apart from interacting with each other, students can ask questions, curate content and share new information. You can use Facebook to create a class or community page while a class name hashtag can be created for discussion on Twitter.

Try to keep all official announcements–like what’s the last date for submitting the term paper or tips that you may give out for helping students to prepare better for exams–exclusive to the social media pages of the class. Avoid interacting with students on a personal level (it may also be against the policy of your institution) as it will prevent any signs of impropriety relationship between the students and professor.


2.  Open virtual meetings

Some of your students may feel intimidated to come to your office for questions related to the course or career advice. Furthermore, you may also have less time due to a busy schedule to give individual attention. This can limit the ability of students to open up to you and this limitation may come to haunt them later in their careers.

You can open your virtual office through social media once or twice week for student meetings. Google+ Hangouts offers a great way for teachers to interact with students. Jeff Lebow utilizes the platform to conduct ‘EduMOOCast’ once a week to discuss the current state of online learning and education.

3.  Post helpful information and keep the platform open

Your actual hours may not be enough on some occasions for the concept or lesson you were trying to get across to students. This is the time when you can utilize social media and post links to helpful materials and resources related to the lecture. You can also find videos on YouTube and through educators related to your field and post them on classroom profiles. The use of interactive whiteboards is another option available to you.

It’s also important to keep the platform open for students for sharing their own resources and materials related to the lecture. You may find resources and information shared by students that you never knew even existed.

More possibilities and innovative ways will emerge as more teachers enter into the social media universe. Until then, you can create effective communication channels for your students by building online communities, encouraging discussion and adding visual elements.