Social Media in the Classroom

      Due to the security at the JDC, students are not allowed to access social media in any way. They may not use their e-mail accounts or instant messenger. The security reasons stem from students ability to contact the outside world and alert others as to who may have made deals or given statements. This in turn could allow for an attempt at retaliation as well as so many other issues. This makes my job as an educator difficult because there are so many ways for them to go around our filters. There was a point last year when my principle almost had to stop internet access by student’s altogether. He asked a few teachers to write briefing papers on the need for internet access to the superintendent and ultimately we installed Synch programs in all classrooms which allowed for us to put real time images of what students were viewing on their laptops on our Whiteboards. This has drastically cut down on students attempting to access social media.

       While I have never used social media in my classroom, I can definitely see its appeal. Students are familiar with the look and feel of Twitter and Facebook. They understand how to use it and most do on a daily basis.  There are so many Twitter feeds directly related to history. The Twitter site, World War II in real time includes tweets consisting of pictures and events from that day seventy years ago. I can see how it would be great to use as an opener or closer while discussing the World War II unit or even building a project based around it, having students create their own feeds for units they are currently studying.  

World War 2 Tweets from 1945

   













 Do you use social media in your classroom? If so how and what were some benefits or challenges to its use?