Welcome to the Machine

The prevalent use of social media in our society is a debate that could fill thousands of tweets. Is social media helping society, hurting society, or doing a little of both? More importantly, should educators use social media in the classroom? If so, how?

As David Gilmour once belted, "Welcome to the machine".

If you are an educator and thinking about using social media in your classroom, there are several things to consider. To get an overview, please visit my Adobe Spark Video.

If you're all in on entering the "machine" (our social media-obsessed society), here are a few suggestions for your classroom:

1. Symbaloo is a social media website that allows users to create "webmixes", which are groups of websites, videos, and/or educational resources. When one creates a webmix, these items are grouped together on one page. Instead of visiting twenty different websites, include them all in your webmix and have them in one spot. This is a form of social bookmarking and helps with organization. Here's an example of a symbaloo.

2. Another example of good and educational social media use is Padlet. Padlet allows users to create storyboards, webpages, and documents that others can add to. For example, if an educator wants to put an entire mini-unit on a padlet and then allow students to answer questions on the padlet, it is possible. Here's an example of a padlet over Yellow Journalism.

3. There are other examples of effective social media use in the classroom, such as Twitter, Schoology, and ClassDojo.

Social media can be a foreign, scary thing for some educators to dive into. If you're having reservations, don't worry, I had (and still have) my own hesitations. However, the machine keeps on turning, and social media (and technology in general) is now the lay of the land. If you want to teach in a relevant way, social media is a good avenue to travel down. Don't get left behind.

...and as Pink Floyd once said, "Welcome to the Machine..."