According to research by Masters In Education, 96% of the 1,127 students use Facebook, 84% have a YouTube Channel, and around 20% have blogs and Twitter accounts.
It was also found that heavy Social Media users spent more than 61 minutes using Social Media tools and received A's and B's in school, while light users spent 31 minutes and received grades lower than B.
One teacher in the study started a pilot Social Media program in her classroom, causing a 50% GPA increase and 20% of students school-wide completed extra assignments for no class credit during the program.
We say all this to support the use of Social Media in the classroom, but to also say that teachers need to understand and teach students about Social Media. Stories in the news of teachers in trouble because they 'friend' their students on Facebook is unfortunate.
Students use Social Media to connect with one another, place events, share ideas and resources, and get to know one another better so learning can take place. There's no reason why a few Social Media apples spoil the bunch.
Many students that use Social Media don't fully understand what it can do and how it can effect life. Teachers need to be part of the team that teachers students right and wrong. Parents and teachers should work together with the administrator and community to show young people how to properly use tools like Facebook and Twitter.
Communities should start Facebook pages to inform people of upcoming events and important happenings, parents should start a Twitter account to share resources on parenting and extra curriculars, administrators should use blogs to share their idea of how the school should run, and students should be able to model what they see and use all of the Social Media tools at their disposal get everything they need, done!
To read more on the above study, visit the MastersInEducation.org website, then go out and start learning and using Social Media, your kids already are!!
