Social Media

Social Media (34)

10 tips for using Facebook in the classroom

Facebook is a vital tool for teaching and learning in the 21st century and for making education more social. It is already being widely used in colleges and universities across the UK and globally, but it has the potential to be a game changer for teachers, schools and the classroom. Here's ten tips to help get you started. 1. Use Facebook groups to create a space to share educational resources and ...

The misguided stigma of using social media in schools

Why is social media such a hotly contested topic in schools? There are many ways, as Principal Eric Sheninger explains, in which schools can harness social media and blogging to demonstrate the relevance of learning, and introduce the 'real world' audience to students. Social Media is bad and has no place in education. It is a distraction to the teaching and learning process. If students are allowed to use social ...

How social media can attract a global audience to inspire your students

Teachers can only offer a certain amount of motivation to students, particularly as they are usually the final destination of class and home work. With technology gaining ground in classrooms, however, there is no excuse not to enthuse students with the potential for their work to be shared with the very people that are inspiring their work - authors, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs etc. This is where the benefits of using ...

144 billion emails a day – are you revealing too much?

In the few decades since the birth of the web we’ve moved from email to social networking to a breadth of online services, storing more and more of our personal information in the so called ‘cloud’. The level of data out there is growing at an exponential rate. In a typical day last year, people sent more than 144 billion emails, shared more than 684,000 pieces of content on Facebook, and ...

How can Twitter’s Vine be used in education?

When Twitter was first launched back in 2006, many of us were sceptical about whether it would last. What was the point of a tool that only let you send 140-character updates? Why not use Facebook which has a status function plus much more? Many social journalists never expected it to hit the 5 million mark of users, let alone 500 million. But almost overnight Twitter became an online phenomenon. Today, over 340 million ...

Using Facebook groups in school – a brief report/evaluation

For the past year I have been trialing the use of Facebook groups in school, to see if they improved communication with some of our students. I have finally written a brief report on my findings. These include surveys given to teachers and students, as well as some recommendations for next year. Click the 'Read More' button below to download the report from Matt's blog.

How schools can stay safe whilst using social media

Is fear of abuse preventing you from using social media in your school? Are you unsure of what safeguards you can put in place to protect your pupils? When social media was little more than a tool for socialising, schools could get away with avoiding it. Not any longer. Whether it’s buying a new product, doing business with someone, recruiting a member of staff, or learning a new skill, ...

Using Facebook to create a positive learning community

The whole reason for educators to fear Facebook was because "it's unsafe and can't be monitored." Which is partially true, but wasn't convincing enough for me. Now with 1:1 programs popping up all over, companies like Edmodo, Moodle, and Schoology are developing safe ways for teachers and students to communicate outside of class time. These free online tools are great, but they operate on a more closed basis than Facebook. However, ...

Twitter and the job interview

Professional development is cited as one of the main reasons to use Twitter. From questions asked to blog links shared, Twitter provides a ‘real time’ platform for anyone to discover information. Of course, there is the social aspect that dominates the platform, but a Twitter profile, with like-minded followers, allows for reasoned debate and conclusion in your chosen field. Take the teaching profession. There are numerous educators on Twitter prepared ...

The definitive guide to tweeting & blogging for teachers

Over the past few weeks I've been privileged to read so many great blog posts by fellow teachers on the numerous benefits of both tweeting and blogging. Having an online presence in order to collaborate and learn from others is now fast becoming one of the most popular and interesting ways to improve your day to day teaching. More and more teachers are getting involved in this online community, which ...