Tahnee's Perspective
I truly believe that life is what you make it and I think that idea can be directly applied to the use of technology in the classroom, specifically social media. If we as educators create a positive environment that allows students to challenge the educational system and their limits through inquiry based learning I think the possibilities are endless. Our students are very technologically savvy and if we can use their knowledge to excite them to learn in new and creative ways I think we are on the right path. The main issue with using social media in the classroom will be to keep students on task. However, I truly believe that if they are excited and invested in what they are doing they will be able to stay focused on the task at hand. It will also be our job to make sure that children use social media in responsible manners and make sure there is a no tolerance policy for cyber-bullying. In order to do that lessons should be taught on the importance of ethical and appropriate use of social media and what is or is not appropriate to post.
In the end, whether the use of social media in the classroom is a good or bad thing, and how it affects our students will be determined by how we facilitate our lessons and educate our students on its use. The choice is yours, but I am optimistic and excited for the opportunity to use new methods to educate our students. Like it or not, technology is not going away!