This week in The Connected Educator, we discussed the use of social media in classrooms. Since my students are in 1st grade, there really isn't a place for them to use social media, but I have thought of using it with their parents. The content of this week's class has me thinking about whether there are more pros or cons to social media. In the past, I have used Remind with my parents. Remind is an app that teachers can use to text parents without giving out their personal numbers. To me, this app is vastly different than using Twitter or Facebook. The difference I see is that Twitter and Facebook are much more public and teachers use both to share their personal views. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, I am not sure that in today's climate that is such a good thing. I think if a teacher is going to use social media, they must first acquaint themselves with the dangers involved. Here is an article that does just that.
While working through this week, I also had another chance to use Adobe Spark. While I am not normally technically inclined, I was able to make a video about the pros and cons of social media for kids. This was out of my comfort zone, but I found it easy and fun. I also was able to learn a lot about those social media dangers and apply that learning to my video. Whether we use social media in our classrooms or not, it is our responsibility to do so with care. There are so many dangers for students on the internet, we must make it our mission to teach them to use it with responsibility, as we must ourselves.
This week, I have added all of the wonderful sites I have learned about while working my through this course. You can find them along the side of this site.
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