Navigating social media in the classroom and as professionals can be a tricky and prickly subject, hence the cacti. Jesse Miller’s guest lecture this past week highlighted both the benefits of integrating tech and social media into the classroom, as well as what to be cautious of.
I, personally, really resonate with the idea of teaching today’s youth the importance of social media literacy so they are equipped to handle it for themselves in a healthy and productive way. It is such an integral part of our society and culture in the 21st century that, as educators, we need to embrace it and find ways of constructively using it. Dismissing its importance in our student’s lives is unrealistic and even potentially dangerous, with the high risk of cyber-bullying and invasion of privacy that social media poses for youth.
Jesse’s talk really emphasized how we, as teachers, have a responsibility to create good habits in our students surrounding the use of tech and social media. The notion of having class smartphones creates so many possibilities but it also inspires me to reflect on the accessibility of this technology for our students. Not all schools can afford to have smart phones or even additional laptops and support tech for students and we can’t expect all students to have a personal smartphone that they can use.
Another thing that really stood out to me was the responsibility of educators to exercise good common sense when it comes to our own personal social media. It blew my mind when Jesse mentioned that there were instances of teachers posting pictures of their classrooms or students on dating apps! This goes to show that not everyone has good common sense when it comes to social media and just emphasizes how important it is talk about social media and educate students on how to navigate it appropriately.
