Why Social Media?

Social media began my digital citizenship journey back in 2010. I quickly became an avid Twitter user that summer. Within a couple of days I noticed a ton of possibilities to use it with students. Within a week, I was planning how to use Twitter with my students.

Ten years ago, it was easier to use social media with students. Schools and districts like mine weren’t widely blocking platforms. Luckily, it didn’t take much for me to convince my district to unblock it for instructional use.

Today, it is incredibly difficult to convince decision makers to unblock platforms in a school or district. To even discuss using social media with students is pretty taboo.

Realities of Social Media

One reality of social media is that it is here to stay. Negative opinions have not diminished its staying power.

One reality is that young school aged children use social media. It has become a staple for even young children.

Knowing this, we can and should be preparing students to use social media well. We should and can teach them how to engage with others online and how to represent themselves online.

Good News Bad News

The bad news: social media is blocked in most schools.

Most platforms like YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram are available for teachers and staff. We use them to find teaching resources and ideas and need access to them. These same platforms are usually blocked for students; even in elementary schools.

The good news is that we don’t need authentic social media platforms to teach and engage students in appropriate or prosocial behaviors.

The good news is that there are many tech tools available to us that provide a social media experience. They allow students to post, comment, and talk to others in an online platform.

Social Media Behaviors

Social media behaviors need to be taught. Teaching them in school can be tricky. Frequently, platforms are blocked in schools. In my experience of working with elementary students, it doesn’t take much to teach them. To boil it down, they need to know:

• Why we use it.
• What to post.
• How to comment on other people’s posts.

All of those skills and behaviors can be taught with the tech tools available to schools.

How to Embed Social Media Instruction

1. Learning Management Systems like Google Classroom, Seesaw, or Schoology are a great way to teach students social media behaviors. Students quickly learn how to post quality work. Each time students respond to classmates’ posts, they learn how to engage in online conversations.
2. Collaborative Apps & Tools like Padlet, Flipgrid, and Classcraft give students the opportunity to post appropriate text, images, and videos. This is great practice for posting all of those same things on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok.
3. Authentic Learning Tasks need to be created for students. They need opportunities to create videos, captioned images that could be posted on Instagram, and write online like they would on a blog. Other ways to integrate authentic tasks is to encourage them to use relevant hashtags in learning, and to create products that mirror popular platforms and trends. All of this will teach them how to create high quality content.
4. Portfolios give students an opportunity to reflect on their learning. Using tools like blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and websites that allow for mixed media create a portfolio give students practice in creating multi-media content.
5. Set up a class account. Use the account to post images of learning, send out announcements, and/or share resources. Decide who the intended audience(s) are: students, families, other educators, or a combination. Invite students to become the content creators, and be sure to follow your school’s or district’s guidelines.

Where to Begin

It can feel overwhelming to know where to begin. Begin with something you are comfortable with.

If you are already using a learning management system, capitalize on that. Start teaching students how to write meaningful comments.

If you already use apps and web tools, notice how they can teach social media behaviors. Do they allow for students to upload content? Is it possible for students to like someone else’s content? In what ways can students reply to or comment on other posts?

If you are pretty good with Instagram, start there! You may want to consider creating a separate classroom account.

Not Another Thing to Teach

Teaching social media behaviors does not need to be an add-on. We already have a number of tools available to us. Chances are, you are already using them with students.

Just like you teach students how to make a learning choice, you can teach them whether or not to like a post.

Just like you teach students to craft open-ended responses, you can teach them how to write meaningful comments and posts.

It is possible. Even without platforms available in school.