Slowly but surely shifting towards social media in class rooms…

Social media is undoubtedly beneficial for various reasons.  It gives us access to more information that could help us to be knowledgeable.  Social media enables us to access this information very quickly.  Most importantly, we are able to engage with the greater world even though we exist in our own habitus.  I am not ignorant about the advantages of social media but we have to be mindful of the possible pitfalls when using social media as a teacher in a classroom.

Personal experiences have an influence on professional development.  Therefore, my prior personal experience with social media influence my inclination of the use of social media as a teacher in the classroom.  Unfortunately, family and friends of mine have been victims of identity fraud, whereby random people, living in other countries, withdrew money from their bank accounts.  Obviously these criminals were able to obtain their personal information by hacking into electronic devices and social media.  In addition to this, I made a personal decision to have minimal engagement with social media and therefore I am not informed about the usage of social media.  Therefore, I have to overcome my personal fears and lack of social media first if I consider social media in a classroom.

In an ideal world, I would make use of social media in the classroom, provided that it is inclusive.  A country, I like South Africa, has limited resources and therefore not all the learners might have access to an electronic device or internet.  Learners should have access to equal opportunities and if a social media activity is not inclusive of all learners in the class, it should not be considered.

In addition to this, all learners should have equal opportunities to participate in a classroom.  This is because learner participation in a classroom is more likely to lead to a change in behaviour.  Participation would cause learners to engage in agency, which will lead to the empowerment of learners.

Another determining factor of using social media in the classroom, would be learners’ emotional intelligence and their ability to self-regulate their behaviour.  It is difficult enough to teach learners emotional intelligence but social media poses an additional challenge because of less oversight and monitoring.

Regardless of whether or not social media is used in the classroom, it is important that learners are taught to be competent, well adapted and holistic citizens.  This might very well mean that learners initially have to be taught the basis and principles of competencies without social media.  This would be helpful for sustainability because learners should still be able to be functional in the absence of school media.