I can understand why a teacher is aprhencible to the idea of social media in a class room. I for one love using it to catch up on the latest buzzed stories. Leo finally got his Oscar. I get to send all those e-mails I neglected after classes ended and talk to my parents who live over seas. Because I do this, to me it seems like. Most students would use social media in the class room to their own enjoyment and in the end,their own dismay. I neglect to listen to the teachers, and Sony final marks aren't top notch. Oh, Im probably being too honest and now when lecturers see me they will ask me what I'm up to... I am, een, taking notes on my Facebook feed so I too can educate people via my status? Plausible right?
But that being said, in post grad I do actually pay attention because of they way we are allowed to use social media. I have asked questions over Twitter when I forgot the readings for class. It has reminded me of work I forgot about, so ultimately it has helped me not hindered me.
As an aspiring English and history teacher, I believe that social media would be a great thing in my class rooms, however I believe that it will have its time and place. When I am talking, I want the attention. But, I also want to be able to communicate with the students after class. To remind the students of work they need to do, to have polls on Twitter to see what they thought of class or what they would prefer in the future and so on.
And so, social media is both great and not so great. When used in the right way it will help a lot, but when used to be social and distract then it needs to be put off. As someone who grew up in England, I saw how the year 7s were all given a school iPad. However there were apps on that prohibited the use of social media in school and on the school wifi so that they could only use the chosen apps by the teachers in class. And that seemed to work. So, in conclusion, we should all move to England because admin works over there.
