Concerns about Social Media in the Classroom

While I know and use many of the technologies discussed in the reading for this week, the challenge for me is integrating them into the classroom in an effective and safe way.

Derek Baird writes, “Teachers should find ways to reconcile classroom use of social media to the authentic ways teens are using outside of the classroom." While I agree with his premise, I fear that some ways teens (and younger children)  use social media can be counterproductive.  Two problems that come immediately to mind are the possibility of distraction and of cyberbullying.

There is a fine line between multitasking and uses of media that detract from the task at hand. In my personal use of social media, I frequently find myself toggling between chats, blogs and emails, to the point I am not engaging effectively in any of them.  It seems likely many teens use technology this way in their free time.  How do we use social media in authentic way while avoiding this temptation? Setting limits is one step, but enforcing them can be a challenge. I’d like to know if there are technological tools that can help with this.

Cyberbullying is another concern, and one that has been plastered all over popular media.  It is unclear to me how much of this is sensationalism and how much is legitimate concern.  Social media has tremendous potential to stimulate spontaneous collaboration both in and beyond the classroom community. The danger is that such a large body of communication is generated that the teacher is unable to monitor for unhealthy exchanges.

The carryover of technology from the personal use of teachers and students clearly has huge potential, but for me it raises a number of questions with no clear answer.