Some schools have banned the use of cell phones during school hours to avoid distractions and restrict communications between students and teachers over social media.
Thomas, H., Susan, L., & Mary, G. (2010) states that, The American Library Association believes that if students are prohibited from using the social media, it only leaves them without knowledge for protecting privacy and therefore should be educated to use it in a responsible and ethical way.
Facebook is one of the influential sites. A teacher for instance, can connect to reach his students and also contact their families. It also provides instant learning to the students by updating them on different developments during snow days.
Some students, who use Skype, twitter and Facebook can contact the different authors and also undertake long distant projects with other students. There are so many groups that interact over such websites. They come from different cultures and backgrounds. The results of such interaction are very good. Most people who interact come from different races and therefore do share a variety of information.
Social media may also be integrated into classroom by allowing the students to access social media sites (Toppo, 2011). Management software can be installed to allow the staff to monitor the activities being done on the internet or while using the social media. Students may use the social media in a negative way and this may make them develop very bad characters within a very short time.
There should be a curriculum that explains how to use social media to benefit the students learning. This enables them to use it in a more meaningful way to have a positive impact in their development. A child, who learns on the use of internet for learning purposes at a very young age, becomes very active intellectually.
The staff should then watch the students as they conduct themselves while using the internet for learning. This helps in preventing them from accessing certain sites like the pornographic sites. Such students copy the same characters and then try to put them into practice and therefore end up destroying their lives.
Facebook may also assist the teacher to connect or communicate with the students and parents as well as share the information of the school with other educational stakeholders. Students may receive assignments over Facebook and do them.
Social networking has also been in use for a long time to specifically promote social interaction between different people. For example the teachers and students can interact positively and avoid the negative effects of social media. Teachers can post pictures, assignments and other tasks.
Online classrooms can be done effectively by using technology to allow teachers in helping students to solve different questions online and any further assistance required. Any announcements or advertisement can also be posted on the internet to allow students access them but teachers should not have profile. The students can also interact in the public. This becomes very useful in the interaction of different groups over the website.
Social websites are such an important resource for the students if only used effectively. Every student who makes use of these resources in a positive way can perform better than those who do not make use of the internet.
The use of social media can only be useful if the students or children are closely watched and guided on how to make use of it for positive development. This is the only way that we can benefit from the use of social media.
References
Thomas, H., Susan, L., & Mary, G. (2010). Instruction: A Models Approach. Allyn & Bacon.
Toppo G. (2011). Social media find place in classroom. USA Today.