Education should focus on making schools a professional learning centre that focus on removing the hindrance between classrooms learning and encourages dialogue and collaboration for holistic development. Schools and social media can have a symbiotic relationship provided it is regulated and channelized correctly. Social media in schools provide access to the students the global understanding of political, social, historical and technical issues. Learning being a lifelong process cannot be confined to the classroom. Since walls between classrooms are not a hindrance now, the teachers are free to get involved in team teaching, co-teaching and peer observation.
Why introduce social media to schools?
Social networking in schools is a huge help for teachers and parents alike. There are many parents who find it extremely difficult to manage with the home work of children and are baffled when their kids do not understand the concept they are explaining repeatedly. Thanks to internet being a part and parcel of our everyday life, social media can be easily used to help explain the concepts to the kids better. The first and foremost advantage that social media in schools has that the teaching structure becomes very attractive and interactive due to which students are able to imbibe the teachings better. The concept of rote learning has taken a back seat as now students are being asked to participate in open discussions and exchange ideas globally and form their own opinions taking in cognizance the various global ideas and not just the view of the teacher.
Involving students in decision-making process
Social networking in schools is still is in nascent stage and can be evolved greatly. Schools are trying their best to incorporate social media to the classrooms in various ways. There is an example of a school where the principal introduced blogs and encouraged children for their comments on his posts. These blogs were of various school topics like the introduction of a new textbook or some new class begun. When students commented and he replied back to each and every comment, he made an instant connection with every student and made them feel special by respecting their views. Such ideas help students improve their communication skills, be independent and responsible and gradually start taking personal interest in the school affairs. Otherwise, if they are simply given rules to follow without any feedback, students tend to accept authority with a dash of rebellion as they were never asked if they were fine with the rule.
Aim of introducing social media in education
The aim of blending schools and social media is to make students proactive and informed. When teachers, students and parents blog they have an equal say in what happens in a classroom and it increases their involvement in the happenings in class room. Face book, Google-Plus, Twitter etc are some of the popular platforms for communication. Various researches have proved that social media will remain in dominance in the field of education. Social media permits students to get connected with those with whom we share interests, passion and profession.
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