What is the role of Social Media in education today? Why has it become predominant in our life nowadays? How much usage of social media should be permissible for students? These are just a few questions that put educators in a dilemma. After all, who will decide how much social media is too much? Social media has become a part and parcel of every student’s life. It has its pros and cons; hence it is very important to be prudent enough to be aware of the various facets of social media and how they affect a student’s life.
Social media has greatly helped in the cultural evolution as it has made the globe a smaller place to live in. Students across borders are easily accessible to one another and can exchange views, ideas, plans, ideologies and easily debate matters pertaining to the world. Geographical boundaries cease to exist with the help of social media. As educators we need to know that time has come to be abreast with this tremendous change as classrooms are no longer dominated by the teacher. Gone are the days of monotonous methods learning which left no scope for healthy discussions in the classroom.
Blocking networks might not be the best solution
Social media has made the student sharper and confident enough to research and evaluate information on his own. He can browse through various social media websites and get relevant information at the click of a mouse. In order to teach 21st century students, the teachers should be net savvy and should be at ease using social media. The perspective of educators has to be changed; they have to create “managers”, “thinkers”, “creators” and above all, independent and confident contributors to society. This can only be done by blending social media with the education set-up.
However, with the good the bad is never far behind. The most common concern for all educators is the unsavoury information easily available and accessible on social media, which can easily attract any student. It is advisable to install software to block such websites and use filtering information. However, students are always a step ahead of educators and will find a way to unblock these sites. Hence, along with blocking it is important to “educate” students on the dark side of social media and how they can easily be trapped.
Educate students instead
Explain to your students how the information that they think is only shared between friends is not really as secure as they think. They should be told about real case studies in which students lost their lives due to interactions with unsavoury characters posing as students. Explain to them the prudence of not indulging in public displays of political and religious remarks. They need to understand that these remarks can snowball into major controversies and they might not be able to rectify it later. They need to know that things done as young students can be a black stain on their records when applying to university or while applying for a job. As educators you need to teach them to use social media for intellectual progress and not to be entrapped.
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