Let’s Get Started! Here are a few activities to get the ball rolling!

So I’ve touted the benefits of social media long enough. The question is: how does one seamlessly incorporate social media aspects into their lessons without it seeming awkward or forced? If an activity can be done just as easily on paper in the conventional way, then trying to cram in a social media element is often waste of time and energy. However, if specific qualities of social media will enhance or deepen connections within student learning, then it is an appropriate often beneficial and dynamic addition to the lesson. Throughout my inquiry I’ve stumbled upon some awesome lessons and activities that use social media in an effective and relevant way. Here are just a few of my favorites:

1)      Twitter: Having students set up Twitter accounts as a character from a novel or prolific historical figure that they are studying. Each week, the student will have to send out a tweet based as this character/figure. In addition, students can respond to tweets from characters/figures created by other students in their class, constructing an imagined dialogue. Students could also live-tweet a character’s point of view during a specific scene being taught in class. Use a projector to show the live tweets. One of my peers also found an imagined Facebook news feed of World War I from the perspectives of the different nations involved:

(http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6650094/facebook-news-feed-history-of-the-world-world-war-i-to-world-war-ii )

I found this to be very entertaining and fun way to make a historical time line. My only caution is that this example contains some mature language, so I would only recommend this to older classes that could handle it appropriately. It would be a great project for a socials class to build a similar timeline (without the curse words of course!) using Twitter, where it is much easier to set up faux accounts.   

 

2)      You Tube: Create a private You Tube channel to upload student-made video projects. The channel could also be used to amass videos that are relevant to the subject being taught where students could contribute and browse at their leisure. Gail Casey, a math teacher from Australia, used You Tube videos to provide context for math problems and equations – displaying real life use of the subject matter.

3)      Haiku Deck: This is a downloadable app available for the iPad, so you’ll need to make sure your school has these devices first. Haiku Deck allows students to quickly create short presentations using pictures, graphs, and a limited amount of written text (think twitter version). The presentations are short and sweet and often help students get to the point and define what’s important. This could be used to reinforce grammar rules in a language class, or important concepts in other subject areas. Once made, the presentations can be uploaded to class websites or tweeted. One of my ideas is to have students create a study guide for an upcoming test where each student is responsible for a different topic, then uploading all the presentations to the class website.

 

4)      Blogging: This is an exciting twist on the traditional essay, and a way for students to build their online brand by uploading it to an e-portfolio. Posting a blog on a given or chosen topic could be part of a weekly assignment AND at the end of the semester, students will have created an entire Independent Study Unit to display online. Furthermore, most blogs can be password protected and are private.

 

5)      Pinterest: Students can create boards as a character analysis including things such as what their character would wear, symbols reflecting them, what their interests or past times may be etc. This is also an extremely useful tool for teachers, allowing them to share and create boards around teaching strategies and ideas for activities (if you’ve never done this before I suggest you try it!). For instance, teachers can search in a specific subject area and find a multitude of ideas posted by other teachers. You can then collect your favorites by creating your own board which in turn can be shared with even more teachers! Share the love!

 

These ideas are just some of many! There are several ways to incorporate the benefits of social media into a unit or lesson – the trick is to make sure that it is a relevant and needed addition. All of these ideas started with teachers experimenting in their own classes – so my advice: go nuts! (And let us know how it went!)

Please add your ideas in the comment section below!