In this week’s course, we had an amazing guest visitor Jesse Miller. During his presentation, he analyzed and discussed the importance of social media in teaching for not only ourselves as teachers, but as well as our students. Social Media as a whole has developed highly over the years. Behaviours and skills for students have developed alongside technology growth, as over the years more children and students have grown with different levels of knowledge regarding the use and understanding of it. It is quite normal that social media is most commonly a part of your children’s hobbies nowadays, as we use technology daily.
With the growth in usage among students, there is a big theme of social media safety, as is just as important for parents and teachers to understand the risks, as it is for children. Jesse mentioned how children’s behaviours can be mimicked by observing and watching their parents. For example, if your student is coming in and telling the whole class information that is not appropriate or aloud in a certain classroom, but perhaps it is something that they are sharing with the class, that then leads the conversation more towards, what the teacher should expect a student shouldn’t be taking about. Which can be a very awkward conversation to have with a parent.
The internet influences students’ actions greatly, for example, “TikTok trends” are creating these ideas of inclusion, although it’s not the internet’s fault, but the student’s choice of them going ahead and practising these bad behaviours. The influence technology causes can be very scary, which is why it is so important that it be talked about and possibly taught safe skills and uses from an early age. There are pros and cons of technology use in class, there needs to be a bridge between the positives and negatives for the student use.
I enjoyed Jesse’s presentation this week, and am looking forward to more useful and safe technology tips!
