{"id":1731,"date":"2018-06-19T07:30:37","date_gmt":"2018-06-19T11:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teachersfirst.com\/blog\/?p=1731"},"modified":"2019-04-05T12:10:45","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T16:10:45","slug":"lets-talk-about-social-media-practice-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/lets-talk-about-social-media-practice-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Lets Talk About: Social Media Practice Spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have been an advocate for the use of social media in schools for a long time.\u00a0 As a professional, using social media is a great way to learn and grow and connect with others who are like-minded. \u00a0While social media can be a great tool, we\u2019ve all heard of people who used social media unwisely and as a result, had to face real consequences. Many teachers use these types of situations as an excuse not to get involved with social media. \u00a0In my mind, these incidents really tell us the reason why we as teachers need to dedicate time to learn about social media. We can\u2019t prepare our students to use it wisely if we don\u2019t understand social media ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sir Ken Robinson tells us that we need to prepare students for jobs that don\u2019t yet exist<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0As teachers, we have a responsibility to prepare them as best we can. Breaking down professional activities can help us know what students will need to be able to do as professionals, even if we do not know what the content would be. \u00a0If we take a future-looking framework, like <\/span>Michael Fullan\u2019s 6Cs<\/span><\/a>, we can see what skills our students might need in order to be ready for employment in the future: Character Education, Citizenship, Communication, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Collaboration and Creativity. Social media is an engaging way to practice these skills. <\/span><\/p>\n

Many of our students are too young to use social media according to the terms of service for most platforms, so how do we accomplish this? Create and use practice spaces! \u00a0Practice spaces can allow our students to learn the skills they need to without the worry of exposing them to adult social media. Practice spaces also allow students to make and learn from their mistakes without the eyes of the world watching them. What is a social media practice space? Glad you asked! \u00a0I like to categorize them into three groups: no-tech, low-tech and high-tech. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, you can have a no-tech social media practice space. \u00a0They are best used by teachers working with students in primary grades, with little access to technology (i.e., weekly computer lab rotation), or who don\u2019t really use social media themselves. \u00a0Students can use <\/span>printed templates<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>paper blog posts<\/span><\/a>, or work from a projected image.\u00a0 These may appear limiting and forced with older students, but they are an excellent way to begin conversations about critical thinking, message clarity, and representing yourself online.<\/span><\/p>\n

Allowing students to use technology to create simulated social media posts is a low-tech option. \u00a0These are helpful for elementary students, students in alternative educational programs, and those with limited access to technology (i.e., a few computers in the room). \u00a0Students could use the Classtools\u2019 Fakebook generator (<\/span>reviewed here<\/span><\/a>) or Twister (<\/span>reviewed here<\/span><\/a>). \u00a0It is easy to make (or borrow) templates in PowerPoint online or Google Slides. \u00a0Here is a <\/span>Twitter template<\/span><\/a> and an <\/span>Instagram template<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

High-tech practice spaces are platforms that allow for real-time sharing and commenting. \u00a0If your students are older, have liberal access to technology, or if you are comfortable with social media, then this option is for you. \u00a0SearchTeam (<\/span>reviewed here<\/span><\/a>) is one of my all-time favorites. \u00a0I also like \u201ccommunity\u201d sites like Bookopolis (<\/span>reviewed here<\/span><\/a>), Write the World (<\/span>reviewed here<\/span><\/a>) and <\/span>MySciLife<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Using social media to practice workplace readiness skills will be very helpful to our students and their future employers. \u00a0Getting started might seem a little daunting, but the outcome will be totally worth the effort.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been an advocate for the use of social media in schools for a long time.\u00a0 As a professional, using social media is a great way to learn and grow and connect with others who are like-minded. \u00a0While social media can be a great tool, we\u2019ve all heard of people who used social media … read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[33,50,80,11],"class_list":["post-1731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lets-talk-about","tag-digital-literacy","tag-instructional-strategies","tag-social-media","tag-technology-implementation"],"modified_by":"Karen Streeter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1731"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2521,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1731\/revisions\/2521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teachersfirst.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}