How Social Media is Transforming Education

For today’s youth, social media is a natural integration of their life. In this roundup of education insights, we explore how social media extends far beyond the screen and into the classroom.

1. Snapchat and its Spectacles expand social marketing opportunities for higher ed.

Spectacles are still in the playful, experimental phase in higher ed. “The hands-free nature and ‘first-person perspective’ of Spectacles is what made them so compelling. We can capture moments of students testing out a motor sports vehicle or an excavator robot,” a higher ed social media admin explains to University Business.

2. Chan-Zuckerberg to push ambitious new vision for personalized learning.

“Pediatrician Priscilla Chan and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are gearing up to invest hundreds of millions of dollars a year in a new vision of ‘whole-child personalized learning.’” Edweek explores how this initiative will dramatically expand the scope and scale of efforts to provide every student with a customized education.”

3. Campus social media requires group effort.

The key to resourcing your institutional social media effort is to lean hard towards integration. Inside Higher Ed highlights how Gettysburg College’s social media reach expanded to 6.4 million, up from 2.5 million in just two years.

4. How do you create a digital university?

The key to providing the right digital environment? Well-trained, fully-engaged staff who can design and deliver courses with technology embedded in them. The Guardian further explores this approach, which fosters a climate of digital fluency that diffuses throughout the university, from students to chancellors and everyone in between.

5. Move over content, the learning experience is key: 3 ways educators can prioritize experiential learning.

“A more just society could be created through education. We must be willing to move beyond just content, whether we are faculty, deans, instructional designers, or executive leaders. It is time to shift our collective focus to the learning experience for the students we serve,” explains Education Dive.

6. Tweens & social media — online habits start early.

“The explosion of smartphones and social media apps puts the online world at the fingertips of younger and younger children.” Education Week sits down with two middle-schoolers learn how and why they use social media.

7. How are schools monitoring their students on social media?

How are school administrators keeping tabs on posts without violating free speech and privacy rights? PBS NewsHour and Education Week speak to students, administrators, and police in Arizona to see how one high school is handling this situation.

8. Moderate use of social media ‘builds resilience and wellbeing in young people.’

The Independent details new evidence from independent studies on the effects of technology on young people, revealing that using social media helps children to develop their social skills, collaborate better with peers, and access help and emotional support more easily.

9. Can selfie videos help students improve written, verbal communication?

For second graders, video selfies of themselves reading leads to increased understanding of the story’s characters and how those characters resolve problems. “The selfie helps them add more detail about the reading passage and helps them reflect that in their writing.” explains District Administration.

10. How social media is changing education.

“The possibilities for social media in education are exciting. Universities don’t even need to convince students of the value of social media – the students have already been won over, so it makes sense to talk to them in the online world they already spend most of their time inhabiting,” highlights BBC.

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