Social Media
"Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration," which includes Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, Wikipedia, Pinterest, Email, Blogs, and so on. (Whatls.com)
Teenagers and Young Adults
(Retrieved from Edison Research)
Today, 93% of teens ages (15-17) have mobile access to the internet, and young adults and teenagers (16-24 years old) spend the most time online via mobile, more than any other age group, spending nearly 200 minutes per day on a mobile device. Among 2002 of internet users aged 13 to 24, 72% use Snapchat, 68% use Facebook, and 66% use Instagram (Edison Research, 2016). Many teenagers and young adults spend time for social media.
As you can imagine, your little child will likely be those teenager/young adults who spend 200 minutes/day, 100 hours/month, and 50 days/ year on social media. Thus, I believe that as a parent, you better to teach how to use social media wisely rather than keep the social media away from your kids.
How Social Media Contribute to Education?
According to Transforming Learning with New Technologies, social networking provides connections between teachers and students, promotes meaningful learning, and extends academic learning beyond the regular classroom learning (Maloy, 2016). Moreover, student become more central and active in social media learning. Kathy Cassidy, a primary school teacher in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, uses blogs and Twitter with students in grades one and two and claims benefits of using social media in classroom.
Using Social Media in the Classroom
Kathy Cassidy. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno
In future posts, I will introduce what kind of social media is combined in the education at kindergarten classrooms today, and how it affects students' learning experiences.
References
Maloy, R. W. Verock Ruth-Ellen. Edwards. A. E. Woolf. P. B. (2016). Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
WhatIs.com. (n.d.). What is social media? Retrieved October 01, 2016, from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/social-media
