Schools Incoporating Social Media

Schools Incorporating Social Media

                With social media taking over children’s’ time and attention it would only make sense to incorporate it into their education. In A New Face for Schools by Laura Lefkowits she states that 96 percent of students with online access spend nearly 9 and 10 hours on social networks each week. If children are spending that many hours on social networks we might as well have educational purposes behind it. Students, parents, and teachers must join together to teach children not only with social networks, but about them also. Schools should be teaching about the inappropriate behaviors that are occurring online like cyber bullying and sexting. Schools should teach children how to appropriately blog about their feelings in an educated manner. Kids need to learn about verifying sources before believing everything online, because that is one way rumors begin. Children need to be taught how connecting to people online can be used to benefit their education by talking to friends about important social issues, instead of talking to people about rumors and pointless drama. Kids also can connect to their friends to promote school activities, like sporting events or fundraisers. Teaching kids to express themselves online will show them they are not the only ones going through these issues they are having. They can connect to kids who are also facing divorces or other adversities and talk about how they feel verses cutting themselves off from society and committing suicide. Instead of pointing out all the negative aspects of social networking if teachers and parents taught teens how to use them in a positive light and set positive examples for them then they would begin using social media in positive ways.