Social Media in Learning and Teaching

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Social media is often seen as the key driver of communications and marketing. If we talk about the education sector, universities, colleges & schools are striving hard to build a good social presence. Students want to get a feel of what the institution is really like from their Facebook page. So currently, educators are using social media to maximize student enrollments, alumni engagement and increasing media outreach.

The use of social media and other technology learning tools, in learning and teaching, is the subject of much debate in HEIs just now. We know that students use social media, but is that enough of a reason for us to use it in learning and teaching? 

 

Top 100 Tools for Learning

When we are discussing the use of Social Media in Learning and Teaching, what kind of applications are we thinking of? The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2015 Links to an external site. – the results of the 9th Annual Learning Tools Survey – has been compiled by Jane Hart from the votes of learning professionals from 61 countries worldwide and published in September 2015. Not all of these are Social Media by definition, though some are more social oriented than others.

The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2015:

1. Twitter*  35. Kindle & Kindle App  69. Quilt
2. YouTube*  36. Feedly  70. Sway
3. Google Search  37. Canvas  71. Vimeo
4. Google Docs  38. Adobe Captivate  72. Webber
5. PowerPoint  39. Edmondo*  73. Instagram*
6. Dropbox  40. Google+  74. Firefox
7. Facebook*  41. iSpring  75. iTunes/ iTunesU
8. Wordpress*  42. Diigo*  76. iMovie
9. Skype*  43. Google Scholar  77. Blackboard Collaborate
10. Evernote  44. Coursera  78. MovieMaker
11. Google+ Hangouts  45. SharePoint  79. Poll Everywhere
12. Wikipedia  46. One Note  80. Tweetdeck*
13. Pinterest*  47. Explain Everything  81. Canvas
14. Linkedin*  48. VideoScribe  82. Trello*
15. Moodle  49. Pocket  83. Slack*
16. iPad & Apps  50. NearPod  84. IFTTT
17. Kahoot  51. Office Mix  85. Edpuzzle
18. Blogger/ Blogspot*  52. Gmail  86. Flipboard
19. PowToons  53. Udutu  87. Udemy
20. Slideshare  54. Google Translate  88. TodaysMeet
21. WhatsApp*  55. Keynote  89. ThingLink
22. Google Chrome  56. Excel  90. Easygenerator
23. Camtasia  57. Jing  91. Lectora Inspire
24. Snagit  58. Adobe Photoshop  92. Haiku Deck
25. Audacity  59. Google Apps  93. Piktochart
26. Articulate Storyline  60. Scoopit  94. Adobe Acrobat
26. TED Talks  61. Schoology  95. LINE
28. Yammer*  62. Outlook  96. Wordle
29. Padlet  63. GoAnimate  97. Mentimeter
30. Word  64. Survey Monkey  98. Softchalk
31. Camtasia  65. Kindle & App  99. edX
32. Socrative  66. Google Maps  100. Delicious*
33. Khan Academy  67. Notability  
34. Adobe Connect  68. Google Sites  

 

* Recognised as Social Media (although others have social features)

 

Using Social Media in Learning & Teaching

If you are an experienced educator, let us take you back to your early days when you were a student. Learning in schools would have been about daily lectures on various subjects and topics; and students using  textbooks as their only source of knowledge. There was not any Google or  Youtube, Twitter, and Wikipedia to help if you did not understand a lesson given by the teacher. The only alternative to thel teacher was support when you got home, but that would take away precious hours from the time we could spend doing things we truly loved, such as playing football, music, dancing and doing things that every child or teenager wants to do.

Perhaps it is this learning background why today many of us as educators, are resistant to social media. The students of the Internet generation don’t have the same constraints we had as young people. The first step towards applying social media into education starts with empowering teachers  to use social media to engage with students, albeit within safe boundaries, and giving them the freedom to come-up with innovative ways of teaching using technology.

The students of today are big communicators through emails, social media and instant messaging. They are more connected to the outside world than  we were at their age. If they have a question today, they will not wait for the opportunity to ask a teacher. They will access the information on their smartphone in a matter of few seconds. No matter where the student lives, he/she has access to the best teachers inthe world. Social media has bridged the gap between students and the highest quality study material they need for learning.

To sum up, here are some recent facts and figures (2016) (very US-centric, but valid nonetheless):

Tools Used

youtube.png  YouTube has some really good resources for eLearning. It is possible to just add a link to a video for the students to follow. I feel it is better to capture the embed code so that the video runs directly in the page. This does require a tiny bit of HTML knowledge, but is simple to master. If a video is embedded it allows a student to access the content without being diverted (and distracted) by visiting another site, when you want them to concentrate on what is on Canvas.
Slideshare-logo.jpg SlideShare consists of more than 15 million uploads from individuals and organisations on topics ranging from technology and business to travel, health, and education. You can embed SlideShows as I have done here. You can also download SlideShares to read or reference later.