If schools are not actively engaging students in a DLE, where have they been for the last 5, possibly even 10 years? Given the ubiquity of technology and connectedness in our world today, not using it almost seems impossibly to me. Recently I have been reading about the idea of embracing social media as a learning tool and it certainly has plenty of detractors but do these outweigh the potential benefits?
There are concerns that they are designed for social interaction – not learning interaction, worries about freedom of speech (particularly in the USA), concerns over privacy, legal ramifications for staff and institutions, the list goes on. None of these should be enough by themselves to stop integrating social media but they do give pause for concern and for a need for policy and guidelines to be developed to make sure that all stakeholders are treated respectfully and are safe.
I think that the integration of social media as a learning tool would be easier in High School settings, given age restrictions on many, if not all social media platforms that would inhibit their use in primary schools. By bringing social media use into the school, it also gives us the opportunity to model appropriate online behaviours and how to respond when someone shares or responds in a way that is not in line with agreed expectations. I see this as a real boon as students tend to learn about online life without anyone to guide them, other than what their peers are doing.
In a primary setting, perhaps the best way forward is to enhance our ‘closed’ platforms such as Google classrooms to better emulate aspects of social media platforms that make them so enticing.
Anderson, S. (2012, May 7). How to create social media guidelines for your school. http://www.edutopia.org/how-to-create-social-media-guidelines-school.
Wang, Y. (2013). Social media in schools: A treasure trove or hot potato? Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 16(1), 56-64. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555458913478424.