Does Social Media activity with kids go up or go down when they go back to school? You would think and hope, for those parents out there, that it goes down. Less free time to play on their Blackberries and iPhones. More time learning and studying in the classroom. Some schools have tried to ban phones all together, without much success. My sister, Kelly, is a grade 8 teacher, and she is one of the best. I say this broad-sweeping statement because a) she is my sister, and b) she wins every award and teaching-related competition you can imagine, or not imagine, because I honestly didn’t know any existed before she started winning them. Anyway, in her classroom, nearly every kid has a phone. They are texting, facebooking, tweeting, and bbming, all the time. She, of course, takes their phones away if they are caught, much like my teacher would confiscate the notes that I passed to girls. All that being said, kids are kids and, well, they’re generally sneakier and smarter than us. If they want to text, they will find a way. And with all of their friends surrounding them, their social networking peer pressure is a lot higher. Interestingly enough, my sister has also decided to start a Facebook page, with the approval of her Principal, for the kids to keep up on class assignments. As she says, that’s where they are as soon as they leave the classroom every day. The lesson here is that whether you’re a big global brand, or a grade 8-teacher, you need to be where the people are to keep them engaged. The next step? Teaching kids how to use their devices and social networking tools in school to help them later in life...even though it might be the first course where the students are tutoring the teacher. Regardless, this school in the U.K. has already started. Without changing the curriculum, here are 100 other inspiring ways to use social media in the classroom.
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