Chui's+Opinion

What Do I Think About Social Media and the Influence on Students?
Through readings, discussions and the courses I have taken, I have learned quite a bit about technology and its current and potential impacts on teaching. First of all, I find it somewhat ironic that I can Google search for information regarding social media and the influence on children and I will get an array of blogs blogging about the negative impacts of social media. Wait a minute, so social media is bad for children, but it is okay for adults to use it? Are we really that more responsible? What about the wife who changed her Facebook status to single and was later attacked by her husband? I think social media definitely has both positive and negative impacts on //anyone// who uses it. I think one of the most important things for children (or students) to be aware of are the possible impacts of social media. They should carefully consider the information they share, the pictures they post, and the comments they make. These things are available for many people to see, and like I learned in one of my classes, written language is usually more open to interpretation than oral language is. Even if a comment is not blatantly rude, it might be taken that way through someone else's eyes. We may have control over what is posted, but we have no control over how it is received by others. This was an interesting point raised. Not only should children consider the quality of the messages they post, but the longevity of it. The posts or pictures can be copied or downloaded to any computer. Other people can post pictures or comments about you **whether you want them to or not**. I do not believe we are necessarily at the mercy of social media, but perhaps at the mercy of those who take advantage of its positive aspects. Connectivity and community are generally good things, until they are used to exploit others. Instant communication is useful, until a false rumour about you spreads like wildfire. With this said, I do not believe anything is a good replacement for good ol' fashioned face-to-face interaction. I do not really care what anyone says, but nothing can replace a live human being.

Anyways, I have rambled on enough. Why is all this relevant to me as a teacher candidate? I think the main thing is that the digital natives in my classrooms will most likely be using many of these social media forms. The use of social media impacts their brains. Their unique learning or thinking styles will affect how I teach. If I want to teach effectively, I will need to understand how they learn most effectively. Students will also have varying levels of dependency on social media. Not all of my students will be digital natives, depending on the environments they grew up in. I hope to encourage critical thinking and self-reflection in my classroom. Students should think about how they use technology and how it impacts them. I think the more aware they are, the better prepared they will be to make their own decisions. I think having digital natives in my classroom will force me to keep up with technology and integrate it in my lesson plans, because it will be integrated into the lives of my students. It seems weird to think I might be "falling behind" in the technological world, but I think I am. Back in grade school, my family was one of the first to acquire a computer, and I would learn how to use all the newest gadgets. Now, I do not own an ipod, play the newest gaming systems, nor am able to keep up with the constant technological upgrades. I fear I am becoming outdated. Fortunately, I catch on to new technologies fairly quickly because they are created to be user friendly. However, it is a selective upgrade as I only learn to use what I need to use. I have learned how to create a wiki and found the experience quite enjoyable (especially the navigation part of it). Technology is another thing I will have to make sure I stay aware of in my teaching endeavors. Ideally, I will build classroom communities where we can work together and use technology to maximize our learning experiences.



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