Nowadays, an increasing number of students are demanding the use of social media sites in classrooms. According to such students, social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and more) help them easily and quickly get connected and interact with their teachers and friends. Since many of your students are already using social media at home, have you thought of using any of these tools to keep students engaged in your K-12 class?
Take a look at the variety of social media and online tools to help your students stay more focused in K-12 classes.
Facebook Fan Pages
Facebook is one of the leading social media websites with over 845 million active users (as of February 2012 statistics). Teachers can, therefore, introduce Facebook in K-12 classes to promote more student participation and active engagement with the learning process. Tell your students to create Facebook fan pages on some particular lesson topic, such as “Facts about Niagara Falls” or on “Major Organs of Human Body”. Allow students to post comments or notes on such topics to share the work with the whole class.
Micro-blogging Website
The premier micro-blogging site, Twitter, can be used for free to impart education in K-12 classes. Encourage students to tweet in 140 characters or less about any subject taught on the previous day to let them share their thoughts and ideas with other classmates. Teachers can also use Twitter to post their online class registration link to let interested candidates enroll for the same. Teachers can also use TodaysMeet, another user-friendly micro-blogging site for enhanced student interaction and active learning.
Frontloading
Teachers can use frontloading to discuss about any subject with the students before actually teaching the same in classroom. Social media works outstandingly for frontloading. Let’s just imagine a situation where you will teach the students photosynthesis steps in plants on Tuesday. To give your students idea about photosynthesis, you upload photosynthesis steps video on YouTube on Monday (one day before) and tell them to view it. Frontloading is highly beneficial for 2 reasons – students will develop an idea about the topic to be taught in class as well as it becomes easier for the teacher to explain the subject, as students already have some idea about it.
Back-channeling
Teachers can use Twitter or TodaysMeet for back-channeling while showing a bibliography on Christopher Columbus on screen. Back-channel allows your students to record their reactions to what they saw, while at the same time you can answer questions that arose as they watched.
Role Playing
Add the elements of social media in role playing to make learning an altogether fun-filled experience. Take the help of some social media platform, such as TodaysMeet.com. Now, assign each student a particular character taken from some novel or historical event. Discuss and share the role playing sessions with your friends via Facebook or Twitter. Know their reactions and share it with the entire class.
Acteva brings in the power of social networking via social media connector for events, classes, and training programs. You can start using our social media connector to upload your K-12 class or event details directly on Facebook or Twitter from the Acteva solutions platform itself.
