Win Free Subscription
Please login to win free subscription.
Changing education patterns with social media
A liberal education is at the heart of a civil society, and at the heart of a liberal education is the act of teaching. – A. Bratlett Giamatti
So, the latest scuffle around is about learning! It sounds petty, but it’s a large issue to address. While Mr. Not Social’s son shies away and doesn’t participate in the class; on the other hand, Mr. Social’s daughter is overtly active, interacts well in the classroom, thus grasps better! The difference is not pointed to explain who’s better and who’s not. In fact, the matter here is to buck up students to get involved in discussions in and outside classrooms.
The question is how! It’s not about the blackboard classrooms anymore! The world around is getting so fast and so are the people. So, why not acquaint the young buds with the fast growing life and make them smart!
While you tweet and blog and express your opinions, give a chance to students to get themselves at pace with our world of social network. Ana Dominguez in her article “Twitter in Classroom” reasons well this idea! She argues that “The possibility of interacting with other people, other educators, other schools, makes it more exciting; we are always expecting other people to share their experiences with us, which, at the same time, leads to students looking forward to these short periods of time in which we “speak, tell, invite, greet, etc”.
Well… It doesn’t need any further explanation! It’s time to begin with it: make a page and get started! You can put your first step ahead by making a fan page of your institution, invite your students and help them grow in every sphere of their lives! Here’s how you can reach out to your students in a friendlier way.
1. Introduce and invite
Your page must be telling. It must echo the message your school resonates. Your welcome page, therefore, should give the details (crisply) of the agendas you’ve in mind. Also, it’s important to keep in mind the kind of students you would want to invite to your school (through your fan page). Schools and universities work almost like markets. The difference, however, is in schools it’s a more preaching and you deal with young minds. So, make sure your approach and mild and subtle (yet enticing).
2. Make it even more detailed
"PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play - very loud, very slow, and very simple." – Edward Tufte
With Slideshare, you can explain yourself even better! PowerPoint presentations are always easy to understand. Since the deal here is to be done with students, one must not forget the basics. Students are always more attracted to a stirring study than a still one. So, it’s time to make a PowerPoint of your school almanac!
3. Pick their brains!
Once they’ve joined your page and your institution, it’s time for activity now! Conduct quizzes, polling, use discussion boards and debates. It’s the best way you can keep your students hooked up on your page. Forget the class work-homework time! Give them home works on quizzes and polling. Create quiz networks for different age groups and years. Allow only the respective ones to enter the domain. Lock the rest for those who haven’t cleared a certain level. It appears a kind of gaming to students, thus making work fun for them!
4. You write, they comment
You can’t be better than this! Sharing knowledge and being interactive at the same time is indeed an excellent feature. It allows you to share with your students what so-far you’ve maintained as web logs (popularly known as ‘blogs’). It posts your very blogs on your page, which lends it more authenticity. Your students get to read it and respond to it, speaking out their opinions as well. You need to understand the RSS tab to work with it better.
5. ‘Videos’ and ‘Multi-videos’
These features are both attractive and effective! These tabs help you to share the events or festivals or inspiring speeches by important people with your pupils. Welcome comments from them and their ‘likes’. Make them feel that their opinions are important to you. They are young but not nil in minds or absolutely un-opinionated! By sharing videos and receiving comments, you can make out the different choices the young generation make and how you can work out with them.
6. Jingle by mingle
You can create a super-viral and synonymous effect by mingling your two accounts: Facebook and Twitter. With people joining you randomly on either of these sites, make sure you don’t miss out to share the same important stuff with yours fans on both sides. So, to make it easy Tweets tab is on your platter. With this, you can join the two fan pages and update and share with both at the same time!
These simple ways can make your page a full-fledged classroom with all the necessary punishments, penalties and scores in it!
Hope behavioral worries of Mr. Not Social’s son also gets over after his teacher reads this!
Wishing your kids a happy and bright future too!
*All the best*
 |
to get amazing apps on your Facebook page |