Social Media Learning

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As I read the news this week about a girl who went to her prom and was attacked, berated, supported, etc. for the style of dress she chose to where.  I wonder what would be different if we took the time to time to teach social media as part of schools ELA curriculum and not part of what we call digital citizenship.

I know that ELA teachers might disagree with me on this one with the argument of social media is destroying writing. Kids can't write complete sentences and use letters for words etc. While I tend to agree but I also see a different point of view. I have always read, heard, etc. that the English language is a living language

https://pixabay.com/en/school-board-languages-blackboard-1063556/

that is is constantly evolving with new words, phrases, and colloquialisms. Social media is just the next evolution of language. Kids have learned to adapt their writing to fit the medium with which they use to communicate.  Instead of chastising kids for adapting a language we should be learning from as to how they do it and how they develop the rules. However that is not what I want to address here in this post. I would much rather address how students are using social media as a communication tool.

https://pixabay.com/en/social-media-world-communication-1405601/

Social media is very much in it's infancy and I don't think it will ever be out of its infancy with all the new tools and forms of social media coming out. kids are using it as best they know how to share information with each other for good or for bad. I wonder if it was like that when books, writing, music, etc came out as ways of communication. Did we fight it and say they were going to ruin society? Yet we now use them as not only a form of expression but also as a way to communicate information. We also now teach kids how to use music, writing, etc. as a way to express themselves and how to express themselves properly and effectively. Our efforts are used for good and for bad but we still teach them how to use the tools.

The same goes for social media it is used for good and for bad, yet we often times focus on the bad more so than the good. I pose we should focus on the good and learn how to teach it. If it were part of an ELA curriculum we could leverage it to teach grammar and persuasive versus expository writing. We could help mold new spelling rules ass well as combine old ones with the new. Kids could learn how to express themselves in a positive and effective manner rather than trying to figure out through trial and error on their own. Some say that this is better done as part of a digital citizenship unit where we are teaching them how to be good citizens. The problem is that it is out of context and often times pot on the back burner. It is put on the back burner due to the fact that often times in education we put items like ELA, Science, Math, etc. ahead of other subjects because it is tested. I would argue that if we incorporated the use of social media we could capture student interest and teach what is tested and possibly see better results.