What is Social Media?

Media is an instrument on communication, like a magazine or newspaper, so social media would be a social instrument of communication.  Social media is a website that interacts with you and you can interact with other people.  So the interactions include comments on webpages, letting you vote if you like or dislike something, and the possibility of selecting ratings.  Social media is two-way communication compared to one-way communication (magazines and newspapers), and your opinion matters.  You are given the opportunity to reflect, comment, and read other peoples opinions. (Nations, 2011)

What are the various types of social media?

Social media outlets have grown almost exponentially over the last ten years. In that time, entire sites have been born, lived, thrived, and died, while others have withstood the asults of would be replacements.  Perhaps the most known of these is the dynamic involving Facebook and MySpace, the two most dominent social media sites out there.  While Facebook is currently on the rise, and has been for some time, this does not mean that MySpace will soon die (although it could).  One thing is certain though, as more and more platforms for social media emerged, it becomes more and more necessary to understand the differences between the types of media.  Kaplan and Haelein (2010) found that there are in fact six distinct types of social media platforms, each with their own characteristics.  They are:

• Collaborative Projects: these sites consists of user groups who come together to share information to the group.  Examples include: Wikipedia and Zotero.
• Blogs: these sites are venues for one person to share with everyone else their own personal experiences.  Examples include: Tumblr and Twitter
• Content Communities: these are places where users come together around a specific type of media being used.  Examples include: Youtube and its spin offs, Flickr, and Pinterest
• Social Networking:  these sites are dedicated to people meeting and interacting with each other.  Examples include: Facebook, MySpace, Google+
• Virtual Game Worlds: these sites are less about information and more about entertainment, as users here are coming together for a common purpose, online gaming via avatars.  Examples include: World of Warcraft and Runescape
• Virtual Social Worlds: these sites also a place for users to come together in avatar form without the gaming engin of the game world.  Examples include: Second Life and the Sims. 

Each of these types of media is unique to its type, although as more and more media sites are developed, it is likely that crossover will begin to happen, as evidence by the virtual game Farmville being played on Facebook.

Using Social Media as a Pedagogical Tool

Using an example of each: Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, Social Photo and Video Sharing, and Wikis, we will discussed how Social Media can be used as a Pedagogical Tool.  We will share how we can use Social Media as a tool for Education and give examples of how Social Media can be used to engage students in learning.

Using Social Bookmarking as a Pedagogical Tool – Example Zotero

You want to write an A+ paper and not worry about citations?  Then Zotero is for you!  Visit the Zotero website and install the Firefox plugin for Zotero.  This online tool helps you store online links and helps create citations for you in MLA, Chicago Style or APA.  You can also share the links with other groups of people, making group work productive, and making it easy to share information with others.  Please see the video below for a better description.

Using Facebook as a Pedagogical Tool

Teachers have used Facebook as a place to have online discussion groups.  The class is able to discuss topics with each other.  The benefit is that students have experience using Facebook and feel comfortable expressing their opinions on Facebook.  Teachers are able to write specialized content for groups to discuss and comment with each other.  Facebook serves as a simplistic computer-supported learning environment that can easily be implemented in classrooms. (McDonald, 2009)   

Please see the video below for examples of how Facebook is being used as a Pedagogical Tool.

Using YouTube as a Pedagogical Tool

Educate, engage, and inspire your students with video!  Now you can sign up for YouTube Schools here.

Benefits

Comprehensive:  Offers thousands of free educational videos from YouTube EDU.  These videos come from well-known organizations like Khan Academy, PBS, and TED to name a few.

School-appropriate:  Students cannot log in from school and can only watch YouTube EDU videos and videos the school has added.  All comments and related videos are disabled and search is limited to only YouTube EDU videos.

Customizable:  All schools get access to all the YouTube EDU content, but teachers and administrators can add other videos to the list, that are viewable in the school network.

Teacher-friendly:  YouTube.com/Teachers has hundreds of playlists already created by other teachers and are organized based on subject and grade. (YouTube for Schools, 2012)

Please see the video below for a better description.

Using Wikis as a Pedagogical Tool

Wikis could be used to allow several students to work on a single assignment online. Students don’t care who wrote or started the assignment but they focus on the ideas being presented and how they can build on the ideas.  Students are less distracted and can focused more on the assignment.  The best part is that students can work on their wiki at home. Teachers can create the rules for students when collaborating on an assignment.  According to Koopman, the most successful teachers are the ones that embraced a more constructivist approach to teaching, meaning a more student-centered approach.  Wikis provide a nonjudgmental method of discourse that makes it safe to walk away, reflect, consider how a comment is being viewed by others, and then focus one’s thinking or ask for clarification.  The end goal is to get all the students to think deeply and share complex ideas.  (Koopman, 2010)  See video below for more educational examples using Wikis.

REFERENCES

Gomez, D. (n.d.). Is social media good or bad for kids? | TG Daily. Retrieved April 19,

2012, from http://www.tgdaily.com/networking-features/57746-is-social-media-good-or-bad-for-kids

Koopman, B. (2010). From Socrates to Wikis. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(4), 24–27.

Kaplan, Andreas M.; Michael Haenlein (2010) "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media". Business Horizons 53(1): 59–68.

McDonald, A. (2009). Facebook in the classroom: Integration of online and classroom debates into courses. Facebook in the Classroom, .

Nations, D. (2011). What is Social Media? About.com Web Trends. Retrieved from

http://webtrends.about.com/od/web20/a/social-media.htm

social-networking-sites.jpg (JPEG Image, 400 × 300 pixels). (2011). Retrieved April 23, 2012, from http://img.tgdaily.com/sites/default/files/stock/social-networking-sites.jpg

Try Zotero Now! (2010). Retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFAQEWGQaS8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Using Facebook to Teach. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj-XCUIbbcE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Using Wikis in Schools and Classrooms. (2011). Retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9fVc886p_Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player

YouTube for Schools. (2012).YouTube for Schools. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from http://www.youtube.com/schools

YouTube for Schools: Join the Global Classroom Today! (2011). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NegRGfGYOwQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

YouTubeIcon.jpg (JPEG Image, 300 × 300 pixels). (2011). Retrieved April 23, 2012, from http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bkk-IMLfmIw/TrSp4fUl8gI/AAAAAAAADTo/R6qNtVOJZ9k/s1600/YouTubeIcon.jpg