Thing #18

@smichelle0945

 

I can remember when social media was non existent, even when texting was non existent, which was not very long ago. How did we ever go without knowing what all of are friends were doing, who was eating what, how wonderful someones husband/wife is, or where vacation destinations might be?!?! haha. Although social media can be quite annoying, at times you want to jump through your phone screen or computer screen and slap someone for what they are saying, or you want to give them a hug becuase of a hard time they have shared. Either way soical media gets down right personal...not "bubbles" exist anymore.

 

 

Educators and social media is a touchy subject, especially facebook and twitter. Educators are held to a higher standard, almost as if we are some sort of celebrity. Students, other teachers, parents, and gradparents are always looking for a flaw, our actions will always be blown out of proportion. Which is why i will only have a twitter or a facebook for just a very short while longer. Simply because innocent things can be taken out of context.

 

 

The good news is....these listed above are not the only soical media sites available!! And although the ones above are somewhat iffy for an individual teacher to have...who is to say clubs, or classrooms can't have thier own? When using a facebook page or twitter page in the classroom hashtags would be of main priority. Hashtags allow for a set of information to be contained to one area. I can hashtag #christmas2013 on everything I do this year for christmas...when I do that everything with that hashtag will all be connected. Something to avoid would be to use something to general like #christmas2013, because anyone might use that then your information is mixed with thier information and its a mess! Trying something like #teamfreemanchristmas2013 even though that is extremly long...it would allow me to see what team freeman (what we call my family) is up to for the christmas 2013.

 

 

So you see how hashtags can be beneficial, but how they can also be unorganized. Overall I think using this type of thing in the classroom is great, as long as parents, schools, and other teachers are in an agreement to do so. It is hard to take something off the world wide web once you click publish or submit...so keep that in mind!