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My name is Chase Bjornerud-Brown and I am a fourth-year Psychology student. I am from Chilliwack, British Columbia, and love to hike, fish and go camping. I decided to pursue a minor in education at the start of my third year. The summer leading up to my third year, I managed a pool and I spent a lot of time organizing and leading the district’s swim lesson program for middle school students, and ended up enjoying the age group and my experience engaging with them. As a result of that experience, I decided to pursue a minor in education and am planning to complete a professional development program (PDP) to become an elementary school teacher.

Social Media

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Before this course, I had never thought of social media as a platform that could be harnessed to educate students. I use social media as a way to connect with others. I have enjoyed the opportunities social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat have given me to stay in contact with others and see what they are up to without frequent communication. I think that social media could be very useful in education as it may be a way that educators can teach students using something culturally relevant (Evans, 2024). For example, creating colorful, fun TikTok’s or reels related to course material would be a great way for students to interact with the material at home or outside of school. I know that my friends and I, are drawn to accounts and reels that tell us facts and information in a way that is flashy and accessible such as the Amoeba Sisters on YouTube. Some positives of this strategy would be that social media promotes creativity in how students can showcase their learning and allows for student-teacher interactions to take place outside the classroom (Ali, 2023). Despite that, I believe there could be challenges as learners may begin to rely on a digital form of learning instead of engaging in the in-class materials (Ali, 2023)

Watch the video below for 5 reasons, educators around the world should encorporate social media into their teaching

Information is provided by the websites below. Follow the links for more information:

Ali, A. (2023, December 20). Positive and negative impacts of social media on Education ” Hubvela. https://hubvela.com/hub/technology/positive-negative-social-media/education/#3-encouraging-active-participation-and-student-engagement

Evans, M. (2024, October 22). Social Media in Education: 13 ideas for the classroom. University of San Diego – Professional & Continuing Education. https://pce.sandiego.edu/social-media-in-education/

Digital Literacy and Digital Identity

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With the boom of technology, digital literacy is essential. It allows students and adults alike to be safe navigating new technological waters, recognize the biases that lie in articles and information online and allow them to use the platforms effectively to educate themselves and seek out information (Brown, 2021). Apart of digital literacy is digital identity and online presence. Digital identity is the information and characteristics of a person that exist on the internet (Hanna, 2024). Digital identity is hugely important as it impacts the way that potential employers, partners, friends, families and schools may look at you (Hotchins, 2025).

To manage your digital identity, you can ensure everything you post and engage with online is proffessional and supports your career goals (Hotchins, 2025). Furthermore, to maintain a positive presence you can be conscious to maintaining a professional demeanor, engaging positively and respectfully with other people (Hotchins, 2025), and be mindful of the possible social and cultural implications of what you post.

Being that the future is in technology, I believe it is important to create ways to incorporate social media into education and simultaneously increase the populations knowledge on digital literacy and identity.

Information sourced by the links below. Read for further information.

Brown, C. (2021). Chapter 1: Introduction to Digital Literacy. Digital Citizenship Toolkit. https://pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca/digcit/chapter/chapter-1/

Hanna, K. T. (2024, April 29). What is digital identity?: Definition from TechTarget. WhatIs. https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/digital-identity

Hotchins, J. (2025, January). Module One: Introduction to social media and personalized learning [PowerPoint slides]. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Victoria.