Peer Response #1: Harmony Pierce
Hello Harmony
I really enjoyed reading your blog post this week and especially appreciated the way you highlighted the importance of social media in education. You made some good points regarding how social media can be used efficaciously by teachers to create a more engaging learning climate for students. Additionally, I agree with you and feel that social media opens the doors for students to engage with technology in a fashion that allows them to be creative and explore their own interests.
Expanding past the benefits of using social media within a classroom setting, I was wondering how teachers could apply social media efficaciously in the classroom. For example, I believe educators could use TikTok and YouTube to create educational resources for their students that are colourful, engaging and culturally relevant. Accounts on social media such as the Amoeba sisters, crash course and Bill Nye all offer educational content that is informative and engaging but very few school districts, universities or asynchronous programs utilize these platforms in a similar fashion. Additionally, I believe social media could be used to offer creative, personal and educational assessment opportunities for students who are unable to showcase their knowledge through exams or essays. Offering students the opportunity to submit podcasts, blogs, Instagram accounts or videos allows them to showcase their learning.
I also think incorporating social media into education is a great strategy to incorporate digital literacy and digital identity topics into school curriculum. For example, if a teacher assigns a weekly newsletter to students, the learners are given the opportunity to learn and develop their digital literacy skills through practice.
Great job this week Harmony! I look forward to reading your blog posts in the future!
Peer Response #2: Kenna Laundy
Hi Kenna!
I found your blog post very enlightening! In specific, I was very fascinated by your examples of social media usage and the transmission of knowledge in our current world. I had not previously thought about how social media, specifically TikTok and Instagram Reels, had been used to educate numerous citizens and users about the election and political information. Your blog post led me to do some reflection myself on how much information and knowledge I consume on TikTok. A lot of the initial information I obtain regarding politics, world events and the government comes from TikTok, and despite doing further research, I need to become mindful of the biases that receiving information via social media has. The confirmation bias—the tendency to seek out information that confirms previous beliefs, influences what I search and what articles I click on when I decide to search reputable sources. As you touched on in your Blog post, a huge responsibility when using social media is the ability to recognize our own biases and the biases in article publication.
Being that you are highlighting the practical application of knowledge in social media for the broader population, I would be interested to see if you have any ideas on how we can teach and re-affirm digital literacy skills to the greater public. In this course and many others like it, we focus heavily on the applicability of digital literacy and digital citizenship in a school classroom setting. I believe possible ways to share digital literacy skills to the public could be through implementing initiatives in public spaces such as community centers and public libraries. For example, running workshops to the public on digital literacy in a library or having poster boards available in a community center can allow digital literacy skills to be offered in high-traffic settings. Furthermore, I think creating web-adverts on Instagram, Snapchat or YouTube that include information regarding digital literacy such as internet safety or digital footprints can allow individuals to learn this knowledge as they use social media.
I really enjoyed your post this week! I look forward to seeing your posts throughout the semester!
Peer Response #3: Jason Coombs
I thoroughly enjoyed getting to learn a little about your interests and your personal history through your post this week! Thank you for sharing!
I personally relate to you about preferring in person connections and relationships with peers. I have always struggled to communicate over social media and have always been drawn to in person connections. This idea left me wondering how we could utilize social media to enhance social connectivity in the classroom. As you said, social media can be used as an accessory to social connections offering ways for people to make plans or create study groups and I wonder if that applicability can be utilized in a school setting. For example, I wonder if there is a way to create social media platforms within classrooms that allow students to share their ideas, knowledge, questions and learning through an interactive online site. This would allow students to bridge in person communication and social media as learners would be able to express themselves and their thoughts creatively in the school and within the restraints of a technological classroom resource.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in this module, I look forward to seeing your perspectives in module two!