Social media as an effective teaching and learning tool

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Once again, I found a post on Twitter (a tweet?) that I felt strongly related to the ICT and Pedagogy course that I am currently undertaking. Ironically enough, the educational profile, Edutopia, posted Dave Guymon‘s article which discussed the benefits that social networking can have in 21st Century classrooms; specifically in terms of teaching and learning visual literacy. The post explains that social media communications require users to develop visual literacy skills as they make meaning of other’s ideas as well as express their own thinking through visual means. I resonate with Guymon’s thoughts, as he states that such forms of communication should be embraced in order for students to find relevance in the day-to-day literacy practices that they engage in. I feel that this would be particularly beneficial for middle-school to high-school aged students.

On further thought, the article assisted me to develop a new appreciation for Twitter, or more specifically, the relevant educational articles that are posted on a daily basis! I really enjoy scrolling through my feed and discovering new teaching ideas or educational concepts that I never would have thought of before. I find the best thing about the articles is that they are often only a few days/weeks old, meaning that they are discussing up-to-date issues that are affecting the current education system. It just goes to show that social networking sites can be used for much more than basic forms of communicating!

Would love to hear your thoughts! 😀

References:

Guymon, D. (2014, March, 3). Using social media to teach visual literacies in the 21st century classroom [blog post]. Retrieved March, 19, 2013 from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-media-visual-literacy-classroom-dave-guymon?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blog-guymon-social-media-vis-literacy-classroom-list-image