Are today’s students tweeting their way to better grades? Not really.
However, at least, nine out of ten people hold one of these social media
accounts like Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook.
There are big differences in the patterns of use from one social media site to another. Facebook is the most visited site and the one with highest rate of
postings. YouTube is the second most visited but posting rates are low. While
most of us only think about the negative effects of social media which includes
cyber bullying, internet addiction etc, we tend to forget that social media is
here to stay and there could be a positive upside, too.
A real time example of this use of social media was illustrated by one
of my professors during our Microprocessor class. As soon as the class got
over, the professor would give us a problem to solve along with a dedicated
hashtag like ‘#EE3Micro’ and asked us to post our solutions on Facebook with
the particular hashtag. Now just with one hashtag search, professor and
students were both able to see all the solutions. This helped the students in
figuring out many different approaches to tackle a single problem without point
to point communication with their peers.
Setting up hash tags for individual courses to create online discussion
communities for their students not only
allows the students to tag their academic posts, and view submissions to
see what has been collectively produced but this strategy provokes more
thoughtful responses from the students.When students know that their posts can
be read not only by their peers but also by their professors, they not only pay
more attention on what to say, but take more care of their grammar, spelling and
punctuation.
Social media is all about collaborating, networking, sharing knowledge
and content. Thereby, it can be used as a tool to reduce the communication gap
that exists in our day to day classroom activities. Use of social media is not
without its problems. The two most important concerns about use of social media
are privacy and integrity. In spite of these concerns, people believe that
social media offers value in teaching and learning.
Social media makes it easier and convenient to access and provide
information. Teachers and students remain connected with each other. Professors
have started discussion forums by creating groups on Facebook, where students
can post their queries, ideas and doubts. This also helps them by inculcating
peer learning in their lives. These groups are also helpful to students who shy
away from asking questions during classroom sessions. Besides making their work
easy, another reason behind professors adopting this social media approach is
to create a branding for them professionally. Facebook pages,
twitter accounts, various blogs are highly accessed and hence can help
professors in getting a high reputation. I guess everyone wants to get known
for their work while working!
In every college and university, social media is being integrated in
every way possible, including admissions, campus life, alumni relations and in
the classrooms. If we are missing out on
the usage of social media, we are pushing away a lot potential audience. It is
rightly said, “We live in a digital ecosystem, and it is vital that educational
institutions adopt it”.
This article is written by Harpal Singh, an intern with the E-QUAL - Jadavpur University team. He is a final year student of Electrical Engineering at Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
This article is written by Harpal Singh, an intern with the E-QUAL - Jadavpur University team. He is a final year student of Electrical Engineering at Jadavpur University, Kolkata.