Why is Social Media Beneficial in Schools?

I think this is a question comes into everyone's mind at some point. Let's get some perspective.
Statistically, there are approximately 2.62 BILLION users on social media in the world. So
that's potentially 2.62 billion people that you are able to connect and market your school to for
FREE! Realistically your school probably won't reach that number but it's a figure you can't
ignore.
Budgets are tight and teachers have limited time on their currently packed schedule. So, how
can your school attract new pupils, parents, and staff?
It's time to start realizing the potential of social media and how it can benefit your school
immensely when used well.

Benefits of using Social Media to promote your school

It’s a great marketing tool! Using social media gives you the chance to communicate and
engage with your community. It's one of the biggest benefits of social media in school. You
want to make sure your school stands out, showing what makes your school special and why
parents should send their children to your school. As a school you know the competition is
high, as parents are looking for more than academic performance and extracurricular activities
when choosing a school for their little one.
Everyone nowadays lives on social media. One of the first thing people do these days when
searching for something new like a school they will whip the mobiles out and look to see if
they have any social profile. Why? Because they are looking to see what everyday life would
be like for their child, the authenticity of the content which is active with real people posting
about what it is like to go to this school. This is why it's also important to have a {responsive
school website}. Being on Social Media can build authentic relationships and get people
engaging with your content. It can promote a good rapport with parents and you can become a
reputable school.
It also builds your online presence. This means the more platforms you're on the wider the
audience you have to market to which will be a great asset to your school’s long-term
communication strategy. Maintaining effective communication strengthens your schools'
identity and portraying the culture of the school to your audience.
The best part it's FREE! Hurray! You can sign up and use all social media platforms without it
costing a penny. This is a great relief for the finance budget.

Benefits of using Social media in the classroom

Many teachers find social networking a great way to expand their own learning and discover
new resources. For educators, social media can be beneficial in numerous ways such as you
can keep up to date with the latest information, ideas and “best practices” in the sector. For
example, by following helpful Twitter accounts like Teach thought who post relevant content
that helps teachers to gain knowledge and inspiration for their classroom.
Here at Schudio also have a twitter account and we post regularly about everything you need to
know how to maintain your school website from keeping it Ousted compliant to how to engage
your audience for your website and much more! Posting great content will showcase your
school making it more appealing which will possibly attract potential teachers to come and
work for your school.
The Parental Benefits of schools using social media is that it can increase communication
between the two. They can keep up to date with what their children are learning at school or
what they may have achieved during the day, keeping them involved in the classroom
activities.
In doing this it helps the parents know what’s happening and understand the teachers'
expectations in classes. It also allows the school to communicate news and events quickly for
example if there is an unexpected snow day you can quickly push out a related post reaching
all the parents to let them know school is shut and when it would be re-opening. Finally using
social media shows the transparency of what the children and teachers are doing every day
which gains trust and confidence for the parent in the school.

Benefits for Students

In using social media, you are able to teach the student to have a positive attitude towards
technology. How to use, how not to use Social Media and how to stay safe online. Educating
young people how to use these platforms and the internet properly is the key to preventing
children miss using and protecting them in the future. Doing this will create a safer culture
online because it’s not going away but educating them is the way forward! You actually have a
huge opportunity to influence for good and that has to be a key benefits of social media in
school.
It can also facilitate online learning e.g. the use of YouTube (the second biggest search engine
after google). Watching educational videos in various subjects can help users gain wider
knowledge.
If you need some inspiration here are some schools using social media brilliantly.

Richardson, I. (2018). The Benefits of Social Media in School - Insights and expert advice.
[online] Schudio.com. Available at: https://www.schudio.com/the-benefits-of-using-social-
media-in-schools/ [Accessed 6 Nov. 2018].

Social media is growing rapidly with some social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter
carrying a particularly high population of members. This research paper critically analyses the
factors surrounding the use of social media in education. The pros and cons of using social media
in education has also been given a distinct consideration. It discusses the advantages and
disadvantages of social media in education as well its role in education. With the changing times,
it is, therefore, necessary to study the nature of education having factored social media.

Social Media Applications used in Education

Education uses social media applications to enhance communication and development of the
quality of education in various parts of education. Educators use blogs as a means of interaction
with students. This becomes practical and efficient when the educators post e-notes in the
respective blog. The answering of questions not understood during class time in these blogs
provides future reference for the students experiencing the problems of the same nature. The main
difference between a wiki and a blog is that a blog has only one author (Ziegler, 2007).

Another social bookmaking tool is Diigo. This social media tool is purely user friendly for
educators and learners since it can pool scholarly resources. It enables its users to get personalized
resources on any topic of interest. Wikis are also used as interactive platforms by education
systems across the world; their maintenance is conducted by collaborative efforts of site visitors.
Twitter is also another social tool used in interactions (Dixon, 2012).

This application enhances learners to interact with fellow students and their lecturers too. Teachers
use Twitter appropriately to enhance respond discussions after class.

Facebook as a social network has also changed the way teachers and students perceive learning.
Educators use this social media tool to interact freely with their learners. Considering that
Facebook has a remarkable feature to notify newsfeeds and upload photos, it is probably the most
convenient way to maintain a close relationship with students (Davidson & Goldberg, 2009).

The educators especially in the field of geography may use this as a way to send picture diagrams
to their students. This enhances clear understanding of the topics of concern for the students. There
are also so many other developing social interactive, tools used in education. They are
unquestionably necessary for they increase the contact between scholars and allow room for
discussion.

The Role of Social Media in Education

The role of social media in education cannot be ignored. This is because social media today plays
a key role in developing the quality of education and increasing the enrollment across the world.
First and foremost, social media act as a motivating tool which fosters student’s active participation
in education. For this reason, teachers should design their schemes of work and schedules in ways
that include time for interaction of students through the social media. Social media also helps
students to collaborate and contribute towards searching for solutions to global issues. It
profoundly influences the education quality of every nation whose students actively participate in
social media interactions (Junco, 2012).

These students develop the ability to think globally, and this is exceptionally beneficial to their
individual career profiles. In fact, some extraordinarily creative students are sometimes lucky to
sell their ideas and projects to potential private companies that need dynamic modes of operation
all the time. A superb example may be the existence of technical students whose creative ideas on
issues such as mobile phone applications are bought by mobile phone industries. For example,
Nokia has previously bought ideas and innovations from university students.

Social media also serves to expose students to various tools that contribute towards the rapid
growth of the educational process. The students should be taught the strength and weakness of
such educational tools and have the chance to use them at any time they feel like doing so. With
social media, the students can also perform group discussions in the form of chats. Such tools are
extremely relevant to the development of education. Social media are also instrumental in
developing the teaching techniques used by teachers. With social media development, it has been
possible for teachers to have online classes that are broadcasted via social networks such as Skype
(Carlson, 2005).

Teachers may also consider recording their lectures in forms of videos and upload them in social
media sites such as Facebook or YouTube for Live streaming. This innovative idea makes the
work of the teacher exceptionally easy, especially because he/she does not have to show up for
revision of covered topics. The students only need to download the tutorials from social media and
use them for revision. In case they need clarification, they can replay the videos for as long as they
wish. Social media is extremely fundamental in the field of education.

Social media provides students with a limitless avenue for students to interact with their peers
across the world. This enhances some sense of balancing of the psychological perspectives of all
students across the world. Those who take education seriously challenge their peers who are joking
with issues concerning the issue of education. This distinction exists due to the primary difference
in the environment they live (Anderson, 2009).

In addition, since learning is a social activity the understanding of this fact is proven as a basic
truth by social media in its quest to develop education. The same way social media tools are used
by some countries to collect opinion polls during the election of presidents, it should also be used
to collect opinions concerning various schools of thoughts in areas such as education, criminology,
ethics, sociology, psychology among other field of study.

Pros and Cons of Social Media in Education

The roles social media plays in education are not debatable. It is evident that education depends
on social media. However, this also comes with quite a number of limitations. In this sense, social
media in education needs to be regulated within its parameters to avoid the irresponsible use of
this vital resource. Social media is functionally necessary in the field of education considering that
it enhances the interactions of teachers in so many and different ways (Lepi, 2012).
Social media acts as a way to develop the student’s communication skills. For example, students
who rarely raise hands in class may be more comfortable to express themselves to their Facebook
friends. Social media also improves the communication between students and teachers. Educators
freely answer the questions of students via Facebook or Twitter. Teachers also send post
homework assignments and lesson plans conveniently using social media. During their part time,
instructors tweet about issues of contention discussed during class (Osfield, 2009).

Social media has disadvantages for students too. When students are connected, they successfully
search for information on Google, Facebook and other web services, although the use of the
Internet simultaneously seizes and fragments the attention of students. Consequently, there is a
likelihood of students missing some crucial information from their tutors due to the divided
attention. Another seemingly fatal disadvantage that comes along with the use of social media in
education is the subversion of higher order reasoning process (Barnes, 2007).

The focus, concentration and persistence of individual students is altered to the extent that the
student’s ability to think critically is at stake since they are used to getting all the information they
need from the Internet. With persistent use of the Internet, the results are less tenacity, less
patience, poor critical thinking skills and impulsivity. This is usually a result of overdependence
in the use of social network to do everything in academic work.

Prolonged uses of the Internet usually expose students to repetitive, interactive and addictive
stimuli. This stimulus has been proven to cause permanent changes in the brain structure, which
damage the learning skills of students (Mills, 2011).

Although it is true that the longer one uses the Internet, the more the students develop the skills
of skimming and scanning, it is also a proven fact that this degrades the concentration spans of
individual students.

essaysprofessors.com. (2019). Education Essay Sample: Social Media in Education |

EssaysProfessors.com. [online] Available at:
https://essaysprofessors.com/samples/education/social-media-in-education.html.