Let’s start with Snapchat, https://www.snapchat.com/.
Elgersma, 2018, suggests that Snapchat is popular with tweens and teens. It is
a messaging app that lets users exchange pictures and videos that are meant to
disappear after being viewed (you have to be very naïve, or young, to believe
anything ever disappears from the internet!!!). It is used to share everyday
moments and has games, quizzes, news and entertainment. The main idea is to
take a picture or video, add filters, lenses or other effects and then share
them with friends. (Elgersma, 2018)
Your name, an email address, and your birth
date are required to sign up. Newberry, 2018, indicated that most users have a
handle (username) which is a silly name. You can add friends by uploading your
contacts, by searching for someone, or by taking a picture of their
"Snapcode," a special QR code unique to each user. Conversations
start by tapping the camera circle and taking a snap (picture). Snapchat has
many editing tools, including filters and special effects. Once you have
completed editing your snap, you send it to your friends. (Newberry,
2018)
What is the downside of snapchat? Elgersma,
2018, said that users are suppose to be 13 years old to sign up, however, there
is no age verification process. My Grandson had an account when he was 11 years old. Another drawback is that it is easy to add
friends that are not really friends; and Snap Map lets friends see each other's
location on a map. Users can subscribe to Discover which offers content created
by celebrities, news and entertainment outlets, and other users. Some of this
content is for mature users 16 and over. (Elgersma, 2018)
Why use Snapchat as an educational tool? You
can humanize yourself and bond with students on their own terms (Addyson-Zhang, 2017).
The attention span of a human is 8 seconds, a goldfish has an attention span of
9 seconds (Addyson-Zhang,
2017). You can use this to your advantage: send students test
questions, a major take-way concept from lecture, propose a discussion
question, and set times for review (Addyson-Zhang, 2017).
Most importantly, you are meeting students in their space (Addyson-Zhang, 2017).
Matt Miller believes that the “stories”
feature is the best way for teachers to Snapchat. This feature allows you to add
pictures and videos (10 seconds in length) to your story (Miller, 2016). The
story can be viewed by your followers for up to 24 hours (Miller, 2016). With
Snapchat you can draw on a picture before sending it (Miller, 2016). This is a
great way to illustrate a vocabulary word (Miller, 2016). Have students do a 10
second video of the most important concept they learned from you in a
particular class (Miller, 2016).
Some excellent videos and articles on Snapchat
include: How to
Use Snapchat: A Guide for Beginners (article), How
to Use Snapchat: Critical Tips for New Users (article), How to
use Snapchat (video) and How to use snapchat in 2018!
so many updates! (video).
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/about/us/)
is another great way to communicate with students. It is a networking service
owned by Facebook, Inc. with which you can share photos and videos. Uploaded
photos and videos can be edited with various filters and organized with hashtags
and location information (geotag). Hashtags makes it easier for others to find
messages with a specific theme or content. Your posts can be shared publicly or
with only your pre-approved followers. The hashtag and location features allow
you to browse other users' content or you can choose to view trending content. You
can "like" photos that others have posted and you can follow other
users. (Wikipedia) Caroline Forsey has a great step by step guide online for
setting up and using Instagram called How to Use
Instagram: A Beginner's Guide.
Gannon Burgett also has an excellent article
on How
to use Instagram. He has tips and tricks on
how to get the most out of Instagram. When signing up, you
can choose a unique username, or handle, like with Snapchat. By clicking on your
profile, you can easily add a photo of yourself or whatever you want. In the
Edit profile menu, there is an option to add a bio or other personal
information. In
the profile tab, choose the Options setting (the gear icon in the upper-right)
and then select Find Friends. Here you can search for friends by name,
username, or hashtag. By using the camera icon, in the middle of the bottom
menu of the app, you can post your first photo or video from your phone gallery,
or by taking a picture or making video on the spot. (Burgett, 2018) Before you
share it, you can make edits, add filters, add a caption, add hashtags (of
other Instagram users), add a location, and choose to link it to other social
networks (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, or Swarm). (Burgett, 2018)Many of the features associated with Instagram are similar to those found in Snapchat. Instagram has a ‘Stories’ feature which can only be viewed for 24 hours, as does Snapchat. To view someone else’s story, tap on their profile photo, and their story will appear full-screen. It will show all content they have posted in the last 24 hours, played from oldest to most recent. You cannot like or comment on the story. To create a story, tap on the ‘+’ sign in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Then add a photo or record a video, and edit, add filters and add text and drawings to your content, just as you would normally on Instagram. You can also see how many times each post in your story has been viewed and who has viewed it by swiping up while watching your own story. Instagram has Stories stickers that can be added to your content. (Read, 2018)
How can you use Instagram in the classroom?
First, set up a private account for just your students (Hudson, 2016). Then
share images of student projects, or have students share an image of their
project and then talk about their project to the class (Hudson, 2016). Have students
pretend to be some character and then post an image that the character would
post (Hudson, 2016). They could do a story on steps in a science experiment
(Hudson, 2016). You could post several pictures and have students write a story
about the pictures. You could highlight student projects (Hudson, 2016). Teachers
can network with other educators using hashtags such as #TeachersFollowTeachers,
#TeachersOfInstagram, #education, #edtech, or #STEM. (Persico, 2016). You can also share lesson plans or find ideas for
classroom activities.
Twitter is an online news and social
networking site where users communicate in 280 characters or less. Tweeting is
when you post a message for your followers to view. Tweets are the messages. It
can also be considered microblogging, which is a short message using text,
images, video audio, and hyperlinks. By limiting the message size, Twitter is
easy to scan and keeps the tweets focused but challenges the user to be clever
in word usage. (Gil, 2018)
Twitter users choose who to follow. When you
follow someone, their Tweets are added to your timeline, also called your feed.
This is your ‘Home’ page tab on the top left when you log in. To the right of
‘Home’ is ‘Moments’ which collects the greatest news circulating on Twitter. In
‘Notifications’ you can see how others on Twitter are interacting with you,
such as which of your Tweets have been liked, Retweets of your Tweets, Tweets
directed to you, and your new followers. In ‘Messages’ you can send or receive
Direct Messages from other users. ‘Search Twitter’ on the upper right side
allows you to search by using the hashtag symbol (#) then a word, or just put
in a name or topic you are interested in. Clicking on your profile picture
allows you to edit your account, settings, and get help. (Stegner,
2017)
There are symbols under every tweet, except
yours, that allow you to interact with it. On the far left is a Reply icon
where you can send a direct response to that user. With the next icon to the right,
you can retweet the post to your followers. By clicking the ‘Heart’ icon you
can agree with or like the user’s tweet. Your likes are public. Anyone can go
to your home page, click on your ‘Likes’, to see who you agree with. Also, the tweets
you ‘Like’ may appear in your follower’s timelines. The envelope icon allows
you to send a direct message to the user. (Stegner, 2017)
After you have been on Twitter for a couple
of weeks, use the ‘List’ feature to keep those you are following organized. A
great YouTube video is: How to use Twitter Lists.
Another good feature is How to
Mute and Block Someone on Twitter. Some excellent articles on Twitter
include: How to Use Twitter,
How
to use Twitter, How to Use Twitter.
You can use Twitter in the classroom just
like you can with Snapchat and Instagram, however, you can use more characters.
So now they can summarize a lesson, give the main idea or concept of a lesson,
suggest quiz questions, post field trip videos, play word games, decipher
riddles, do scavenger hunts, connect classrooms, follow professionals, and ask
questions. The list is endless.
I did want to write a bit more on Hashtags (#). I had to start studying technology and education before I could figure them out. They are used on many social websites and applications to provide a link to a specific topic. A hashtag followed by any word or group of words (with no spaces) becomes a searchable link. By clicking on a hashtag you can see all the posts that mention that topic. You can create your own hashtag simply by including it in your message. (Brooks, 2014) Examples of some good educational hashtags include: #edchat, #edtech, #education, #lrnchat, #edapp, #teaching, #classroom. If you want more information on hashtags read this article, The Do’s and Don’ts of How to Use Hashtags, or watch this video, What are Hashtags? How to use Hashtags.
I have left out many social media sites such as Facebook, Tencent QQ, WhatsApp, WeChat, Qzone, Tumblr, Google+, Baidu Tieba, and Viber to mention just a few. The article, 60+ Social Networking Sites You Need to Know About, suggests many upcoming sites for 2019.
The following are some great social media sites for teachers:
Edmodo, WordPress, Blogger,
and LabRoots.
To read more about these and others read the article, 25
Awesome Social Media Tools for Education.
Let your hair down and have fun with Social
Media!!!
Will you try Snapchat, Instagram, or Twitter?
Let me know what you think!
Please comment below.
References
Addyson-Zhang,
Ai (2017). Using Snapchat 👻 as a Teaching Tool:
Insights from Professor Michael Britt. Retrieved
From: https://medium.com/@aiaddysonzhang/using-snapchat-as-a-teaching-tool-insights-from-professor-michael-britt-day-16-42945e32cb18
Brooks, Rich (2014). Hashtags Explained: The
Complete Guide to Hashtags in Social Media. Retrieved From: https://www.takeflyte.com/hashtags-explained
Burgett, Gannon (2018). How to use Instagram.
Retrieved From: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-to-use-instagram/
Elgersma, Christine (2018).
Everything you need to know about Snapchat. Retrieved
From: https://m.phys.org/news/2018-06-snapchat.html
Forsey,
Caroline (2018). How to Use Instagram: A Beginner's Guide. Retrieved
From:
Gil, Paul (2018). What Is Twitter & How
Does It Work? Retrieved From: https://www.lifewire.com/what-exactly-is-twitter-2483331
Hudson, Hannah (2016). 10 Surprising Ways to Use
Instagram in the Classroom. Retrieved From: https://www.weareteachers.com/10-surprising-ways-to-use-instagram-in-the-classroom-2/
Miller, Matt (2016). 15 ways to use Snapchat in
classes and schools. Retrieved From:
Newberry, Christine (2018). How to Use
Snapchat: A Guide for Beginners. Retrieved From: https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-use-snapchat-beginners-guide/
Persico, Anthony
(2016). 7 Ways Innovative Teachers
Use Instagram. Retrieved From: https://mashupmath.com/blog/2016/4/12/7-ways-innovative-teachers-use-instagram
Read, Ash (2018). Instagram Stories: The Complete
Guide to Using Stories. Retrieved From: https://buffer.com/library/instagram-stories
Stegner, Ben (2017). How to Use Twitter. Retrieved
From: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-use-twitter/
Wikipedia (2019). Instagram. Retrieved From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram
