Title: Why Use Social Media?
Course: Tech Tools for Teachers > Section: Social Media for Educators

Reasons for why a teacher should use social media.

Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh) from Erik Qualman on Vimeo.

Teacher benefits

Create a personal learning network

Social media connects you to other educators and experts around the globe, which you might otherwise not have access to. Reach thousands of people with as many unique perspectives to enrich your own knowledge.

Increase your productivity

The very nature of social media is quick, easy, and ubiquitous. Rather than sending a long newsletter to parents when you have time, post short updates in less than a minute and reach everyone where/how they want to be reached. Social media is also mobile, making it easy to share when you want, rather than waiting until you're at your computer.

By integrating with each other, social media tools steamline your digital life, saving you from having to login and check multiple sites.

Student benefits

Engage students

The very purpose of social media is interaction. Get kids to branch out of their roles as just consumers to become creators. Social media enables students to engage with the world, and not just learn about it.

In fact, students are already using social media tools:

- 96 percent of students with online access report that they ever used any social networking technologies.(NSBA Creating and Connecting)
- Almost 60 percent of students who use social networking talk about education topics online and, surprisingly, more than 50 percent talk specifically about schoolwork. (NSBA Creating and Connecting)

If you want to reach your students quicker, use the tools they're already using.

Improve technical skills & digital literacy

The more tools that students are exposed to,the more technical concepts they learn, which leads to less reliance on step-by-step instructions and makes it easier to adopt to new tools in your classwork.

Though students tend to know how to use online tools or can learn them very quickly, they need guidance to use them effectively. Ownership and creation of information has expanded from a few to everyone, making the ability to evaluate information even more critical

Today's students are digital citizens, but they often do not realize the permanence of their online actions and how it could affect their future. The cloak of anonymity and non-face-to-face contact encourages more openness and direct communication – for better and for worse. Students need help transferring lessons of character and good behavior to online environment.

Give students "real life" experiences

The ability to network and to collaboratively create digital content are skills that all students will need in their future; producing work for their peers and/or the public is much more realistic than creating content for just one person (i.e. the teacher).

Additionally, the ability to connect students with experts "in the field" is much more authentic and engaging than a textbook, movie, or other static information.

For more information on using Social Media with students, do the Social Media in the Classroom unit.

General benefits

Reduce paper use

Last but not least, the reduction of paper use that results from using social media has several benefits. Not only is this environmentally friendly, but students can easily lose or forget their paper, whereas online information is much more permanent and accessible. That, and paper is rarely, if ever, interactive.

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