Making the Social Network Work at School

The increasingly pervasive influence of social media, especially in the lives of students, poses a challenge in how to both accommodate and integrate social media in the 21^st century classroom.

According to Edudemic:

• 96% of students with Internet access report using social networking technologies
• 59% of students who use social networking talk about education topics online
• 50% talk specifically about schoolwork
• 30% of students have their own blogs

And, a survey in May from the Pew Internet and American Life Project indicates that teen use of Twitter has increased 50% since 2011.

So it's clear that students as a whole are engaged in social media. That is no big news. But the question of how to leverage and translate that engagement to enhance an effective learning environment remains. How are acceptable use policies reconciled with an evolving technological landscape?

This will be a continuing conversation, but for now, we – and your peers – would like to hear from you. How do you integrate social media in the classroom? How do you leverage social media to enhance your curriculum? And just what constitutes “acceptable use”?