The article I wrote my first summary on for this semester was “Focus Social Media in Business and Professional Communication Courses: A Survey of Student Preferences” By Emil B. Towner and Bruce R. Klemz. This felt like a timely thing to be thinking about considering the fact that we are learning fully online right now. I think it is an important time to be thinking about alternative learning strategies we can be implementing to improve our student’s experiences.

In the article Towner and Klemz noted the following: “The wide use of social media may offer, or require, new approaches to teaching. Social media comes in a wide variety of forms, from text to images to video formats. As such, social media can be integrated into educational settings to achieve different outcomes, including interaction between students and instructors, collaboration between students, and convenient and timely access to information.”  (Towner and Klemz 331). 

“Prior research suggests that social media can aid in the classroom experience by increasing participation, engagement, knowledge sharing, overall learning, or even student grades.” (Towner and Klemz 331-332).

I feel like social media use in college classrooms is worth thinking more deeply about because of the pros that come a long with it. Like anything it has cons as well but for me increased engagement and interaction in this time could be an important addition to the online classroom at a time when students might be feeling isolated.

I also found it super interesting that business majors tend to appreciate social media use in the classroom more than other students. As someone who teaches primarily business students it seemed like a good thing to keep in mind.

I have taken classes where WordPress, Twitter, and Instagram have been used  as learning tools but I have never personally used social media in the classes I have taught so far. This article has made me consider adding some in. Or at least taking a doodle poll to ask students if this is something they would be interested in utilizing maybe as an alternative to some discussion boards. Another thought I have had is teaching more about how to use professional social media tools like LinkedIn.

For the Business Communication Unit 1 Assignment  students have the option of submitting a LinkedIn profile instead of a cover letter but most of my students in the past haven’t done that. I am also wondering if that could be something I use more later and have students use again in class in other units for activities and helping students build a professional LinkedIn presence.  I am wondering if it can provide an alternative to some discussion board activities.

According to the Towner and Klemz  article a lot of the hesitation toward using social media in the classroom comes from privacy concerns on the part of students. Along with Instructor worries about blurring boundaries of professionalism  with students students, or a lack of control over what information students are going to encounter.

I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about how we might combat some of those issues?

I found this article:

https://tophat.com/blog/using-social-media-in-todays-college-classroom/

I thought it addressed some of these concerns with ideas like being strategic about social media use. One idea was to have students make private accounts specifically for the class so that they can maintain privacy. Another was allowing students to see it as an opportunity to help cultivate an online brand a a professional. Another important other idea I took away from this was using social when it is beneficial and innovative to the learning not just because it is trendy.  I found that to be a key point because if we are using it there should be a clear purpose and some benefits.

I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this topic.

Have you ever used social media with your own students? If so how was it and was it effective?

Alternatively have you ever had instructors use it in classes you’ve taken and what have you thought of those methods?

-Rachel