Social Media P2

Social media and it's place (or non-place) in education. I came across this clip a while ago, and besides being pretty funny, kind of sums up how I sometimes feel about devices in the hands of kids, which I know isn't necessarily the same as social media, but bear with me. (And if you have more time you can watch this clip, which is one of my all time favorites, and only relates because it's the same comedian...)

Back to the point. The part that catches me the most is when Louis CK describes how kids are losing their ability to learn empathy because they don't look up from their phones anymore. Instead of saying something mean to someone's face and then actually seeing the reaction of how they just hurt that someone's feelings, they now can text or chat online those same hurtful messages and never see a reaction to what they've done.

This has caused me to think about reasons why social media may be a good thing to use in schools. Cyberbullying has become a major problem. I would argue that the biggest reason for this is because kids feel like they can say anything they want without any consequences. Allowing kids to use social media tools in a classroom environment gives them a chance to learn how to appropriately express themselves, and still see that their words can have effects on others.

I still don't know what that would look like in the classroom, especially a classroom of really young children. But I suppose it has to start somewhere.