Before we embark on our journey of how to use social media in the classroom, let's first get a very clear understanding on what social media actually is. Review the video below (on YouTube - a social media platform in its own right):
A social networking website is known by many different names. You might have heard people use terms like “social networks”, ”social media”, “online communities” or “social networking sites”. All of these terms
essentially mean the same thing: An online community is a social networking website where people are able to communicate with other people that they know such as family and friends, as well as organizations and the rest of the world.
People can communicate on social networks in a variety of ways, they can send text messages to one another, find and connect with friends, share photos, videos, thoughts, and articles from other websites, create and post their own photos, videos and join
online communities where people have the same interests.
The list of social media applications is extensive but for the purposes of keeping within our allocated time for this study unit, we will focus on Facebook, WhatsApp, Google Meet and Google Chat (previously known as Google Hangouts) Please explore the other popular platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest since you may feel more comfortable using these platforms in your classroom.