How to Use Social Networking in the Classroom

Our society today is becoming more and more technology savvy. Kids today are becoming more familiar with technology at younger ages. The most common way they are using technology is social networking. The most common age group for social networking is middle, high school, and college students. Most of these students have either a Facebook, Twitter, or another form of networking. They usually use these networks to share personal things, chat with friends, and more, however, there are some applications of the social networks that can be beneficial for educators to use to have educational purposes.


One social networking site a teacher can use in their classroom is Edmodo. Edmodo is a network that is very similar to Facebook, but stricter. The website monitors what the students and teacher posts on the website. Both the teachers and students can post, comment, and share documents over this site. The educator can set up a group that is private and has its own place to post. The teacher can also post assignments and due dates, notes, and other important information on the site for the students to view.

Another form of social networking that is popular is Twitter. There is a network very similar to twitter that can be used for educational purposes as well. This network is called TweetDeck. TweetDeck allows students and teachers to communicate by asking and answering questions. By using TweetDeck, it saves the teacher and students' email inboxes to be much less cluttered. Using this network would be much easier for students to communicate. Also, the teacher can tweet the students due dates and other events.


These are only a few of the networks and applications of these networks educators can use in their classrooms. With more and more students joining social networks, it can be really effective to incorporate them in the classroom.