Blog Post 3: How we use and are used by social media in education

                Social media had been avoided by educators for ethics reasons and there are still some professional guidelines and rules to guide usage including Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). Ian Jukes argues that the old system of education is not preparing students for the future and that educators need to adapt the classroom to help prepare digital natives for what is coming.
         Recently classes have been experimenting with Twitter and platforms like YouTube to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom. Sheninger shares about New Milford Highschool how social media can affect their lives:
I point out to students the fact that once they post something online (i.e., comments, pictures, videos, etc.), that information can be accessed, adapted, archived, and shared by anyone who has access to their accounts….we ask students to Google themselves and share with us any content they discovered during their search that they were not aware of. It is at this point that reality sets in. (p. 158)
               Social media platforms have been collecting data from educators and students alike who use their platforms and on the dark side have exposed them to inappropriate video content.
Social media platforms have been used to polarize people to extreme political and social views by external powers. Advaita Kala wrote about how people tend to make wrong choices and follow the group referencing work done by Solomon Asch in the 1950s, and how fake news has grown prevalent in social media and is passed around by social influencers.
           Social media is provided “free” through the cost of advertising to students and educators.  It was through these advertising platforms that some people were targeted for political-social polarization. 
             To conclude, social media is getting safer and the older or more limited platforms are getting safer. However, every couple of year new platforms come out and need to go through maturation.  Currently, safer platforms should be chosen carefully for educational use.
 
References

Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). (2019). Retrieved from https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

Juke, I. (2019). Teaching the Digital Generation: Powerful Teaching Strategies for 21st Century Learners Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMznVTGd5yY

Kala, A. (2018). Is social media polarizing society? Retrieved from https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/is-social-media-polarising-society/article25682726.ece

Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital Leadership; Changing Paradigms for Changing Times. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.

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