In today’s world of learning, the influence of social media is becoming a factor to consider. The way students learn and receive information is changing thanks to the use of technology. The technology referred to here really transpires just social media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok, and Snapchat. There are positive and negative effects of social networking among students, and there are still ongoing reviews regarding the long-term effects of social media.
For example, video presentation platforms, such as Skype, Google Classroom, or Zoom video conferencing have allowed learning to take place outside the four walls of the classroom. Take the time of COVID-19 lockdown, for instance, no longer is it necessary for a teacher to be in the same room as the students. These technologies have given rise to the flipped classroom model and changed the way knowledge is passed to students.
The positive impact of social media on Education
The world is changing, and students are becoming more diverse in how they communicate. This has translated. You may wonder if it’s too diverse with the much noise surrounding schools lately, but this shows that students are thinking about more than the single viewpoint to what they were born. The noise listed above can also be a positive one as students are now better at leaving out the unimportant stuff and accepting what is important.
Social media has helped to unveil a lot of atrocities that are happening in the education sector. For instance, BBC News Africa released a story in 2019 that revealed the secrets of teachers that ask for sex in return for good grades. These platforms are giving students voices to share their ordeal with the whole world.
Lastly, students can now reach out to industry experts across disciplines, and this can help the students locate more authoritative sources of information. This is a tricky endeavor and students must be taught how to evaluate the source of information even when it may come from a supposed expert.
The negative impact of Social Media on Education
Body language is a huge part of communication between humans, and when people primarily communicate through technology, then body language clues can be missed, or students do not learn to use body language as a cue for understanding the context of what the person is trying to convey.
With the increase in text messages and social media tweets as communication, students are used to not utilizing proper spelling and grammar when communicating. This makes it hard for others to understand the actual context of the discussion, especially when they are talking with individuals who did not grow up using technology as the primary means of communicating.
There is a lot of noise on these platforms, and therefore, information is not retained as well as it may when you are reading a book. This is one of the primary drawbacks of using these technologies in education as it’s difficult to present the needed information in a manner that allows it to stand out from the noise.
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