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Using social media in the classroom seems like a giant leap for many teachers, however, it is a technology that is already embraced by teenage students and is extremely easy to use to support the teaching and learning of any content area.

Using edmodo, blogster, twitter and even QR Codes will not only increase the motivation, engagement and participation of students, but will lead to an increase of understanding of subject content.

It was found in a recent research study that students who used multiple types of Social Networking Sites to complete their work were more successful at completing their work and felt that they ‘learned more’ using these technologies. This study was conducted in a NSW DET school and required the teacher to ‘tweet’ her students the URL of the Social Media Site (edmodo) that was to be accessed to download the classwork. Students received the tweet via their phones/tablets and were able to use their phones or tablets to complete the class work. The study saw students upload their completed work and contribute to the blog by reflecting on their lesson.

This study also found that there was very limited Net Lingo (sms talk) used when using these mediums and that students overall communicated correctly and effectively. More importantly, there was no evidence of any cyberbullying.

If there is restricted access on these sites at your school, effective social media lessons can still be created and used. Using Maang or Blog Ed is a great gateway to train your students how to use Social Media correctly and provides you, the teacher, with full access and control over the lesson. These sites combined with Moodle or any other site that your school currently uses will help you work towards creating innovative digitalised lessons.