Something that’s been important to me as a teacher, both in the physical classroom and the virtual one, has been harnessing social media as a way to share artistic and educational experiences as well as to build relationships and rapport with (and between!) students.

In the face-to-face context, where I was most recently in a middle school classroom, there was a big emphasis on keeping it safe and private. I was using a closed-community social media called “Seesaw” that had a lot of the functions of twitter and instagram, but created a private network for students, teachers and parents.

It was awesome, and I enjoyed it immensely, but it wasn’t without limitations. There was no ability for students to explore outside the realm of what I was doing in the classroom: it was so cool to see students sharing their work with their peers, but it ended there, which was disappointing. At the end of the day, I felt like the app was for parents rather than students: it provided a window into the classroom, but not a window out.

Coming out of that experience and moving into the high school online context, I knew that I wanted to utilize social media, but I wasn’t sure how. I heard some great ideas from colleagues at Collaboration of the Minds, but I hadn’t quite made the connections yet for how I could use that in my own practice. However, I’ve had those Why- and How-based questions simmering in the back of my mind, and I’ve begun to come to some conclusions.

What do I want out of Social Media?

• I want students to have a platform on which to share their successes and their breakthroughs
• I want students to build relationships with one another and be able to communicate and work together in an online context
• I want students to be able to step outside of what I’m sharing with them, and explore on their own
• I want to teach the necessary skills of digital citizenship and have the scope of my classroom to reflect what students will experience in their own world
• Knowing that most students are on social media anyways, I want to sprinkle in some art. I want them to be consistently exposed to it. (Is that the kind of logic used by advertisers to brainwash me into buying a specific brand of toothbrush? Maybe. I’m just trying to foster a little creativity.)

This list is far from perfect, and far from exhaustive. But I think it’s a good starting point.

Now that we’re at this transition point in our semesters, I’m looking ahead to my new classes, and thinking about ways to use Social Media more effectively. Some shower-principle ideas that have been floating around in my mind and on sticky notes on my desk:

Weekly instagram challenges: This idea I like because it could be applied to all of my courses. From Film Studies to Digital Imaging, and even Careers, I can think of ways to connect to the content. Potential drawback: what if no one participates? (See past failure: padlet that 1/150 students posted on. Even after I made an anonymous post pretending to be a student, hoping it was just the fear of being first. A truly rock-bottom moment.)

Twitter Hashtag: This one’s still steeping. I can have a challenge, similar to the instagram one but with a wider media scope: maybe everyone tweets a fact about one of the movies in Film Studies that they’ve found, or a link to a resource site for a paper. Maybe they all find an artist’s account and submit it so that we can share who we’ve been inspired by. Definite drawback: I have very little first hand experience with twitter. (Until last year, my only twitter account was called soup reviews, and that’s what it was.)

The Class Playlist: This one I’ve actually already put into practice. I added to the requirements for my Introduction Discussion Board posts that students should share one “chill/relaxing” song from youtube (school-appropriate) that I could add to a “Class Playlist.” As I’m checking their submissions, I’m adding them to the playlist and building up a mix that I can keep under Announcements for students to listen to while they work. Knowing that kids (and all people ever) like to share a favorite song, I was hoping this would encourage some more engagement on the discussion board. Fingers crossed!

Here’s our Playlist so far.

Updates to come on some of these new initiatives! I’m excited to expand the ways I’m using social media in the classroom.