When I was in 4th grade in the early 90s I had a pen pal. She lived in St. Louis Missouri and drew me picture of an Arch, which I figured was very important to her. As a class we gathered nick-nacks that represented Hawaii, packed them in a box, and left it up to our teacher to send them off. Within an eternity of time Ms. Ashley would bring us a box and as a class we would open it to examine the artifacts of this distant land and read our letters.
In 2013 the interactions between 4th graders from different parts of the world have dramatically changed. The concept of having a pen pal has been revolutionized by the use of Social Media Technologies. Students can now Skype, make youtube videos about their hometown and culture, or instantly share photos of their school and city through Instagram.
Teachers can use these technologies to help students broaden their sense of the world around. Teachers can also use this online world to teach their students about collaboration. Google Docs and Drive makes it possible for people work on the same project in twi separate locations.
Science experiments can have a greater reach when classes from all over the U.S. work together on the same project. This massive collaboration and group work will teach students of the diversity in the world. Allowing them a greater amount of references, thus building their neural nets in a way that has never been done before.
Teachers around the world can not ignore that Social Media can play an important and beneficial role in childhood education.
Yes, social media websites can be distracting. This is why it is important to address these issue and teach students how to successfully allocate their computer time. Yes, there are downsides. That is why it is important to be open and honest with students about the powerful tools they are now dealing with and also warm them pitfalls of this online environment.
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