How a Social Learning Tool Like Facebook can be Beneficial to Teachers - Research Paper Example

How a social learning tool like Facebook can be beneficial to teachers Facebook is a phenomenon that has helped shape up the modern times. It is such an important part of the lives of individuals that it is hard to take away from them. Same is the case with students all around the world. They spend quite a while over the Internet and thus explore the intricate details that they have conducted over Facebook. It is a social platform where these students meet, discuss and share ideas, videos and postings. For the teachers, it gives them a platform to understand how their students think of the world around them, what they are doing in their normal, day to day lives, and how they think and act in the wake of changing circumstances. It is a fact that Facebook has become an everyday routine, so much so that it will shape up the coming times in a number of positive ways. The negativities include the fact that people now interact with one another physically less and meet more often on the Internet, through Facebook. However for the sake of this discussion, the basis of Facebook being a help for the teachers around the world would be made note of. This will ask for the teachers to remain vigilant and alert as per their actions and thus showcase their truest selves through persistence and devotion. Facebook is a social learning tool as it gives out so much information that one can take hours at stretch to fathom. Same is the case for the teachers who are on the look-out for new trends and fads that have come up within the ranks of the students as well as within their own lives. Facebook can help the teachers in the classroom as they know already what their students have been up to in the recent times. They can feel pride in knowing beforehand which students are enjoying their life to the maximum and which students have been visiting leisure places of late. All these pointers give them an idea that their students have busy lives just like their own. Similarly, the ones who are unwell and unable to attend school can also be found out through their status updates, pictures that are posted or shared across their walls, and so on and so forth. Basically the teachers are finding reasons why their students are proactively driven, and what makes them feel different in the differing times within the classrooms and indeed in the school. Facebook is suggestive because it tells the viewers what the profiles are telling them. It asks of the teachers to remain glued to their Home screen and find out who is doing what and which student is coming up with the best ideas within his field of life, and so on. In essence, Facebook helps create that vital bridge between the students and the teachers which is required in this day and age. Even at times, students can message their teachers and find out about certain things which are not related with their academic lives (Foulger 2008). This has a very interactive feel about the whole affair that comes about due to the presence of Facebook within their lives. Same can happen on the part of the teachers as well as they explore the inner basis of their students’ lives and discern what is going on behind the scenes and what kind of enjoyment activities are happening within their ranks. Facebook can assist the teachers as they find new and novel ways to reach out to their students. They can devise ways and means through which pertinent strategies can work to their own good effect. Further, if they want to know what kind of activities or events their students are doing and attending, they can have a serious look at their Profile pages. Facebook is such a facilitating tool it can help the teachers immensely (Ramig 2009). It opens their perspectives to know so much about their students that they can only fathom. What is most important is a general know-how into the ideology of doing things that will make the students learn much better and thus concentrate on the learning premise by employing a number of different activities, tasks and behaviors. Facebook does not limit the students in any way. It just opens up their minds and allows them to think beyond the ordinary aspects. These help the teachers because they are always on the hunt for something new as far as their students are concerned. On another tangent, Facebook helps the teachers to know what kinds of new concepts are being delved deep into by the students. It helps the teachers to find out how they can shape up their teaching skills and capacities with regards to their Facebook browsing. They can also chat with their students through the Facebook Chat option. At times, they can tag their students in group photographs that were taken in a school event and thus different comments from the students can be moderated upon. Then again there are times when different Facebook Groups can be established which ask of the old students to come and register. This helps them build up an alumnus of a class that took place a few years back. There is interactivity for the old students that a teacher taught some time back (Feinberg 2008). One can believe these steps help the teachers immensely as they can keep a check what their old students have been up to and what they did after they passed out from school. The element of nostalgia can also be had from such Groups and Fan Pages that are established in the name of old classes and events/workshops that the teachers had attended in the past. There is a great amount of nostalgia involved with all such events and activities that took place some time ago. One must understand that Facebook opens up the hemisphere of collective growth and consultation as it offers the students to get in touch with their old teachers as well, thus bringing in the age-old debate of respect and dignity amongst the teachers and the students. In the end, it would be wise to state here that Facebook is for the betterment of the teachers themselves. The students can also reap a number of benefits if this social networking and learning tool is used for all the right reasons. Facebook will update itself to improve and enhance its features in the coming days and times. What is most important is the fact that its users will have memories which will ask of them to reminisce the olden days and the times gone by. For the sake of the teachers, Facebook holds a special significance as mentioned in the above paragraphs. All said and done, the role of Facebook is not limited to the virtual world of the Internet rather the concentration can also be transferred on to the real world where new relationships can be built over the Facebook and thus moved on forward amongst the teachers and their students in the real world. All such steps and actions are important to understand within the thick of things as one comprehends the real meaning behind having a resourceful tool like Facebook for the sake of the teachers, who are indeed the most important pillars within any society of the world. Facebook will always be there for the teachers to get one step ahead of what they are doing in the real world. This indeed is a sure positive if seen from a correct standpoint. References Feinberg, L (2008). Facebook: beyond Friends. Our Schools, Our Selves, Vol. 17 Foulger, T (2008). Have You Googled Your Teacher Lately? Teachers' Use of Social Networking Sites; Common Sense Doesn't Necessarily Prevail When Teachers Plunge into the World of Social Networking Sites. Disastrous Consequences Can Ensue, and the Authors Urge Educators to Consider the Potential Outcomes before They Post. Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 89 Ramig, R (2009). Social Media in the Classroom for Kindergartners through High Schoolers. Multimedia & Internet@Schools, Vol. 16, November Read More