That is, with a bit of technology literacy as well as a clear set of expectations for both students and teachers, there seems to be little reason to believe that social media can’t be as influential to the classroom as the video cassette recorder or even, the very invention of writing: both technologies that were challenged in their day, either by the US Supreme Court ( the former) or by Socrates himself ( the latter).Īs part of the classroom, social media technologies such as Twitter can allow for students to engage with both course content and fellow classmates in a real-time format – research has shown that Twitter can be used to bring students in large classrooms closer to each other and to course content, critical given that large lectures are often lambasted for being so impersonal, perhaps encouraging passive and shallow learning by design. Such technology abstinence policies are no doubt successful in removing some distractions from the classroom, but they always struck me as a bit severe – or at least, myopic to the very real possibilities that social media technologies could be used to both enhance learning in the classroom as well as sustain learning outside of class. These concerns have led some professors to ban social media and other communication technologies in their classrooms, in attempt to cut off access to what some consider to be weapons of mass distraction.
These observations have led to claims that Millennials have lost the ability to socialize with each other, and perhaps critically for education, their obsession with social media competes with the attention their willing to give their studies. When it comes to Millennials and classroom engagement, the generation is heavily maligned – denounced (albeit, with a shimmer of home) by Time magazine as the “ me me me generation” - and most critically, constantly rebuked for their love of social media and smartphones: over 98% of Millennials own a smartphone, according to Nielsen Research.
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