I think social media networks, such as Facebook, have great potential as learning tools for adolescents. Facebook, though not as popular with adolescents as it once was, provides students with many opportunities for expression and interaction in a way that can be monitored by the teacher and other students. It can be used as a great tool that promotes engagement, collaboration, and a sense of community.

Social media has played a tremendous role in both perpetuating injustices and fighting them. The success and/or survival of many social and political movements has been due, in great part, to organizing on social media such as Facebook. Students, with the guidance of teachers, can also use this platform to explore societal issues that are of personal interest to them and create awareness about topics they care about, including promoting social justice. Ideally this would motivate them to interact more and create a space where they could form respectful relationships in a cooperative, supportive environment that values differences.

While there are many dangers and negative aspects of this site, they can easily be greatly diminished with the proper administration and oversight. For example, teachers can design a class site and set it as private, ensuring the safety of the students from possible predators, and put rules and guidelines in place for students to follow. The teacher can monitor what is being said and work to create a safe, healthy culture within the confines of their private page where bullying and disrespectful behavior would not be tolerated.

A very positive and useful aspect of Facebook is that it is very easy to post many different media formats on there, which, in my opinion, gives it an advantage over other social media sites.  It is very user friendly for teachers and students who can post videos, articles, and music which they can comment on and create discussions about. It is a place where the class can share information and interact with it and the other students in deep, meaningful ways.

Another really good aspect of this site, and others like it, is that many adolescents who might feel insecure about speaking in class would likely feel less timid online and be more inclined to share their true feelings and ideas due to the online format. This could in turn instill more confidence in them and inspire them to be more active in the classroom. For that reason and others, these sites are particularly useful for second language learners because they give them the chance to practice the language in a safe, non-threatening manner which can serve as practice for the classroom and give them more of an opportunity to become more active members of their learning community and the larger society. Because the language is written, the teacher would have many opportunities to identify strengths, interests, and problem areas to work on. Similarly, students who are hesitant to share in class because of an image they are trying to uphold or a role they are pursuing, could be afforded the opportunity to explore different kinds of roles and different aspects of their personality. I think many students feel more freedom to express themselves online than they do in the classroom.

Adolescents generally love to communicate in this format. So, if they are motivated and engaged with the format and material on the site, there are many possibilities for the teacher to help them learn how to be respectful, contributing members of a respectful community; a skill they can surely transfer out into “the real world”.

A big drawback could be if a student didn’t have access to a computer because of socioeconomic reasons. This would be terrible because it would serve to perpetuate the social injustice by marginalizing the student more because of their disadvantage. In order to prevent this from happening, the teacher must ensure that all students are able to participate by providing ways to contribute in the case that the students lacked the necessary tools. For example, one way to accomplish this would be for the teacher to give them access to school computers during the day or after school.

Regardless of the personal opinions and preferences of teachers, technology is here to stay, and students love to interact with it. It is our job as teachers to integrate it in beneficial ways that contribute to students’ learning and growth and, as a result, to societies’ well being.