Griffith University for Business Teachers
While on prac, I was invited to attend a professional development lecture hosted by Griffith University specifically for high school business teachers. The lecture topic was about social media with a focus on how businesses use social media and how business teachers could teach about social media in the classroom.
I felt like I was in my element. Seriously, social media and teaching?? These are my two favourite things!
Many Teacher’s Don’t Have A Facebook Page
One obvious factor that stood out to me was that many teachers at the event did not use social media. Some teachers don’t even have a Facebook page. In fact, I was told that teacher’s unions advise all teachers against having a personal Facebook profile for 5 years after they finish teaching.
I don’t know how true this statement is, but it was very surprising. If the teacher’s union enforce this rule then I don’t think that they would ever accept my application. I have almost every social media application that is available and I am highly active. I think I would give up my teaching career before I give up my Facebook page.
What If A Student Reads My Profile?
The thought has often crossed my mind: what if a student find my personal profiles on the internet? What if a student found this blog? What if a student finds me on twitter and on Facebook? What if a student took a peek at my Pinterest boards? How would I feel about that?
The answer to that is simple. Social media is a public arena. Everything that you put on the internet stays on the internet. It is for this reason that Teachers should never publish anything that they wouldn’t want their students to read.
If you keep your profile clean, then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. (Great advice, but I’m still a little worried… I will need to think about this some more!)
How Can Business Teachers Use Social Media in the Classroom?
Sarah Slone from Griffith University shared lots of interesting suggestions. She also put all of her slides together using a social media platform called slide share. That means that I can share the slides right here, right now with you.
Here are some examples of how business teachers can use social media in the classroom:
Example 1: Slide Share
This is a perfect example of how teacher’s can use social media in the classroom. We can share our work, our ideas and collaborate with each other with the purpose of creating engaging relevant content for our students. Feel free to use this slide show or to create and share one of your own!
Example 2: Real Social Media Success for Business
I loved the example Sarah used in her presentation. She shared the social media success for West Jet – an airline that produced a viral video and received fantastic success. Here is the clip…
WestJet Christmas Miracle: Real-Time Giving
Successful business stories like this can be used in the classroom to teach students about marketing, promotion and social media. I think it is an engaging teaching strategy that is easy for all teachers to use.
I have a few more examples, but i might leave them for a future post.
Please write me a comment and let me know how you use social media in the classroom!
Do you use social media in the Classroom?
Sia's Place 
We had a huge lecture (In fact more than one) when I first started my PGCE about social media, warning us about people being able to access our information and that things which are put on the internet stay there. I write my blog under a psuedoname – something I’m open about but I do have a facebook and twitter account too. I have been seriously thinking of not having it once I qualify. We have been warned that even heads of schools may ask us about a picture and our page. I don’t have anything of concern on there but I would worry about being contacted by parents more than students. I’m not bothered about facebook but I do have friends on there that would be impossible to keep in touch with, without it. It’s quite a dilemma.