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Classification of Social Media according to Social Media Toolkit

 I was really excited while I was reading this week's article about the Social Media Toolkit because the article is a treasure-trove of ideas for the use of social media in instruction. Even though its original focus was oriented toward higher education, it is obvious that the Toolkit can be applied to other learning contexts, as well.

First, the Framework for Social Media that the authors used helped me see the big picture behind the use of social media in the classroom. They focus on four main areas, or core functions: instructional methods, knowledge levels, content types, and assessment. 

Second, social media is categorized according to its purpose into six groups: social networking, media sharing, document sharing, live communication, collaboration, and blogging and microblogging. 

Third, the Decision Matrix is the outcome of the application of the Framework for Social Media to different categories of social media. The resulting Social Media Toolkit helps instructors navigate the appropriate social media platforms for a given set of learning goals, content, instructional methods, and assessment.

For example, blogging and microblogging suit the learning goals of remembering, understanding, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Some of them are lower, and some are higher on Bloom's Taxonomy. Blogging and microblogging are both suitable for all content types. As far as instructional methods are concerned, they can be used for concept teaching as well as learner-centered methods. They are also suitable for both alternative and classic assessment. However, using blogs for classic assessment might take away from the affordance for experimenting with language, which makes blogging so attractive.

As an ESOL teacher, based on the Social Media Toolkit, I feel encouraged that blogging is highly suitable for adult ESOL classes in my school. As an educator, I appreciate the guidance that this valuable tool offers, and I will make sure that my colleagues have the opportunity to learn about the Social Media Toolkit and the benefits it offers for instruction.

 


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