The power of social media can’t be ignored in today’s world. When it comes to education, there are several ways in which schools can harness the power of social media to empower students and promote themselves. Here are some ways in which schools can effectively use social media.
To broadcast updates and alerts, schools can use Facebook Page
The traditional classroom dashboards can be cumbersome for both students and teachers. However, when the class students follow the class’s Facebook Page, the teacher can use it to post class updates, have discussions and also share assignments. Even if a student is not active on Facebook, they can still access the Facebook Page as such pages are public.
To stream live lectures or have classroom discussions, use Facebook Group
Class teachers can use Facebook Group in a public or private context to host live lectures, discussions, announcements for their class. This works particularly when during school breaks, snowy days, or special times like pandemics. It provides a very professional environment where teachers can send the access links to both parents and students instead of friend requests.
For class message boarding, schools can use Twitter
This is another great tool to facilitate discussions or messages. The school teacher needs to create a unique Twitter handle per class. The 280-character limit on Twitter enables students to think analytically and communicate in a concise yet effective way. This makes Twitter particularly beneficial in developing the analytic and communication skills of children.
Schools can use Instagram to host photo essays
Ideal for pictorial storytelling, students can use Instagram to knit pictures or graphics along with a storyline to express themselves in the classroom. For a classroom, an Instagram account can be easily set up as a platform and can be deleted later after the academic year is over.
Form class-specific Pinterest board
Teachers can use this platform to prepare and effectively organize resources like lessons, worksheets and store them in the class-specific Pinterest board. It is great for students too who can use it to pin useful websites, and other media resources by topic and reference later.
For marketing and promotion, schools can create and share social media links
When students or prospective parents visit the internet, especially school websites or social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, they can know all about the school in terms of infrastructure, education system, reviews, etc. to evaluate their interest. They can even communicate with the school on these platforms to ask anything.
There can be several other ways to leverage social media for schools.
