You can’t stop the beast. No matter how hard you try, students will use their phones or laptops to get on the internet during class. How else are we going to tell the world that we are in class if we can’t update our statuses? Since cell phones became more affordable in the past 10-15 years, an astounding 99.8% of college students have cellphones and according to a Baylor study, 60% of students admit to being addicted to their phones.

How can educators leverage this negative and create a positive? To use a common phrase, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Why not incorporate this technology into your lessons? Here are a few ways this can be accomplished.

Twitter:
I tested this method out myself yesterday during a presentation and it works like a charm! Ever find yourself unable to finish your lesson because of the amount of questions being asked during the class? What I did for my presentation yesterday was to put a hashtag for the class on each slide and allow the attendees to tweet their questions throughout the presentation. This benefits the attendees as well because they can ask the question while it is fresh and not risk forgetting their train of thought. At the end of the presentation, I was able to go through the questions, field follow up questions and take additional questions. The conversation is able to continue outside of class using the same hashtag. This is also beneficial for those students who do not necessarily enjoy speaking up in class.

Google Docs:
Crowd sourcing notes is a great way to get a comprehensive overview of that day’s class. Google Docs (and like programs) allow for real time collaboration. Students can have this app open on their phone or on the computer and can type in notes during the lectures. This is beneficial for students to prepare for exams and for student who missed class. This could also be a good gauge for professors to assess what the students are getting out of the lecture.

GroupMe:
Class chatrooms on programs like GroupMe can allow for students to assist each other during class and after class. Similar to the Twitter concept, this would serve as a communication method for students to get clarification, ask questions and receive help with assignments.

Can anyone think of other ways to incorporate social media into the classroom?