Advantages And Limitation Of Social Media In High Schools

Sean Drew

Professor Rheka Gupta

23182

Group 11

Group Thesis Statement: Although social media has informational and entertainment benefits, in high school, social media is a distraction in the classroom, creates ethical concerns, and withdraws students from human interaction, and therefore, should be restricted in public education.

VII. Counter & Refutation-Notification-News-Community: Sean Drew

Social media is not all bad however. Although, social media has its fallbacks and limitations in an educational setting, there are good points which advocate for its usage. High schools should be progressive, but with limitations, so with that in mind, it is important to consider how schools can implement social media usage since it is so popular.

In the case of a tornado or dangerous snow or ice, social media is another outlet for notifying students and parents of emergency situations. Veil (2011) advocates this usage by saying “Integrating social media into crisis communications response is non-negotiable in the 24-hour information cycle.” Because crisis can arise within just a few minutes, distributing information is incredibly important, and social media is an outlet for that. Social media is applied towards getting information about events and crisis out to people. Veil continues by saying “social media can act as a very fast and effective way to communicate with key stakeholders in the event of a crisis, as many individuals now use various social media conduits as their primary means for getting

Social media is a platform for communication and interaction. From an educational standpoint, students can better build relationships with teachers and other students through online mediums. Wankel (2011) describes this benefit by claiming that “more significantly, [social media] allow student engagement with their teachers and more effective and engaging collaboration with their peers, and perhaps even outreach across cultural divides.” (P.83) Not only does social media provides an outlet to engage with teachers, but it also has the potential to remove bias which helps build a school community. This means teachers and schools can better build relationships with parents and families. Social media also encourages critical thinking. Wankel says, “social media tools gives students the ability to think critically and creatively.” (p. 83) Students have to problem solve and come up with new ways to present themselves to the world. This opportunity for extreme individuality means that students exercise their critical and creative skills just as much, if not more so, than in other core courses. Not only does social media have the ability to expand the community growth, but Wankel goes on to describe how “new media offers self-expression, problem-solving skills, networking, expertise, communication, freedom, democracy [wikis and blogs], and the expansion of horizons beyond