Social Media as Partner of Teacher in Learning Process
By
GILBERT R. DE LUNA
Teacher III, Magsalisi West E/S, Jaen South
It is now a common knowledge that teachers have indeed a very active presence in
social media including socializing online and for communicating purposes. It cannot be
ignored the emerging role of social media as it used by almost everyone. This is
because of the fact that communication between and among educators plus the
stakeholders are conducted in real time and that the exchange of information among
individuals and educational institutions are prevalent more than ever.
Real-time
communication is not the only reason for being engaged in social media. It has also
become a means or a tool into making the lives of teachers easier, it provides for
platforms for research, gathering material for teaching, easier methods and effective
teaching strategies. This can help teachers compile and make a useful content for their
job. It is now a pleasure for easier and more convenient of providing data and
communicates via social media. Again, social media is not only for communicating with
one another, but likewise exchanges of information. It provides us with the ability to
access the latest and useful information to be given to our learners and to connect our
learners to the teaching-learning process even without physical contact, where they can
feel more engaged in learning process beyond the school walls.
According to one research, a clear majority of the teachers are heavily involved in social
media (Murphy, 2019), foremost among these platforms is Facebook, where more than
8 out 10 teachers are actively engaged in, interestingly, almost the same number of
teachers indicted that use the same social media platforms to get inspirations into new
methods of teaching, new materials and resources for classroom activities. With this
information and date, it could be gleaned that teachers are indeed becoming more and
more entrenched into the web of social media, with more tangible benefits positively
affecting both professional and personal aspect of a teacher.
It is therefore the contention of this author that teaches, especially those teaching in the
public education system, should maximize exposure in terms of usage in social media
as it could bring forth the following benefits:
1. Corrective mechanism – we tend to find people with similar interest, and
therefore we more or less mirror ourselves and see our own directions and
have a better understanding of our works.
2. New materials / resources – social medial is like this virtual gigantic
marketplace of ideas where people tend to exchange feelings, emotions,
materials and new information.
3. Opportunities for growth – social media likewise improve our selfconfidence in such a way that we will the opportunity to be heard, to
become part of a larger group and therefore become more secure in our
understanding of the world, our treatment of others, and how we deal with
different people.
Social media, is becoming more pervasive in its impact into the life of a teacher. It can
provide multiple opportunities to improve learning strategies for the benefit of our youth.
It shall become more entrenched as the world is becoming a smaller community as we
speak. It is becoming a global village, and that people are becoming more involved with
one another. A teacher, being the exponent of education, should be able to grasp the
deeper impact of social media, and perhaps use it, employ its extent for the benefits of
the pupils and also for teachers’ professional growth. Yes, of course, there are some
downsides, but the teacher, being the top of the education food chain knows better, the
discernment is higher and therefore has the ability to maximize all things good in social
media.