Social Media and Education Pros and Cons

In recent years social media has played an influential role in modern society, especially with children and teenagers. So much so that social media has been banned from many schools. Pupils are accessing social media during school hours and causing disruption to lessons. The whole social media revolution has many pros and cons, some of which I have listed below:-

Pros

• Raises student collaboration within a classroom and at home by having the ability to contact classroom peers regarding school projects, homework or help from each other.
• Encouragement of participation by pupils who do not participate regularly in the school environment, giving them the opportunity to express their thoughts through social media.
• Quick sharing of resources such as posting websites that are useful to pupils on a social media site.
• Useful for homework by requesting help via a social media site.
• Involves all parties i.e. the parent, teacher and pupil.

Cons

• Distraction during lessons.
• Can be abused for personal interactions such as general chat.
• Cyber bullying.
• Decrease human interaction within a classroom.
• Difficulty in monitoring the content being posted which can lead to appearance of innapropriate content that could be offensive to other users. 

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

The biggest social media phenomenon of 2014. What's it all about? Watch this video! Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. There is no treatment or cure. It’s inspiring that someone so young can have such a positive attitude despite that horrific diagnosis. The family took the heartbreaking news and used it to publicise a rare disease and raise funds for the ALS Association enabling the creation of clinical trials of drug therapy to prevent and cure ALS in the future.  A clinical trial of a drug that was set to be tested following 3 years of fund raising is now set to be released in 2 months thanks to the Ice Bucket Challenge. The challenge swamped worldwide social media as celebrities, family, friends and supporters signed up to the cause, all started by a 27-year-old who is now completely paralysed. Who'd have thought that Bill Gates and Barrack Obama would appear on the net throwing buckets of iced water over their heads? This family did! Having watched the video I was truly inspired and impressed how so much good could come from such a devastating event. Thanks to their efforts the sum raised for ALS will reach $160 million dollars by the end of 2014. Be Inspired!