social media in elt

SOCIAL M

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SOCIAL MEDIA IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

Social media are great teaching tools in our currently life, but how can we use it in a

language classroom?

learners love everything related to technology and internet, so that new technology is

highly motivator, which we as teachers can take advantages of.

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

Social media comprehends a group of social network and other web pages at internet, which teachers can use to teach. This are

some social media’s characteristics:

• Participation

• Open

• Conversation

• Community

• Connective

TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA

• SOCIAL NETWORKS:

MySpace, Hotmail, Facebook, Twitter.

• BLOGS :Blogger.

• WIKIS :Wikipedia.

• PODCAST: Apple iTunes.

ADVANTAGES OF USING INTERNET TOOLS OR SOCIAL MEDIA

• Freedom of speech.

• Share knowledge with other people.

• Make friends online.

• Can be used as a diary.

• Can be used as a portfolio, adding new work per day or per week.

• Independent of time or place.

• It’s not necessary to be an expert on using computers, this is easy to use.

• Students are able to develop communication skills within class using the computer.

• It is a flexible tool which can be used for a wide variety of applications.

• Free of time, place or distance. Possible to create a community of learners.

• Anyone can edit and it is easy to use and follow. Students can be authors, not just researchers.

• Technology works as motivator, students like internet.

DISADVANTAGES

• Need to keep it constantly updated otherwise you lose potential readers.

• Easy to start, hard to maintain.• All the classroom have to count with

easy access to internet.• Difficult to implement in rural

institutions.

• Low level of confidentially.

• Students become easily distracted and use the computers for other purposes.

• Requires Internet connectivity to collaborate, but also the possibility to print.

• The information can be modified in a bad way by any user.

REFERENCES• web20 teach.blogspot.com

• What is Social Media?: an e-book by Antony Mayfield from crossing.