Strengthen writing with Social Media

As a student I do know that with effort and practice everyone can improve their skills, and the writing skill is not an exception. And in this post I want to highlight that Social Media can be an awesome tool to encourage yourself to use creativity and rely on digital tools to improve these skills. However, although Social Media does impact students, we teachers need to assure that this impact is a positive one.

 

Let’s now see some examples of this idea:

On the one hand, Blogging is a platform where students can practice their writing relying on Social Media and digital tools while teachers can follow their progress. Moreover, a blog means a routine; a platform for a consistent practice of writing, which is the best way to improve. So I would say that consistency is the best advantage of blogging. Therefore, confidence is another ability that will be gained while having a blog. As some students might be afraid of publishing a work publicly, through practice, consistency and encouragement writing will become a more enjoyable experience, and students might get more interest on it and become more meaningfully engaged.

On the other hand, Twitter is useful too as it requires writing short and brief sentences. This can help to practice clarity, precision and brevity. You need to reflect on what you really want to say and choose the correct words. In addition, when students are exposed to writing with their peers in live (like in Google Docs) or not live collaboration, they are able to develop stronger ideas as their owns are being questioned all the time; find convincing evidence and arguments for their ideas and be creative to do not repeat what their peers have said. Hence, collaboration is a relevant skill that students will develop and improve while they improve their writing skills too.

Finally, Instagram, besides being a way to practice brief description, outline and stories of the visuals shared, it is also an undeniable powerful tool for feedback. And feedback help students to improve their writing by collaborating with peers and teachers. To end with, here are some examples of how to use Instagram in the classroom: 

https://ticsyformacion.com/2016/01/10/7-formas-interesantes-de-usar-instagram-en-el-aula-infografia-socialmedia-education/

To sum up, I don’t need to say that all consistency, confidence, collaboration and feedback advantages can be gained in every Social Media well used. And of course, students will not only improve on their writing, but on their knowledge of the real world too, and on their skills on how to look for secure information in the Internet, and I am aware that this are abilities that are not always taught in schools.