Social Media Networking Project

Introduction
My children’s schools have a Facebook and Instagram account. My youngest,
who is in nursery, has a Class Dojo account as it is the Nursery’s resource
for communicating with parents – uploading PDFs, images, and links. I might
actually be behind things when starting to use social media for education
now!

There are so many useful and productive ways of using social media, and I
find that it is important to keep up with the technological advances
happening in the world – especially in the educational field. I would want to
separate my private social media and my professional one, that little bit of
work separating my professional and personal accounts actually makes
things easier in the long run.

I would “follow” all my students, peers’ official accounts (not their personal
ones, as it is quite easy to stalk others with the tool I plan to use!) and
perhaps others in the educational community like the Ministry of Higher
Education and Scientific Research, as well as the Department of Education
and Knowledge. To enrich work, I would try to follow social media
influencers, specifically those of my students’ nationality or who
communicate in both languages (to give just one example - Khalid Al Ameri
who is breaking ground with people of his age as he shares his experiences
with society alongside his wife, Salama) about educational topics, as well as
any other youth foundations, specifically our Youth Ambassadors. I’d hope
they would follow us back and provide encouragement and support, but that
wouldn’t be the main purpose of this plan.
We would start the beginning of the cycle with students creating new
educational accounts (not linked to their personal ones) and follow my
official account (not my personal one). This would be part of their
Independent Study classes in which they get to deal with language in
context. They would respond initially with leaving a comment on a post.
Then I would click on their name in the comment and find the post that they
made in response, or click on the hashtag related to our class and look at all
the posts as responses. Teachers and other followers would be asked to
respond in a similar fashion, but not required to. They could leave comments
as they like (editing will be done by the teacher, and student
leaders/admin).

I would want students to feel my enthusiasm about their participation.

Students usually sense happiness when sharing their work in a positive way,
and I’d try to support them by not making any corrections but just comment
on how their response has deepened our understanding and usage of
English. However, I’d make note of common mistakes and include them as
part of our writing practice.

I believe that creating such a positive environment in classrooms and using

tools that students can relate to and easily connect to will go a long way in
changing how students feel about learning languages, and getting rid of any
fears or concerns that they might have built up during their high school
years when such methods might have been forbidden to them.
1. Pre-Survey
a. How many followers/fans do you have?
I currently have 147 followers in my non-educational social media site
(Instagram). For the site that I plan to use educationally, I expect that some
(ex-students, peers, etc.) would join as well as new students. I’d imagine at
around 20 followers for the educational media site.
b. How many people do you follow?
I currently follow 929 users. Some are family, friends, some ex-students
who graduated, and many are social media influencers, make-up artists,
joke factories, and positive and inspirational sites. For my educational
Instagram, I’d want to follow more well-thought out users, including formal
sites like the Ministry of Higher Education, the Higher Colleges of
Technology, etc. as well as media influencers who share opinions on matters
that the youth care about in social life, like Khalid Al Ameri who posts about
acceptance, importance of choosing a job you love, and the significance of
family.
c. How many times a day do you post?
I post once every few days, and I alternate between original pictures and re-
posts (with the original account mentioned).
d. How often do you interact with others?
Daily – usually through direct messages with things that I or they find
interesting, or with the quote “this is you” showing videos or jokes that are
similar to that person’s personalities.
e. What time of day do you post most often?
I post most often at night. With the educational tool I’d plan to post in the
mornings, just before class starts.
f. Are your posts focused?
Most of my posts are focused on 2 specific topics – positivity or family posts
sharing daily activities.
g. Do you think about your audience?
Yes, usually my posts are to share with friends that I haven’t seen in a
while, or to share a thought that I might get feedback from and support in.
But before posting something with strong language I’d remember that some
of my followers are people I don’t know, and so think twice before posting.