Social Media Templates - a Safer Option

We really can't deny that there are great opportunities when it comes to using social media in the classroom.

All over the country, students are blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking their way through their school days, and from tweeting the Civil War to literary characters on Facebook, teachers have creatively applied the fun of social media to their classes to blend content and real-world communication.

BUT there are still some snags with using social media.

Most importantly there's the Terms of Service obstacle. Although we know that many middle school and even elementary school children access social media through their own accounts daily, we also know that their access violates standing Terms of Service that are in place to adhere to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Middle schools and elementary schools have a particularly tough time finding and using websites and apps since their students are under 13.

While we may see the educational value in using social media platforms, we still want to protect our students from being exposed to nefarious influences. We also want to use social media as the doorway to discussions about digital citizenship. In our district, we've created several social media templates for students to use to replicate the feel of social media without its dangers.

In an 8th grade math class, students demonstrated their understanding of slope through a Pinterest template in which they created "boards" that collected examples of the different slopes found the in the food, architecture, and art of different nations.

Check out one student's example here!

In a 6th grade English class, students used an Instagram template to complete an analysis of a character from a chosen book. Students became so engrossed in the project that those who had read the same book linked their presentations together and created a tiny social media web where each "Instagram account" linked to the next.

Students in a high school world history course created a Renaissance social media network in which various notable political, religious, and cultural figures carried on conversations amid Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumbler accounts. Students examined the spheres of social influence each of these figures had on one another and used the various accounts to illustrate those relationships.

So when you're thinking of ways to incorporate social media into your instruction, think of ways to make that use safe, so you can model the best use of technology and the best digital citizenship.

Make your own copy of these templates!

Instagram Template

Twitter Template

Pinterest Template