Bringing Social Media Onto Your School Trip
04 January 2017
Social media is often a hot topic in schools. When students use social media in the wrong ways it can be a bit of a disaster, but used properly, taking the right precautions, it can add to your students’ learning experience. Integrating social media with your school trip is an exciting way of getting your students to collaborate and reflect on their school trip experience.
First off, why bring social media onto your school trip?
Sure, school trips are fun, but there is always a learning objective. The last thing you want is for your students to get so caught up in the excitement that they completely miss the learning opportunities.
Social media can be a way for students to log and reflect on their experiences on your trip in a way that is a little more innovative and exciting that a traditional journal.
It can also be a way of keeping parents updated and let them join in the excitement with their kids. This is especially applicable if your trip is overnight; it may be the first time that the parents are letting their children go away for the night, so keeping them up to date might help to put their mind at ease.
Finally, as we mentioned briefly above, when not used properly, social media can certainly be harmful in a school environment. Online bullying is a problem; unlike the days before social media, there can be no escape for victims when the bullying occurs online. This makes it even more important for parents and teachers to make sure students are using social media appropriately, and showing them that it can be used in productive ways.
So, how can you use social media to enhance your school trip?
The first and most obvious way of bringing social media onto your school trip is by creating a trip blog. You could create one blog for the class, ask students to blog in groups, or even ask students to keep their own blog. Blogging in groups will encourage students to collaborate and bring together their own ideas, whereas a personal blog will help them to reflect on the school trip in their own way, at their own pace.
Why not set aside an hour at the end of each day on your trip (or at the end of the trip) to allow your students to create a blog post; give them a few questions to answer that help them relate their post to the trip learning objectives.
There are plenty of secure blogging platforms designed specifically for schools that allow parents to log in remotely to view the students’ blogs.
Another way to bring social media onto your school trip is to set up a Twitter account and allow the students to ‘live tweet’ the trip. Perhaps, each hour, a different student could get the chance to tweet about what they’ve been doing, what they’re learning, and even post a picture from the last hour. Use a hashtag (#yearsixgoestolondon) so that when you’re back in the classroom it’s nice and easy to isolate the trip tweets for any reflection exercises you have planned.
A Twitter account can be set to be completely private, so only those you accept can follow the account. This makes it a perfect way for parents to follow your adventures, and even start a conversation with the students while you’re still away.
Just make sure…
...That if you’re going down the social media route, you get parents’ permission first; it can be a bit of a controversial topic if not explained properly. Make sure you give parents the low down of how the students will be using social media, the benefits of them using it, and how you’re making sure it’s secure and safe.
Happy tweeting!
Back to Blog listings