Starting from elementary school up until university graduation, social media has the role to

empower parents, students and teachers to use new ways of sharing information and build a
community. Statistics show that 96% of the students that have internet access are using at least
one social network. What’s even more extraordinary is that, even though some of the students
use the social networks for entertaining and other purposes, there are a lot of them that actually
use it to promote a lot of positive and useful activities. From finding a summer internship,
promoting a success story about how to win the student-loan battle or collaborate on
international projects, everything is made possible.

One reason social media is so popular is that it allows people to personalize the way
they experience and interact with the Web. Tools like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
used to be almost exclusively used to take a break from academics, but social media is
increasingly being leveraged as a study tool, especially for today's tech-savvy students.
Social media no longer has to be an obstacle to studying; it can help students create
and manage a study community, make the best use of study time, and find new
resources to help them learn and retain knowledge.

What is social media?

Social media is a communication tool that allows users to interact with, and
contribute to, content online. It includes popular online social networks such as
Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, with new platforms
emerging. Although social media has a large presence in news and
entertainment, when used in the learning setting for educational purposes it has
the potential to facilitate communication, augmenting the student experience and
improving outcomes, by:

Encouraging interaction and engagement among students

Nurturing a student-centric learning setting

Extending the learning environment beyond the classroom

Facilitating the flow of information between students, faculty, and the campus
community

Why would I use social media in my teaching?

Current research suggests that in the higher education setting, social media may
be used to improve communication between students, instructors, and the
surrounding campus community. While many different types of communication
tools are available in the learning setting, the advantage of using popular social
media platforms is that most students arrive to campus as fluent users of these
virtual tools. Whether or not instructors adopt social media as an education tool,
chances are their students already have created a class-specific Facebook
group, use Twitter to share course information, or use another social media
platform to communicate with other students outside of class.

Are today’s students tweeting their way to better grades? More than nine out of 10 teenagers hold at least one
social media account; Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Vine, Twitter and Facebook rule the lives of most middle and
high school students. And while much attention has been paid to the negative effects of social media,
including cyber bullying, there could be a positive upside, too.

From elementary school to college, social media is empowering students, parents and teachers to share
information in new ways and build a new sense of community. And students are using social media to do more
than just share tips to ace the next exam: They’re turning to Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat to share success
stories for student-loan payoffs, find summer internships and collaborate on projects with students across the
country.

Presence of Social media is growing vigorously. But still social media is considered to be the deteriorating agent in
academics by some people. Instead of fighting a losing battle, as social media is here to stay, the problem of web
usage can be turned into an opportunity for the good. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are used by
almost everyone. Social media is about collaborating, networking, sharing and generating knowledge and content,
and all of these features are of great value in the context of higher education.

Social media plays an important role in every student’s life. It is easier and convenient to access information,
provide information and communicate via social media. Teachers and students are connected to each other and
can make good use of these platforms for the working of their education.

Social media has gained credibility over the years as a trusted source of information and platform where
organisations can interact with audiences.
We are seeing education institutions adapting these developments into their systems and relying on group
resources and mechanisms to improve the student life. The use of social media in education provides students
with the ability to get more useful information, to connect with learning groups and other educational systems
that make education convenient.
Social network tools afford students and institutions with multiple opportunities to improve learning methods.
Through these networks, you can incorporate social media plugins that enable sharing and interaction. Students
can benefit from online tutorials and resources that are shared through social networks and LMS’s.
There is valuable knowledge to be gained through social media such as analytics and insights on various topics or
issues for study purposes. Social media is also a medium where students can establish beneficial connections for
their careers. As an educational institution, it is crucial to be active in many social platforms possible, this helps
create better student training strategies and shapes student culture.
Social media is such a prevalent part of modern society especially for kids and teens.   In most schools phones and
mobile devices have been banned from being used during the school day and social media websites like twitter
and facebook have been blocked on school computers.  Schools are beginning to take a different approach
by introducing social media into the educational system itself.  Here are some pros and cons of social media in the
classroom and how it is being used for educational purposes.

There’s an ongoing debate about the role social media should play in education. Advocates point out the benefits
that social media provides for today's digital learners while critics call for regulation and for removing social media
from classrooms. Finding a middle ground has become a challenge.

As an educational tool, social media enriches the learning experience by allowing students and teachers to connect
and interact in new, exciting ways. Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide a platform where
users can dialog, exchange ideas, and find answers to questions. These sites are designed to foster collaboration
and discussion.

Despite these benefits, critics argue that there are serious risks to using social media in the classroom. What are
these risks—and do they outweigh the potential for opportunity?

Ultimately, while the debate continues over what role social media should play in the classroom, no one can argue
the influence that social networking has on today's students. This tech-savvy generation conducts much of their
life through social media channels. Not surprisingly, they're already using YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter as tools
for learning and collaboration. They expect that their campuses will follow suit. With this in mind, it seems prudent
for today's institutions to get on the social media train and find ways to successfully integrate these tools into the
classroom.

Positive Affect:
Social media is an online technology platform which is helpful to connect people together far and near. It is used to
build relationship among people. The use of social media by students helps to have access to basic information as
quick as possible. It surely has some positive effects on students, such as: they don’t have to travel to get
education there are number of online courses available. Lectures and assignments can be easily uploaded online.
Students are learning about new things every day from social media. Students have easy access to educational
groups on Facebook, twitter and other social media websites. Not only limited to that, they can search and choose
the best career for them.
HOWEVER, in some cases it affects negatively:
The more time the students spend on these social media sites, the less time they will spend socializing in person
with others. This reduces their communication skills. They will not be able to communicate and socialize effectively
in person with others. The employers are getting more and more unsatisfied with the communication skills of the
fresh graduates due to this reason. The effective communication skills are key to success in the real world.

Social Media has affected education in a very positive and revolutionary way. As this modern era has transformed
towards the age of digitization, digital education has also changed the way of learning to some extent and has
made it relatively much easier for students and teachers.
Nowadays, students don’t need to travel much more taking tuition as online video tutorials are available for almost
all subjects on the social media. All the latest happenings and developments in the areas
of technology, science, mathematics and much more are available on the social media forum to enhance the
learning experiences of students.
For teachers also, providing online courses globally with the help of social media communication channels has
benefited them in a great way.
There are numerous communities which expertise on specific subjects, are present on the social media as well.
Also, students can stay updated on all the news related to admissions, job vacancies and related matters through
social media.
So to sum up, it must be said that social media has had a very positive effect on education and carries potential to
be of more help in the near future.