The Roles of Instructional Software in Teaching (Essay Sample)

The Roles of Instructional Software in Teaching
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In the current world, information technology somehow found its way to the lives of people in terms of their work places, and their personal lives. People carry out many activities with the help of information technology. Among such includes, acquiring GPS direction, reading e-books, connections with family and friends on social media among others. Often people engage in these activities from their smart phones and their tablets. Technology also changes the learning concept. It changes the way that teachers interact with their students. The National Education Technology Plan 2011 sought to include different aspects of technology in teaching students. Technological learning creates a great advantage in that the system of learning and access to various kinds of data.
Technologies offer the teachers involved a wide mass of information that can help them offer better services to the children as well as enhance the collaboration that they have with their colleagues (Lewis, 2006). There is good news in that students and tutors have very many different kinds of technologies from which they can choose the one that suits them the most. These technologies include blogging platforms, tablets, smart phones, whiteboards, and social media among others.
The bad news involves the aspect that most schools lack adequate resources to use these kinds of materials. This means that they lack access to these kinds of resources, which eventually have sentimental value to the educational system. There is the option of using free technology such as social media on the classroom set up (Nilsson, 2010). However, there are a number of people against the use of this kind of technology especially among children in elementary school. This paper looks at the use of social media, specifically Facebook as a means of educating people in the society.
There is a lot of controversy over the use of Facebook in the classroom set up. There are people that support the idea in that it supports the integration of children to a new concept. However, other people do not understand or support the concept. The main reason behind all this controversy over the use of Facebook in a classroom set up is the fact that there is very little research on the benefits of the use of Facebook in a classroom set up. Because of this, people have a varied idea over the possible effects of the use of Fin the classroom.
There is a need for further research on the importance of the various forms of social media in terms of networking in education. Several writers attempted to look at the importance and the effect of social media in education (Perkins, 1995). However, a limited number of people focus at the role that social media plays in the education set up. One important factor to note is that students use social media a lot. Facebook has found its way to the education networks across the globe. At times the students use Facebook for education while at other times they use it for other reasons.
Somehow, Facebook ended up being part of the lives of many people around the world. There are students that create an online persona that meld with who they are in real life. The role that educators have at these levels is to help the students use the Facebook platform that they have for a better use. They have to encourage the students to use facebook for a better purpose rather than just the social aspect of it. Another thing that people need to consider is the fact that in most cases students have their minds made up in matters concerning facebook.
Teachers therefore have the role of simply guiding them on the proper use of facebook. Since students already have their minds made up concerning facebook, the teacher has the role of guiding the students. Good teachers require the skill of adaptability. Therefore, they have to adapt to a new aspect that allows them to reach the students in an easy way. Successful teachers therefore have to find means of adapting their teaching methods to manners in which they have the ability to reach students and answer to their learning needs. While the use of facebook creates a he challenge in the learning world, people have the capacity to achieve it.
Once used correctly students can use facebook as one of the best learning tools. This research paper looks at methods that students and teachers can apply and hence make maximum use of facebook as a learning plat form for them. This paper looks at six main platforms. First, it looks at the advantages of using facebook as a means of education. Second, it looks at the tips that teachers could use in the application of facebook in the classroom set up.
The paper also looks at the various ways that teacher can apply the use of facebook in the classroom set up. The fourth looks at facebook applications available for teacher and students. The fifth looks at various groups available for teacher and students to use. The last part will focus on privacy issues concerning education through facebook. It offers information on how people can use these settings.
Advantage of the use of facebook in education
People gain various benefits with facebook in education. The use of facebook in education creates a calm environment that encourages students to participate in the learning activity. Facebook also creates that free environment that allows the students to interact and engage with each other in a free manner. There is a sense of conformability among students that use facebook because they use it every day and hence would find it easy to use. The fact that they use it daily makes it easy for them to incorporate their learning experience with the facebook experience. Facebook creates a plat form for social exchange among various students.
This means that it makes it easy for students and teacher t interact with each other and share various ideas and concepts. This enhances the sense of collaboration in the classroom setup. Facebook also allows students to learn from various locations. Using facebook, they do not have to study at the classroom location only. They have the power to access the learning material at nay location where they are. They have the ability to engage in classroom acidities and materials beyond the classroom set up. As a form of social media, facebook gives the students a big amount of resources. The resources that students can get keep increasing with technology and social media. At the same time, they can access all this information simply from any location.
Tips teacher can use with facebook
There are various facebook related tips that teacher can use to increase the benefits of the use of facebook for learning purposes. First, the teachers could create a separate account for the classes. The teacher has to be careful and ensure that he applies the facebook privacy set ups that ensure that the private lives of the students and the professional parts remain separate. The teacher needs to be tough concerning the kind of material that the students share on facebook. With the use of facebook, the teachers have to be sure that they get permission from the parents of the students involved with this learning.
After attaining this permission from the parents, the teacher has to ensure that she constantly updates the parents about what happens and how the learning process takes place with facebook. The teacher has to guide the students in matters that involve posting any kind of threatening or racist material. The teacher also has t ensure that any kinds of conversations that the students hold remain respectful and liberal. The teacher should always maintain the professional relationship by ensuring that he does not add the students on a personal level. The teacher has to keep the distance to avoid any kind of confusion among the students. The teachers also have to use flexible privacy settings that allow the right people to see the information in the group. Teacher could also employ other aspects into the facebook plan (Collins, Janet, Michael, 1997).
For instance, teachers that blogs could paste the link of the blog to the facebook page hence give the students a chance to view the blog easily. Teachers also have to learn to put their personal aspects out of the equation in this setup. The last tip is engagement of both the teacher and the student. The teacher has to ensure that he remains engaged and at the same time encourage the students to participate in the group activities.
How Teachers can use facebook
There are various ways that teachers can use facebook for educational purposes. First, the teacher cans improve the communication between himself and the students through the use f a group that allows the teacher to reach all students at once. Various handouts on the internet offer information on how a teacher can use and create a classroom group on facebook. The teacher can use this plat form to create schedules for students in the classroom and inform them of the schedule through facebook. Facebook also gives the teacher a platform from which he can share various kinds of multimedia contents such as educational videos, and other short clips.
Facebook creates a platform that allows the teacher to use more than just one concept of providing information to students. The students can also view class notes on their facebook group as posted by their teacher. Facebook gives the teacher an opportunity to enable shy students to engage actively in the learning process. Facebook also ensures connections among students in the classroom because they have a platform that allows them to engage with each other. This aspect has its benefits particularly in a classroom that has a high number of people. The teacher could also use facebook as a means of sending reminders announcements and any other upcoming activities to the students.
The facebook setup gives the teacher direct con...