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The insertion of social media in education has the potential to advance core aims of our society: to teach students how to engage with their families, neighbors, and communities in a new way. The combination of social media and education requires that we teach students how to become literate in a digital world. The skills of literacy are no longer just about reading and writing, but about abilities that surround our responsibilities as authors. In Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action, researcher Renee Hobbs offers that digital and media literacy is constructed of five crucial abilities:

"Today's society is becoming more and more socially focused with each passing day. Social media is not simply a passing trend; it is here to stay. Now more than ever, students need to understand the basics of social media and how it can affect their future both negatively and positively. A strong or weak social media presence now affects both college admissions and the workforce."

The Knight Commission recognized that people need tools, skills and understanding to use information effectively, and that successful participation in the digital age entails two kinds of skills sets: digital literacy and media literacy. Digital literacy means learning how to work the information and communication technologies in a networked environment, as well as understanding the social, cultural and ethical issues that go along with the use of these technologies. Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, reflect upon, and act with the information products that media disseminate.

In order to survive and develop, make decisions, and solve problems in every facet of life - personal, social, educational, and professional, individuals, communities, and nations need information about themselves as well as their physical and their social environments. This information is available via three processes: observation and experimentation, conversation (with other persons), and consultation (with memory institutions). The competence to do this effectively and efficiently is called Media and Information Literacy.

Basic Social Media Marketing Course - Class room training with expert trainers and customized corporate training for business Peoples.

Across the Arab world young people have collaborated on Blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to bring down entire regimes. Not one of them has been on a digital literacy course. And, in any case, who are these older teachers who know enough about digital literacy to teach these young people? And how do they teach it - through collaborative, communication on media using social media - NO. By and large this stuff is shunned in schools. We learn digital literacy by doing, largely outside of academe. To be frank, it's not something they know much about.

"We need to stop digital literacy training that uses the internet and social media to achieve pre-defined outcomes. For example, working backwards from goals such as finding a job or setting up a business. This might address immediate student anxieties but it is a short-term solution. Based on my experiences of working with students and academics, I would make a case for digital literacy to be much more than the mechanical operation of tools and technology. It should enable us to use the social digital landscape for reflection and conversations. And in our ability to enter into dialogue on the basis of shared values, we become individual agents of change." Dr Abhay Adhikari

"Do we really need measures of online reputation? Can our worth be measured by the amount of Twitter followers we have or by how many +1s we receive on Google+?   Klout, Peerindex and other social reputation measuring sites are constantly bombarding web users with statistics about their 'true reach', 'amplification' and 'influence'. It all sounds very grand. And yet what is the actual value of these metrics? What does it mean that I currently have a Klout score of 60? This number is calculated among other things, on an analysis of my recent web activity on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ over the last 90 days."   Steve Wheeler

Hector Peebles, multimedia & community editor and David Kernohan, Jisc programme manager, share their thoughts on how to be at the forefront of social media trends, whilst keeping up to date with current affairs and continuing to digest information for work or pleasure. Hector and David have put their heads together to provide you with information on the tools you can use to help you manage your time and track topics of interest.

Digital Literacy and social media in education is the focus of this blog post.

The Boston Marathon bombings showcased Twitter as a source for real-time citizen engagement between authorities and the public. When the Boston police Twitter handle, @Boston_Police, announced, "CAPTURED!!! The Hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And Justice has won. Suspect in custody," the city of Boston and the watching world took a deep sigh of relief after following the 48-hour search for bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev online in real time.

"The guide was produced by WISE KIDS for the Welsh Assembly Government. The guide covers: Illegal and Inappropriate content Plagiarism and Copyright Cyberbullying Firewalls and Security Messenger, Social Networking, Trust, Responsibility and Privacy Online Online Grooming or Inappropriate Contact Reporting Abuse"