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Instead of dismissing social media as distracting or destructive, schools should embrace it as an essential part of the curriculum. Not only does this limit the potential for students to abuse the technology, but it opens a new set of valuable educational tools.

It takes time to learn the tools, time to learn the culture, and time to learn the strategies to effectively learn through social media.

The second and maybe more important harm comes from the educator not modeling for students the need and the tools for collaboration as we move further into their future.

teaching social media to our children in schools is not only necessary, but critical

Teaching social media IS preparing our children for the future

“Adults didn’t grow up with social media, and so they only look for the bad, and see scary stuff like cyberbullying and sexting” he says. “They don’t realize that 90 per cent of kids use social media for really good things, like making friends.”

“Teens are simply doing on social media what they have done for decades, using social relationships to experiment and test behaviours and values they will use as adults” says Andersen.

“The role of parents is to model appropriate behaviour for their kids and to develop expectations with their kids around social media use. We can’t just hand them a cellphone and cross our fingers.

Modeling and Teaching Appropriate Use isn’t Optional Anymore: