Social Media Post

Social Media in Education

This week, I explored the topic of teenagers and the skills needed for future jobs in technology. I am always curious when we do our classroom community unit to learn what my students want to be when they grow up. It is fascinating to hear about what they dream about, what kind of job or lifestyle they want to have, and why. Sometimes their responses are funny. For example, one time I had a student say that he wanted to be a fire fighter to save the cats. While other students' responses are super thought out or reflect a job of someone that they look up to. More recently, I have had students reply that they want to be a YouTuber or a famous TikToker. These are new jobs to me and shows just how much influence current social media trends have on their young lives. Please see the image below of what our classrooms might look like if we let students have their phones or tablets with them all the time. Social media is everywhere and has the power to grow or hinder the educational experience of our students. 

Image source: Google

Due to this influential use and love of technology, I thought it would be interesting to hear from the employees of major technology companies and their views of technology on teenagers. For this reason, I was really drawn to the article titled "What Skills Do Google, Pinterest, and Twitter Employees Think Kids Need To Succeed?"  In the article, it talks about what Google, Pinterest and Twitter employees think students need to be successful in the real world and jobs with technology. Many listed the important skills of writing, public speaking, and critical thinking while in school. Additionally, many suggested learning life skills such as a growth mindset and the pros of having access to technology early on in school. 

Another article I read titled "Skills of the future report", confirmed a similar finding. This article stated the importance of problem solving, team work and communication when in the workplace. All of these are life skills students develop while in school that can set them up for success in the workplace. The skills mentioned in this article are very similar to the skills mentioned in the previous article. However, this article mentioned that many educational systems are not teaching students sufficient life skills to communicate and solve problems in the work environment.

Reflection

Overall, both articles were saying very similar things about the importance of problem solving, communication and other life skills to be successful in future jobs. While this is not new information to many educators or me, I do think it is important to note the struggle with implementing life skills into the education system. In my classroom, we do a lot of social emotional learning such as learning to identify and manage our emotions, solve problems with others and self-regulate our emotions and thoughts. However, I would love to see schools start implementing more real life examples and strategies with problem solving or critical thinking, communicating with others, working together and creating a growth mindset. If these are the important skills students need when entering the workplace, let us support our students and give them time to learn, develop and practice these skills in our classrooms!