We’ve received some great ideas on using social media in the classroom from some of the great folks that took our workshops in June. One of the homework assignments (for credit!) from the workshop required attendees to create two lesson ideas using social media in their area of expertise. They were encouraged to use the tools presented in the workshop, but they could use anything that was social in nature.

These ideas came from workshop participant  Laura Bergeron, SpEd TOSA, SLP. These are lesson ideas for children with ASD. They are both simple and elegant in design.

Introduction to online participation and social ization.

Target Audience: Middle/high school aged students with ASD
Objective: To begin participating in social media group

Plan:

1. Review types of questions used in a quiz (yes/no; true/false; multiple choice)
2. Students will develop a quiz about their favorite web sites.’
3. Students will post their favorite websites along with a description of the website meant to encourage other students to visit the site.
4. Each student will be instructed to visit 2 sites that have been posted by their peers, noting to the group which sites they visited.
5. Students will be quizzed on the sites they visited.
6. Students will then provide feedback to the author of the quiz both about the quiz and the descriptor of the website.

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Experiencing Peer Communication Through Social Media

Target Audience: Middle/high school students with high functioning ASD

Objective: Introduce Edmodo/social networking as a way to communicate with peers.

Plan: Students will learn language style/requirements when communicating with people on-line.

Have students review sites focusing on texting language such as:
http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/textmessageabbreviations.asp
http://www.planetpals.com/smiley.html
http://online.uwc.edu/technology/onletiquette.asp

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We love these kind of ideas! Keep them coming! Help us share ideas for others to use in their classrooms.