TikTok for homework help - what do you think?

I would say anything in moderation is ok. However, as a media literacy advocate, the disinformation and opinion vs. fact debate rages on social media.

My class is a media class, so we study and discuss the pitfalls and benefits of the mediums. We do post student work to gain audience on Instagram, and just this week, started TikTok. We have used Facebook and Twitter in the past to promote student work, but the students are on IG and TikTok, so here we go.

As far as using it for educational purposes, it would take a savvy teacher to help teach students media literacy while accessing info, as well as a teacher willing to post educational material on a platform most adults don't want to touch with a ten-foot pole. There are a lot of challenges here.

I am attaching a recent TikTok video one of my students made. It shows the eclectic nature of my students and variety of projects they are working on. It actually is a fun peek into our class.

You can also follow our student work on Instagram. @LadueView. Our educational purposes are much different than a core class, so I understand our perspective may be very unique.

TikTok @laduebroadcasttech

Good luck navigating the Wild West,

Don

Thanks for sharing this example, Don!

Fun to see what your students are working on via TikTok, Don! Brings back some good memories of when I was the high school journalism advisor. You are right, media and journalism production are unique and important classes that build a variety of skills including leadership. A wonderful “student voice” class.

One history teacher at our schools shared that he had his students create a TikTok video around a history topic as an assignment in his class. I’m not sure if the students actually posted to TikTok or just turned it in. It is a big jump for teachers with lots of things to consider.

This is a great question, Cheryl! Some colleagues and I were recently talking about a news story that came out in late summer that stated Gen Z is more likely to use TikTok or Instagram than Google to search for information (https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/gen-bypassing-google-tiktok-search-engine/story?id=88493981). I think both the article you shared and this one emphasize the importance of teaching our students, regardless of age, how to develop strong media literacy skills. Whether we leverage these spaces in our classrooms or not, we definitely have a responsibility to help students critically evaluate the content they encounter on social media apps, particularly given how that information can go viral, even if it may or may not be verified as true.

I'll be following this thread; I'm interested to hear what others have to say!

Thanks for the link to the story Jessica. And your point is so important about media literacy no matter what platform the students or teachers are using.

On this topic - Here is an interesting upcoming workshop New Spaces of Writing and Design from the UC Berkeley History Social Science project. Free Registration. Event Detail:

We invite history educators, and your friends, to join us for this half day virtual seminar.

A 3-hour learning workshop focused on writing and design in social media spaces like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and other platforms. December 3, 9:30-12:00 on zoom.

Thanks for sharing this opportunity, Cheryl!