THE OTHER WAY AROUND: TAKING SOCIAL MEDIA IN AN ACADEMIC PLATFORM

As we are now living in this technologically-controlled world, social media had also taken its toll to each and every user of the different applications and websites that promote socially interaction. Social media have become prominent parts of life for many young people today. Most people engage with social media without stopping to think what the effects are on our lives, whether positive or negative. There are varied positive and negative effects of using these platforms.

In such manner, the field of education was also affected by the effects of social media especially with the 21st century learners we cater every single day. Though some may say, especially here in the Philippines, that social media have numerous negative effects to learners. Still, Social media have gained credibility over the years as a trusted source of information and platform where students can still interact academically with each other.

In social media, you can create a community of learning. It’s common for many students to be challenged by the same learning concept or course assignment. Social media can help centralize the collective knowledge of an entire class to make studying and communicating more efficient for everyone. You can do academic works online with ease and little pressure.

Due to a limited contact hours in the classroom, students can continue the conversation online. You can do it by starting a collaborative study network to tap into the group mind. This can save everyone time and effort. You can as well organize learning resources. Social media tools can help keep course information organized and accessible through academic sites for searching and webbing out concepts online. Social media can also supplement course materials. Social media can help identify additional content to reinforce or extend core instruction.

As an English teacher I usually help my students take social media as a great platform for learning. Look for YouTube videos and playlists for extra learning on the most challenging topics. I make them follow existing subject-area topics on social sites. I as well send virtual notes, questions, or reminders to your students through group chats or Facebook page. I also encourage them to search on all your social channels often for course topics, keywords, and major points in the class.

Social media no longer has to be an obstacle to studying; it can help students create and manage a study community, make the best use of study time, and find new resources to help them learn and retain knowledge.

— oOo—

The author is Teacher II at Betis High School

“Plastikan Day” is a year round environmental and fund raising project of the Sindalan High School Supreme Student Government. It is basically a daily trash market where students and other community members are encouraged to bring or donate their recyclable pet bottles. This will be paid and collected by the local junkshops. This project aims to improve the waste management in the school through proper waste segregation, to empower the youth to achieve waste reduction goals, to maintain cleanliness in the school and in the community, to promote awareness among students the importance of recycling, to protect the environment, and to raise funds for the different projects and programs of the Supreme Student Government of Sindalan High School.

Plastikan Day eradicates the problem of ecological waste management by following the proper segregation of waste inside the classroom. Prior this campaign, students were simply throwing their trash without segregating. With the initiative of the SSG and the YES-O officers, they conducted room to room campaign teaching each student to separate their trash into paper, plastic and bottle which are the common waste that can be seen in the classrooms and school premises. This project will also encourage the community to the same thus; this project promotes environmental awareness encouraging the community members to segregate and to recycle their waste.

The funds generated from the “Plastikan Day” project are being utilized on the ‘Learn With Me Project” of the SSG. The learn with me project is a year round free reading and math tutorial project that aims to help the students who are having hard time reading and solving basic operations in mathematics, and improve their academic performance. The participants in the said project were provided with the necessary materials and snacks funded by the “Plastikan Day Project”

As human with responsibility, this project promotes solidarity among the participants. This project is aligned to one of the goals of the government to have clean and safe environment which is enacted in the Republic Act 9003 also known as the Ecological Waste Management Act. And most importantly, the micro efforts of the students, school personnel, parents, and other stakeholders will have a macro effect to help save our environment, our home, our planet earth. Moreover, this project was able to raise awareness among stakeholders’specifically waste segregation and recycling. It has a big impact on the part of the internal and external stakeholders wherein this project was able to create an ecological friendly school that is anchored with one of the core values of the Department of Education, MAKAKALIKASAN, as it helps to reduce the number of waste in school and in community by reducing the risks to hazard and to overall health brought about by improper waste disposal.

The teamwork and solidarity has been seen in the project as the stakeholders actively engage in sending their pet bottles to the school. In the long run this will promote camaraderie and strong relationship among students and community, as they themselves encourage and advocate other households to do the same. The stakeholders and the school work hand in hand in creating an eco- friendly school and community, promoting healthy environment through proper segregation and recycling.

The use of the social media is the biggest innovation of this project. The SSG officers headed by the SSG Public Information Officer is posting on the official facebook page of the Sindalan High School Supreme Student Government encouraging and advocating the students, the community members and all the followers of the facebook page to donate their plastic bottles. The SSG officers are also making extra efforts to encourage and motivate the participants to participate in the project by creating “weekly challenge”.

There are no funds needed for this project. All SSG officers, teachers and other students are working in the manner of volunteerism, fueled with goal of being part of the solution not being part of the pollution.

— oOo—

The author is Teacher III at Sindalan High School