Understanding Social Media in the Classroom

I visited Eric Sheninger's Blog a Principal's Reflection and found a really great video that he posted about social media.  The post was a video, Social Media Use Needs to Focus More on Learning Than Behavior, in which Sheninger was interviewed by Jill Krop from AM/BC about Vancouver's new Social media policies and how Sheninger's New Milford High School handles social media in New Jersey.  One of Sheninger's most important points is that educators need to be involved in the student's lives and right now the digital age demands that teachers and administrators access Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media outlets.  He also states that when educators are active in the social media it assists in the moderating of the media, but moderation is not the point of accessing social media but education.  He strongly feels that as educators we need to be pushing students toward being responsible digital citizens.  If students truly understand what the consequences of what can happen if they are irresponsible and then model appropriate behavior we will see students posting, creating and searching the digital world professionally.