The advent of social media has taken the world by storm. It has brought the entire world closer in a way that was inconceivable in the past. Social media has affected every single aspect of our life, but it has completely revolutionized the field of education.
Increase in student collaboration
Students of a particular class or subject can now discuss their problems and work on social media groups which helps them understand and work on their curriculum better. It is seen that almost every school and college has such groups of students where they share study materials, schedules, exam routines, pop quiz dates and so much more. It helps them reach out to like-minded people, from among their class itself, to work with. This helps in developing a knowledge circle where students can participate, collaborate and enrich.
Improved Participation
It has been seen that over the past few years, there has been a greater participation from both students as well as teachers, blurring the boundaries of school or college hours. It is much easier to seek help from a teacher if one has a difficulty in comprehending a certain topic or solving a particular problem. A student can now reach out to his or her teacher even beyond work hours. One can get immediate answers, even at the oddest hours, if the teacher is online, unlike an email and yet it does not infringe on boundaries like making a phone call late at night. Due to the miracle of social media, help is only a ping away now!
Wider source of knowledge
Owing to the wonder of social media, students are no restricted to their own curriculum any more. They have access to students from all over the world and hence, they can check out, study and work on topics of their choice which might not be a part of their school or college or even their country. Social media puts a way wider range of knowledge at a student’s disposal, which was not available in the past. Now with reputed educational consultants like Forward Pathway, a student can even attend a few weeks of classes at reputed institutions for a firsthand experience and sharing of knowledge. Opportunities like these were not available to a student in the past ever.
Ability to reach out to professionals
Thanks to the immense spread of social media, students can now reach out to professional’s ad experts in their field of work without having to track down and travel to meet them. A student can share his or her work and get an opinion from someone who is more experienced in their field or collaborate with an expert from the discipline to do a research or project together. Due to the wonder of social media, be it Stephen King or Steven Hawking, today, a professional is only a tweet away. Social media has become a gold mine for young researchers who are striving to achieve beyond their school curriculum.
Teaming up to spread knowledge
Students interested in the study of a topic now have groups and hashtags to gather and assimilate knowledge from every corner of the world. In the past, if a student wanted to work beyond the curriculum of the school, it would be a solitary research project, but now students can do their own research in their respective places and team up together to enrich one another with their findings. This helps students do unique and productive research instead of repetitive work which would end up being a wastage of their precious time. Someone who is just venturing into a research can easily seek out and work with other students who are working in that arena.
Social media has brought the field of education much closer and has made premium knowledge easily accessible to anyone who seeks it. It is estimated that this has contributed to every discipline of study immensely!
