Inside the Classroom: Social Media’s Impact

It’s 10 p.m. and after four hours, senior Anne Willman has finally finished her homework. Something that should have only taken two hours doubled in time because she couldn’t keep herself focused. After an afternoon of golf practice, Willman had planned on getting to bed early to rest for another day of tests and deadlines. But with her phone constantly buzzing from text messages and notifications from Facebook, getting her homework done in time to get to sleep seemed impossible.

Even with a flip phone, she gets text messages from Facebook and Twitter to keep her updated. And once Willman gets on her laptop to write a paper or do research for a class, it’s even harder to restrain herself from getting on Facebook for a few minutes before getting to work.

“[Social media] has definitely hurt my grades in the past few years,” Willman said. “Even though I don’t have a smartphone, I will get on my friends’ phones sometimes during class and it is still a distraction for me.”

Students like Willman openly admit that social media is a distraction. They ignore instructions and lessons to sneak glances at their phones throughout the school day, and at night it’s a simple tool for procrastination.

District and school regulations, which block sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr and punish students for using phones in class, reflect this negative view. However, Principal Karl Krawitz thinks that East’s policies are fairly loose even though social media websites are blocked at school.

“I think our policies are fairly open, except in situations where teacher are teaching and during testing periods,” Dr. Krawitz said. “We have one of the most liberal policies, because we allow the use of cell phones and other communication devices at any time other than in the classroom.”

Dr. Krawitz hopes that students and teachers begin using social media outlets as a tool for academics. East students are also beginning to oppose the idea that social media has only detrimental effects in the school environment.

Substitute teacher Rick Royer uses Facebook to give assignments.

“I think there’s a generational gap where most of our teachers think that we’re using phones and social media to mess around or cheat on tests,” sophomore Alex Lang said. “And that’s definitely not all there is to it.”

Lang is in multiple group messages for classes — Latin, Pre-Calculus, Chemistry. The groups allow him to share questions over the homework and quickly get answers, speeding up the homework process. Although having Facebook open can be a distraction for Lang, the help from fellow classmates makes the distraction worth it to him.

Senior Duncan Maclachlan approves of this shift in the use of social media. He believes that the use of social media in schools is a sign of the increasing importance of technology in all aspects of students’ lives, including school work.

But students are not in complete agreement over the topic. Freshman Leah O’Connor sees social media as a distraction with no positive benefits. Although she thinks that media devices could be used beneficially in schools, she doesn’t think that students use them for those purposes.

“Mostly you just see kids cheating on tests or doing each other’s homework,” O’Connor said. “They’re not helping each other, they’re just taking the easy way out.”

This trend causes sophomore Afton Apodaca to dislike the use of social media for school as well. Although she used Facebook groups to get oriented to new classes during first quarter, Apodaca saw such groups quickly deteriorate. Instead of being used for explaining subject matter, students typically share answers to tests or homework on Facebook.

“I want to learn the material, not just get the answers,” Apodaca said. “So when I go on social media, I never find what I actually want. They just have the answers, not explanation of what we’re trying to learn. It goes against the learning process.”

Willman has seen this trend at its most extreme, when classmates use their phones to look up answers during tests. These students continue to get good grades, causing Willman to worry how they will cope with studying and test taking in college.

“They’re not going to have the proper study skills, because they haven’t been trying throughout high school,” Willman said. “It frustrates me, but at least I know that I’m gaining the skills that I need now. Maybe they have the advantage on that test, but I’ll have the advantage in the future.”

This is why Sean Kosednar, a past East substitute and current journalism teacher in Missouri, believes that teachers should focus on social media education. Instead of banning Twitter, Facebook and other sites from schools, Kosednar wants schools to allow students to collaborate online.

“If kids are bored by a class, they’re going to ignore the teacher regardless of whether or not they have access to social media,” Kosednar said. “The teachers need to stop blaming it on social media and instead be showing the kids how to truly use those tools.”

University of Nebraska-Lincoln assistant professor Scott Winter thinks that social media is a good tool to use in the classroom, and doesn’t worry so much about the students who are distracted by it.

“It can have a negative impact on students’ study habits, but the ones who need to be there are there and paying attention,” Winter said.

He thinks that the good students are the ones who know how to have self control when it comes to social media. East junior Grace Heitmann is one of those students who limits her time on social media websites to improve her success in school.

“Sometimes I use Facebook for the International Baccalaureate (I.B.) group to ask homework questions or collaborate on an assignment,” Heitmann said. “But I try not to be on my phone during school or while I’m doing homework, and sometimes my mom turns off the internet to help me focus.”

As a professor, Winter uses social media on a regular basis. Through Twitter, he can learn more about his students, tweet about upcoming projects and see who is on top of things. He also has his students tweet questions at him whenever there is a guest speaker, and finds that to be a more successful way to do Q and A because the questions are well thought out.

Still, the idea of giving students free reign makes Spanish teacher Rosa Detrixhe and other teachers nervous. During this year alone, Detrixhe has caught a junior and a senior using vocabulary words on their phones during a test, and she believes that other students abused their technology in the same way.

“Cell phones are a distraction and harmful to education,” Detrixhe said. “Education and personal communication are declining due to use and abuse of cell phones and it’s so sad that kids don’t realize it now.”

Although they understand Detrixhe’s concerns, even students who are opposed to social media feel that this technological tide is impossible to stop. O’Connor and Willman are both resolved to the fact that students will continue to use phones to cheat, but they feel that students will always cheat, regardless of the presence of technology.

In the meantime, East students want to see a shift towards acceptance and education in social media.

“I think a lot of this will fall back on the ability of teachers and administrators to understand more of the powers of social media and technology in general,” Dr. Krawitz said.

By using technology, many feel that school will become a more open environment for collaboration and learning.

“What teachers need to realize is that the learning environment isn’t just a desk in a classroom anymore,” MacLachlan said. “It’s changing, and the classroom is expanding. It’s going to be different. What we need to focus on is embracing technology and using it to continue our education.”