'Instagram' in English?

'Instagram' in English?

1. Target Student Brackets

   • Years 7-9
     • Depending on the students involved, this tool may cause undue issues and distractions rather than becoming a useful classroom activity. In many cases more students in this bracket often negate participation in class tasks than either of the others. With such a subjective tool, it would be much harder to monitor student levels of engagement and ensure they stay on task. Particularly if the task involves 'exploration'.
   • Year 10
     • Year 10 is often a major development year where students begin to move from young adolescents to the senior students of the school. This evolution has effect on their involvement in subjects, connectivity with others and as a year group, and overall attitude.Therefore use of Instagram in these classes would very much depend upon the levels of student participation- willing or reluctant- as well as the ability of the teacher to ensure students stay on task.
   • Years 11-12
     • The usefulness of Instagram in a senior classroom would again depend upon the willingness of students, the rapport developed between student and teacher, and the ability of the teacher to engage these students. However, an activity such as this in a senior classroom has the potential for optimum results and enhanced student interest when used to its ultimate capability.

2. Areas For Employment

   • Understanding Terminology & Techniques
     • It may be possible to encourage students to demonstrate their understanding of English terminology and techniques through Instagram. This may be exercised in getting students to post photographic evidence of certain techniques or comment with definitions of the terminology or techniques used. Comments or photos of new or underused words may also assist in developing student vocabulary: synonyms for 'show'.
   • Poetry
     • The same as with creative writing, but with poetry instead of story lines or short stories in general.
   • Creative Writing
     • Creative writing presents a fantastic opportunity for Instagram employment. Here teachers may use posts and captions as photo prompts or lines for student writing tasks. Students could be required to comment possible lines revolving around the given text or use the 'explore' option to find inspiration for writing. They may also be requested to post their own photos to prompt storytelling from or amongst peers. Furthermore, students may use this tool to illustrate their developing ideas and have their peers comment their opinions and sparked ideas.
   • Learning to Analyse Texts
     • As with the encouragement of critical thinking, students may utilize this tool in developing their abilities to analyse texts. Through commenting on photos and postings, students may demonstrate their analysis- for example: A teacher posts a photo of a book cover. The students each comment on a factor of the book cover, the reason behind the size of the text, the pictures, colours and other such techniques employed. In this, the focus must remain on identifying and constructively analyzing the text rather than simple statements like "The book colour is green". Why is did they choose green? How does it make you (the student) feel? Does it attract attention? etc.
   • Critical Thinking Tasks
     • Promoting students' higher-order thinking is a possibility through the use of Instagram in the classroom. One such manner would be in posting a photo and getting students to discuss what may be happening in the picture, in the background and what you can not see. Taking apart the text given and possible quote or caption, learning to analyse particularly what is not highlighted or demonstrated by the picture- i.e. the emotions a part of the text. Group discussions and peer review on postings would be quite effective here.

3. Possible Issues & Complications

   • How to Approach Set Up (Links with Methods of Implementation)
     • As discussed in the methods of implementation, there are a number of options available: individual accounts, one class account or a combination of the two.
   • Accessibility
     • Some students may not have access to this social networking tool, whether that be because they do not have a smart phone, computer or internet. The tasks a teacher sets will have to take this factor into account. For example, working within the classroom- perhaps utilizing the computer lab or incorporating classroom ipad usage (if available). Furthermore, when designing home based activities, the teacher must be aware of such limitations and work around this, i.e. provide an alternative or set aside time in class for multiple staged activities.
   • Cyber Safety
     • Cyber safety is a major issue on a number of levels. There are a series of concerns regarding student safety online that must be addressed before employing this tool in the classroom. Cyber bullying is a prominent aspect in any area of social networking online. To minimize chances of such occurrences, teachers may implement a set of rules and guidelines for students to follow as well as monitoring each student account and activity. Knowing the students and the class dynamic is imperative to understanding whether this tool will increase the potential for cyber bulling or not. Furthermore, safety in relation to online content must be analysed (the level of acceptability). There are undoubtedly large content factors online where subject matter being viewed is inappropriate for the classroom and students in a variety of ways.
   • Level of Acceptability
     • As seen in the consideration of cyber safety, in regards to appropriate content, the level of acceptability with online material must also be taken into account. It is imperative that the content being accessed, viewed and posted by students is appropriate not only for their age bracket but also for the classroom. For example, any sexual material is, obviously, unacceptable in almost all circumstances.

4. Methods of Implementation

   • As One Class Account
     • While this idea assists in the neutralization of some of the 'individual accounts' issues, it also creates difficulties. Students are less equipped to discover and use inappropriate data, however, they are also stripped of some of the potential creativity this task is designed to encourage. Moreover, whether it is possible for more than one student to access the account at once- and if so what are the limitations?- would require experimentation. How would the teacher combat this limitation? Ultimately, only classroom experimentation or research would determine whether this method would unlock a greater capacity for achievement or present or extend the restraints of this tool.
   • individual Accounts plus Class Account
     • Here students would not only have their own individual account but there would also be a class account. The aim of this is to have all students not only following each other but also the class and vice versa. The teacher would then be able to monitor what the students are 'liking' and posting as well as maintaining a level of connectivity. Due to the evolution in generations and their growing association with technology, it is undeniable and an unavoidable factor that students will know the workings of this social networking tool better than the teacher. By having an account where the teacher can see much of what each of the students are using their accounts for, it is possible to reset the balance between teacher, student and technology: one where the teacher is in control, as with the classroom dynamic. Furthermore, the separation between each Instagram provides more opportunity for classroom or homebased activities that encourage the creativity of students.
   • Individual Accounts
     • With only individual accounts monitoring student involvement, their ability to stay on task and whether or not the activity is achieving positive results is much more difficult. With no overall account to manage what students are not only posting but also viewing, the likelihood of their participation in set tasks is lessened while the possibility for distraction is heightened. Furthermore, students may be viewing or posting content inappropriate or antithetical to the teacher's ultimate goal.

5. Students are often much more willing to be vocal online than they are in a face to face interaction or general classroom areas. In using a tool where the dynamic between users is quite different (online and more social) the potential for student involvement in topics is enhanced. However, with this also comes the enhanced risks of bullying amongst students. Therefore, it is imperative for the teacher to understand and control the dynamics of the classroom and consequences if something does go arye.

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