“My brilliant colleague, Ambre Dromgoole, a PhD Candidate at Yale, had tweeted a few days prior about using Instagram Live in lieu of other lecture-delivery platforms. I loved the idea of using Instagram and floated it by my students. Instantly they agreed that it would be fun and accessible to use social media for classes”.
This quote stuck out to me because I could actually imagine this happening in a classroom setting. As a student myself, I would also agree to using instagram for this particular class. Instagram is one of the easiest social media platforms to learn to use and the fact that it focuses on visual storytelling really fits with the class concept. Instagram is more focused on photos, with the text at the bottom being the second thing the audience sees. This works well specifically when teaching students about Catholicism because of the religion’s dedication to visual motifs and artifacts.
“In short, the internet, social media platforms, and other digital media technologies are central to how Catholics stay in touch with Rome, with each other, and are essential to contemporary devotional culture and practice”.
This quote brings up the question of how much social media can connect people from different places. Is it a viable option for all historical topics? To an extent, social media is capable of educating and connecting people all around the world on virtually any topic. Despite this, there are always limitations. Some religions and cultures refuse the use of technology or are in such remote locations that social media is not a viable option.
“I found it to be an equitable way to share content and have students engage in the course and contribute their own thoughts using only their phones”.
I have found that letting students use their phones in class is a lot more successful than doing the same for younger students (primarily highschool and middle school students). When I was in highschool and phones were incorporated into the classroom, it never really went over as planned. Some students would ignore the assignment completely and others would treat it as a joke. With college students being more mature, the use of phones in the classroom is much more organized and disciplined.
