Is social media important in the classroom?

Social Media in the classroom has pro's as well as cons.

Pro's

Social media sites provide an avenue for students to easily contact one another regarding school projects, group assignments or for help on homework assignments.

Students who do not participate regularly in class may feel they can express their thoughts through social media. Although this should not completely replace in class participation it can help build the students’ confidence and encourage them to find their voice and be able to participate in class.

When students have questions about a class assignment they can easily post a message asking if anyone can help.  They can also write a specific question to the teacher on a wall that other students can see. This allows the whole class to have access to the feedback from the teacher.
If the teacher needs to direct students to a particular online resource they can easily share the site through social media sites like twitter.  If the teacher wants the class to visit a particular site all they have to do is tweet the website and the entire class can view it with one click.

It is very useful for teachers to be able to post on social media sites about class activities, homework assignments and even school events.  This helps the teachers, parents and students all stay on the same page about what is going on at school.  Sites like facebook also allow teachers to easily communicate through private messages to parents and students without having to leave phone messages and wait for a call back.

Cons

The first concern that comes to mind when using social media in the classroom is how it will be a major distraction to the students during lessons.  Students could easily be sidetracked from an assignment and it could be difficult for teachers to tell who is paying attention or not.

Students might take advantage of being able to access social media in the classroom and use it for personal interactions instead of for school related activities.  If students are not closely monitored it will be hard to know how if they are using social media properly during class time.

If students are encouraged to participate in class discussions through social media websites this could impact their ability to interact in face to face situations.  Students still need to learn how to have conversations with people even in this modern technology based world.

I believe that the pro's outweighs the con's, therefore i am for using social media.