The still ongoing coronavirus pandemic has forced students to engage in online classes, albeit their learning attention can be distracted by social media sites. One way that educators were able to address this online learning drawback is by using social media platforms that empower them to use the SAMR model in their online teaching methods.
Teachers know that during online classes, their students are on their phones scrolling through posts in social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. A
solution found by many teachers as helpful in getting students to stay focused and at the same time entertained by their social media activities, is to meet them there by using a social media platform for education.
Instead of having to ask students to desist in accessing their social media account during online classes, educators now require their students to incorporate school work in their social media posts. That way, social sharing and engagement become more meaningful and interesting enough as topics for further discussions in online classes.
The possibility that their followers will interact with their posts will also encourage them, since some of their followers are finding it difficult to cope with online learning. Finding Instagram Stories or Reels related to school work could prove useful. .
What is the SAMR Model and How Do Educators Use It?
SAMR, which stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition is a teaching model developed by Dr. Ruben Puentedura to help educators adjust to the new method of teaching online. The model categorizes into four various stages of integrating technology in online classrooms.
Applied like a set of ladders in the use of technology, the approach starts with substitution, progressing to augmentation, to modification then finally, to redefinition.
Substitution, represents the bottom ladder. In this particular stage, technology directly replaces traditional tools used in classrooms. Instead of using paper, notebooks and pens, students can just capture photos or take screenshots of their schoolworks or assignments as an alternative to jotting them down as notes.
Augmentation – In this step, students will put hashtags as a way to arrange and organize the pictures they posted in their individual Instagram or a classroom account. This denotes that students may want to keep his or her IG account public as a way to find out, which hashtags are working in attracting audience.
Modification – In this third step, the classroom itself is transformed and modified through SAMR technology. Educators can ask their students to participate and write comments and tag their classmates on posts, to engage them in interactions. Afterwards, students will be asked to study the comments and describe the discussions that transpired in relation to their posts.
Redefinition – As the last step of the SAMR model, the goal is to show how technology completely changed the classroom and the students’ attitude toward online education. Here, teachers will ask their learners to produce short video clips highlighting their knowledge about a certain topic; in ways that will make their posts interesting to other student audiences at Instagram.
While some students may still struggle in producing videos that will enable them to draw more followers to their post, allow us to add our advice of using analytics. Sharemyinsights.com (https://sharemyinsights.com/) offers free use of basic analytics tool that can help students analyze the kind photos and videos that students from different demographics follow in Instagram. In having this information, students will have insights on the types of education-related content that can move their peers and followers to engage in interactions.
