Facebook in Education

Most social media platforms have continually received the hammer when they, by any form, find their way into education. Various mediums have been termed catalysts for distractions and borderline failure in most institutions.

The reason for such stereotypes for social media holds a bearing in the utilization of its features. In the event when these features are engaged, they pose a potential danger to the minds of young people and over time, the safety of such a category of people.

However, a careful study of social media will bring anyone to the understanding that the disuse of any platform is what results in the negativity surrounding its existence. Moreover, since the disuse of a thing is not the end of the use of that thing, man has continually developed new ways to create ease in his digital machinations.

From the foregoing, one method to combat the disuse or misuse of something is to find ways to employ it positively.

Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes pioneered Facebook on February 4, 2000. The motive of such innovation at the time was to engineer a social networking platform playing at billions of users with key engaging features.

Some key features of Facebook include instant messaging, image and video sharing plus group pages and chat rooms. Today, Facebook has rebuilt the meaning of social networking as it kindles a temporal yet solid bond amongst individuals. Some features of this platform have been made to aid the flow of education and learning.

Education, on the other hand, has been divided into formal, which is the skills and knowledge learned within the classroom and informal which is the skills and knowledge learned outside of the classroom.

Firstly, Facebook acts as a pool for information dispensation that circulates at about the same time. This information is a mixture of personal opinions, happenings around the globe, and individual machinations alongside a mass chat room for projecting ideas. When these are inputted into education, while applying the relevant filter of verification, learning becomes more orderly and is consequently imbued with spontaneity. The upshot of information gathering in education is that it provides a distinct frame in viewing the world and brings about a knowledgeable student who has demonstrable skills in their fields of study.

Also, while learning is not limited to the walls of a building, Facebook could harmonize education by its accessibility to learning. For instance, the platform aids in the creation of group pages and chat rooms through which students can feature in a remote medium of acquiring knowledge thereby quenching the stress of traveling short distances to acquire knowledge.

Such an impact on education births a wide range of educational possibilities as time is maximized, space is saved and as a result, the value from education is still actualized. Common to this is the use of downloadable learning guides that are easy to access and imbibes an air of specialization in learning and information acquisition.

Moreover, sharing and discussions cannot be distinguished from modern-day education. Since time past, concise training of students in the use of their minds as opposed to being spoon-fed by the manual guides, which come, coated in academic curricula and textbooks alongside the teachers/lecturers inputs.

The reason for this has been to cure the problem of mechanical students who fail to apply their minds in problem-solving. Yet, access to these training has forever been hampered by location and access.

However, with Facebook, the problem of location is cured and access to discussions happens at the click of a button. It further carries this out via the pathway of controlled contents as harmful subject matters, can be taken down speedily before further harm can be caused.

Conversely, it should be noted that while Facebook imbibes the use of group pages, it further maintains significant control over its management. Such features as Group Administrators aid the ongoing class or discussions to be carried out while being monitored adequately.

The importance of this is exhibited in the Herculean composition of the physical classroom, which commonly involves various human beings and a bottleneck approach in maintaining order and social control. Nevertheless, when this class becomes virtual, the order can be made with the operation of features like the “Remove” key or restriction of members' interaction with administrators only.

Furthermore, the core purpose of Facebook is to be a networking platform. In education, this feature is greatly enhanced. Different pupils' overtime cultivates ambitions and passions that are fed by the waters of diligence and hard work. Notwithstanding this, the effect of a good network in fulfilling one's ambitions plays a great role in how far one could go.

Conversely, juxtaposing networking with education, one would see that it affords guides like scholarship programs, opportunities, postgraduate studies, mentorship options and more. With Facebook, a plethora of these filters into the life of learning and forever leaves a lasting impact on the educational journey. Besides, education without the employment of a valuable network will result in a painstaking effort at success.

As a consequence, social media, in general, tends to bring the release of stress levels accrued from day to day routines. This then occasions the need for a platform that vies for the aid to one's future yet makes it less depressing in the process. With Facebook and its features, one is guaranteed entertainment through image sharing, video uploads, corresponding with social networking.

In conclusion, it is unarguable that education, be it formal or informal, makes up the lifespan of society. This is so because the intellectual, economic and social quality of the years to come would depend on the quality of education vested in the future generations today. While noting that the future is digital, a need arises to cultivate this norm into special pillars of education and turn them into strengths. By doing so, the future will become safer.