In the past decade, hundreds of New Jersey schools have begun to focus more on social media as a learning tool. For instance, North Arlington High School has been using Edmodo to reach out to students for years, and some teachers are even using Twitter in the classroom. Opinions on this kind of interactivity cover a wide spectrum; however, I (and many others) find social media to be a very useful tool for making the classroom experience more engaging and better enabling teachers to connect with students.

To play devil’s advocate, though, there are several students who neither have, nor have any intention of creating a Facebook/Twitter account and see no need for such platforms in school. Thankfully for them, the educational system has gotten along fine for decades with classic, face-to face interaction and more straightforward lessons confined to the classroom; in other words, there are no negative repercussions for students who wish to avoid social media. As far as policy-makers across the State are concerned, however, it is the next logical step in the evolution of New Jersey’s curriculum.

For better or for worse, it is safe to assume that the Internet and social media will continue to find their way into schools across New Jersey as the world become steadily more wired.