Week 30 The use of social media in my teaching. Being a learner at The Mindlab has allowed me to be a part of a community of practice which has given me the experience and opportunities to learn with other professionals. It has most certainly highlighted the need to move my teaching practices in the direction needed for our students. A large component of this 21st century learning involves social media as a learning tool. Being fairly new to the use of social media within my professional life, means that its use in my teaching is in its very early stages. From my research for this blog I have summarised the following benefits of including social media as a everyday learning tool in the classroom. Understanding what students are actually thinking. Communicating online is usually very different from the way we do it in person. Those learners who are reserved and shy in the classroom often communicate and contribute openly through social media Easy access to real