Social media can be an exciting way to get students interacting with you and each other while also engaging with content and accomplishing specific course objectives. However, the conversation about how appropriate it is to engage students via social media is ongoing, of course. Some research says students don’t want teachers interacting with them on social media platforms, but plenty of courses have had success, such as this one.
My personal philosophy is that it depends on the instructor, their style and ability to create a safe and inviting atmosphere, and what the actual course objectives are.
Below you can see that I’ve grabbed embed codes from an Instagram hashtag and from a Twitter account. The course I link to above uses a hashtag #anth101 for students to tag any posts relevant to their coursework.
This is an embed of search results with the hashtag #culturalicons. Keep in mind that you can’t control what pops up with any hashtag. Anything, including the results below, could take a turn for the inappropriate without you knowing.
Twitter might give you a little bit more control. For example, if you create a twitter profile for your course and tell your students to @ the profile in postings relevant to the course, you can then retweet them from the course’s twitter profile.
How To Videos
The following videos show you simple ways to embed Twitter and Instagram in your Blackboard courses. I hope you find these to be helpful, but know there are many more videos on YouTube from which you can learn.
How to Embed Instagram in Blackboard
*The website for Embedding Instagram used in the Video is here
How to Embed Twitter in Blackboard
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