Parents often tell their children to get off social media and do their homework. But what if they could use social media to help them do that homework? Here are some ways that you can use social networks to get your homework done more quickly …
Find a discussion topic on Twitter
If you need to find a current affairs topic to write about, search Twitter for trending events. You’ll see what people are talking about, and this can reveal a lot of interesting facts. News travels fast in today’s world, and you can see what people are talking about by looking at hashtags.
Use Google Hangouts
When companies want to brainstorm, they often hold focus groups. Use Google Hangouts to hold your own “Homework group”. This is a good way of discussing topics with your classmates, or other students anywhere in the world.
Create a poll for quick answers
Need some statistics to back up an argument or provide information? If you’re studying topics like social sciences, education or politics, it’s a simple matter to create a poll that will bring you some quick answers on your topic and post it on social media. Do give some thought to shaping your questions, however, as it’s very easy to fall into the trap of making your questions so loaded that they can only really return one answer. You want them to be as open as possible.
Find an expert on Facebook
If you know the names of any experts on your topic, try searching for their profile on Facebook. This will of course be easier if their name is not a common one, but you can narrow it down to the town they live in or institution they work at. Once you are sure you have the right person, just send them a message or tag them in your question, and they will see your question. They may then be able to suggest sources for you to investigate or angles for you to research, as well as useful resources.
Watch videos on YouTube
YouTube isn’t all pirated movies and ranting videos from conspiracy theorists; there is a lot of very useful tutorial, recordings of lectures, and documentaries. Search for the topic you’re working on, and you’ll find plenty of material. And even more, now you can save Youtube videos. Just don’t be distracted by music videos or cute clips of cats!
Set up a “business profile” on LinkedIn
If you’re studying business studies, set up a profile on LinkedIn, or a business page on Facebook. In fact, this could be useful for all kinds of subjects, and teach you a lot about how social media can be used for business purposes. For example, you could use a social media page to show how quickly information can be disseminated, gather statistical information regarding the number of followers and how quickly they grow, or set up a simple free website and compile a study on how to share your website and increase traffic.
Create a Pinterest board of resources
Pinterest isn’t just about saving pictures of cute outfits and your favourite Instagrammers It can also be used to save resources that could be useful for your homework. Think of how often you vaguely remember looking at a useful page on a website, but can’t find it again when you search for it? Pin it to your board on Pinterest, and you’ll never lose another page again.
Brainly
Brainly is a social network set up specifically to help people answer homework questions. So when you need to know the cause of the Mexican-American War, the themes of a book, or what Einstein’s theory of relativity is about, this is the place to go. You can sign up using your Facebook account or an email address.
Create a Whatsapp group for your class
Set up a Whatsapp group with your classmates, and you can share useful resources, brainstorm ideas, and work on joint projects. It’s important to keep the group for work only, and not to be sidetracked by more social comments. The only drawback with Whatsapp is that it can be annoying to type out long comments, so try to keep your comments as concise as possible.
Set up a personal blog
Setting up a blog is an excellent way of tracking progress on a project. Let’s say your topic is one-parent families. You could set up a blog imagining the life of a single father (it’s usually assumed that single parents are female, so you’d immediately be taking a more unusual and innovative approach). Or your blog could detail interviews with single parents. You could also talk about how governments around the world treat single parents. In short, a blog can be easily updated, is free to post, and all posts will be archived for easy reference.
