Benefits and Limitations involved in using Social Media to facilitate student learning and engagemen

The podcast discusses the benefits and limitations of using digital media for student learning. Digital media includes various forms such as music, podcasts, videos, and articles. The advantages of digital media in education are increased student engagement, access to learning materials anytime and anywhere, and the ability to learn at one's own pace. However, there are limitations such as exposure to inappropriate content, distractions from social media, and reliance on unreliable resources. Despite these limitations, the benefits of digital media outweigh the disadvantages. It is important for students to use digital media efficiently and responsibly. Overall, using digital media for learning equips students with important digital skills and prepares them for personal and professional lives. Hello everyone, my name is Amanat Sharma and welcome to my first ever podcast where I will be talking about the benefits and limitations involved in using digital media to facilitate student learning and engagement. First of all, we will be talking about the term digital media itself, which is basically a very useful tool and is a blend of content and technology where information is shared through a digital device or screen. Digital media might come in the form of music, audio books, advertisements, podcasts, videos, articles and much more. In an era where we are surrounded by digital media, it's interesting to know that the usage of digital media is being widely used among students these days. And if we talk about the advantages of digital media, it can be said that the main benefits of digital media in terms of education is that it can increase student engagement. Plus, it also helps them understand tough concepts along with multiple resources. The best thing that I found about using digital media for education purposes is that we are able to access the learning anytime and anywhere. And at the same time, it helps students to learn at their own pace, where they can reread the materials given to them in order to gain a deeper understanding of the topic or concept and even revisit their earlier modules this way. In an article in Digital Media Journal, Buzzard argues that digital media is very popular among college students, and they are often referred to as the digital generation. Students are able to access the learning materials. And along with that, they can also interact and communicate with their teachers and classmates online, which results in a very flexible, more motivating and engaging courses of study. But at the same time, there are some limitations as well, when it comes to the usage of digital media, as it has increased risks of exposure to the content which is not appropriate for this for a child's age, which includes child abuse and digital violence. At the same time, social media causes a big distraction to students. Also, it disconnects them from face to face relationships. It may also cause few students to use resources that are unreliable. And at the same time, it may even create dependency and make the entire planning and curriculum difficult and expensive at the same time. We don't want that, right? So, according to Brennan, in a recent article, social media websites are becoming prone to cyberbullying in terms of the youth, which is a big problem these days, and referred to as an alarming trend. But overall, we can say that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages regarding digital media. And at the end of the day, it mostly depends upon how a student utilizes digital media, and it should be done in an efficient way, of course, which can give one numerous benefits. And eventually, students will learn the important digital skills that will serve them in their personal and professional lives. As it is a very valuable skill, as digital media provides a range of content keeping students engaged. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter also helps them with promoting self-directed learning, preparing students to search for answers and making independent decisions. Moreover, I feel that it has been noticed that this form of education is also slowly taking place of traditional forms of education that have been around for a very long time. And there has also been a need for more usage of new digital platforms in online classrooms with introduction of e-learning. And this is the power of digital media. The only thing to keep in mind is to use it in an efficient way and not use it in a negative way, which I think everyone should know. So I hope that I helped you guys gain some knowledge regarding the usage of digital media as a learning tool among students, including its benefits and limitations. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed it.