The Power of Snapchat in Schools

In education, it's as important as ever that educators continue to grow and meet student's where they are. In order for our lessons to best "stick," we must understand our students worlds, their likes/dislikes, free time activities, and how they prefer to communicate. When we know these things, we can be creative in our lesson planning and make our content come to life!

Snapchat is one of the most popular social media platforms used by teens and adults today. The app allows users to send and receive short "visual" messages from each other that disappear in time. The "Snaps" can include a picture with text, audio, filters, drawings, geofilters, and bitmojis.

If new to Snapchat, want a more detailed explanation, or you just want to see how it works, CLICK HERE for more information.

Students and adults alike a lot of fun with Snapchat and have gotten very creative with it over the years. When used appropriately and professionally, it can be a fantastic tool for learning and collaboration.

In 2016, Matt Miller, founder of Ditch That Textbook, wrote about 15 ways to use Snapchat in the classes and schools which is awesome! After engaging in a terrific #tlap chat in July 2017, many educators shared ways they use Snapchat in the classroom which inspired this post. One of the people that I met through that chat was Tisha Poncio, Innovative Learning Coach in Texas. She and I decided to collaborate on a post and share other unique ways you can use the power of Snapchat to increase learning, engagement and excitement in schools!

1. Classroom/Organization Snapchat: As educators, we are always looking for professional ways to communicate with our students and parents but no one wants to use their personal social media account to do so nor should they. Why not create a separate Snapchat account for your classroom, department, club/organization, or even sports team to share all the great things that are happening?! Meet them where they are. This year in our business department, we will be using Snapchat to highlight student projects, promote our school store, and showcase the community service our FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) are doing. You never have to follow students back, everything you choose to share gets posted to your story for others to view, and it builds the brand you are proud of in a positive light. Follow us @ "dtbusiness" to see what we are up to this school year.


2. QR & Snapcodes: Did you know that Snapchat has a built in QR reader?! No longer do you have to download an app that reads QR codes. How can you use this in the classroom? Scavenger Hunts! Fact: Kids sit most of the day in schools. Why not take that biology lesson on squirrels and spice it up a bit. Send them on a quest in teams around the school to find Snapcodes that take them to videos, pictures, and websites. What is a Snapcode? It is Snapchats version of a QR code! No longer do you need to go to a website to make them and print. They can also be shared digitally.
     
3. #BookSnaps & Twitter Chats: BookSnaps have taken the education learning World by storm this Summer! A BookSnap is when a user takes a picture of a passage in a book they like with Snapchat, marks the image up with drawings, filters, and bitmojis, saves the image, then shares it digitally with others to learn and debate from. To learn more about these and how to create one, CLICK HERE and follow the "Mother of BookSnaps" Tara Martin. When having students read an article or section of a book, have them create a BookSnap of the most impactful snippit to them, save it, and share it on Twitter using your class hashtag. This can be incorporated into a Twitter chat discussion in class! See below on the reasons why you should create Booksnaps.
    
   


4. App Smashing Snapchat with Flipgrid and Shazam: Students love using all of the filters, stickers, and bitmojis when making Snaps. Why not appsmash while having fun?! Let's say you want students to respond to a question towards the end of the lesson. Instead of having them write it, why not have them make a 10 second video using Snapchat and the filters? When done, have them save the video and upload it to your class Flipgrid.
   
   There, as a class or individually, you can watch, listen, and learn from everyone's responses. Powerful! Also, the app Shazam (ability to instantly recognize any song in seconds) is now built into Snapchat if you hear a song you like but can't figure out the title of it.


5. Creating a PLN: When Tisha and I brainstormed this post, she mentioned "many educators are using Snapchat for fun, but it can be a powerful tool to connect with others to provide encouraging and thought provoking material." At times, teachers can feel isolated in the profession and connecting with other like-minded educators can help them remember their WHY and grow on a deeper level.


6. Geofilters: Want students to work on their  creativity and
   
   design skills? Geofilters are screen overlays that capture where you are or what you're up to in a Snap! Students can create them for the community, school, birthdays, parties, weddings, stores, and restaurants. They could make for a great outside the classroom project or partnership with a business

Have more ideas on how to use Snapchat innovatively inside schools? Please leave a comment below!