Running head: INSTAGRAM: ENGAGING LEARNERS IN A COLLABORATIVE

ENVIRONMENT
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Instagram: Engaging Learners in a Collaborative Environment

Sean Bloomfield
KSP 619: Using Technology in the Classroom
Minnesota State University, Mankato

Abstract

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INSTAGRAM: ENGAGING LEARNERS IN A COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT

This research paper will review the educational applications of the social
media tool, Instagram, in secondary classrooms. The research shows that
peer reviews and critique, though not entirely sufficient in replacing teacher
feedback, can be an effective learning tool for students. There is also a
variety of research that shows how social media tools like Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram help engage learners in their content. Teenage learners have
gradually shifted from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram, a social media
platform that focusses on pictures and videos, with captions and comments
available for users. Combining the advantages of using familiar social media
with students, and providing a forum for peer feedback and an authentic
audience, Instagram can be an effective means of integrating technology
into the classroom. Finally, studies show that young adults are leaving high
school and college with an insufficient understanding of social medias
benefits and dangers. Providing an opportunity for students to learn
responsible social media use at a young age provides life-long opportunities
in the workplace. When teachers use Instagram in secondary level
classrooms as a journaling and feedback tool, it allows for higher levels of
engagement and enhanced learning opportunities for students of the 21st
Century.

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Instagram: Engaging Learners in a Collaborative Environment

Introduction
Instagram Defined
In a 21st Century classroom, students are encouraged to drive their
own learning through collaboration, critical thinking, and real-life
applications. Social media tools like Instagram provide opportunities for
students to perform all three of these learning tasks with an instrument that
many teenagers are familiar and comfortable with. Instagram is a web-based
application that is used primarily for picture and video sharing, with captions
and comments available for users to add to each shared post. Facebook and
Twitter, two other popular social media tools among teenagers and adults
alike, uses similar sharing functions, but the trend towards widespread adult
use has driven adolescents to a newer, and seemingly more private tool like
Instagram.
In the classroom, teachers often work to find online tools that students
engage with, which has led many to Facebook and Twitter in recent years.
Now that Instagram is quickly becoming the web-app of choice for teens,
teachers are following the trend. While Twitter and Facebook are convenient
tools for teachers to connect with students, share work, and provide help,
Instagram can be better used for students to communicate and collaborate

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with each other. In a 21st Century classroom where collaboration is a focus,

Instagram fits conveniently.
The purpose of this review is to show the positive impacts that
Instagram can have in student learning and engagement through
collaboration and peer feedback. While the research does not directly paint
this picture, using a variety of related studies it will be shown that peer
feedback promotes student learning, social media for feedback engages
learners, and that Instagram is a social media tool of choice for adolescents.
Categories of Technology
From Using Technology with Classroom Instruction That Works - 2nd
Edition (Pitler, 2012), Instagram falls into the Communication and
Collaboration Software category of the Nine Categories of Technology list.
In terms of the iPedagogy Wheel, Instagram is largely a tool for students to
blog their work, provide peer edits and critiques, and discuss their work
during and after it is completed. These specific uses would land Instagram in
the Evaluate section of the wheel. Of note, other social media tools like
Twitter, fall under different categories, such as Remember and Understand.
Blooms Taxonomy
Two of the major uses of Instagram in the classroom would be blogging
and posting information to show progress, which would largely be in the
Understand level on Blooms Taxonomy, and providing peer edits or
evaluations, which would be at the Evaluate level. Often, students can

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reach understanding in a traditional classroom setting, with limited

technology, and with mostly teacher-centered instruction. Moving learning to
evaluate however can be easier accomplished by integrating technology for
students to review each others work.
Research
Academic research in the area of social media is plentiful, but when
digging deeper into searching for conclusions about social media in the
classroom, or specifically using Instagram in class, the studies become fewer
and farer between. For that reason, logical steps must be taken into account
during the research process by associating Instagram and other social media
tools as functionally the same. While Instagram contains some unique
features, for the purpose of this study, those intricacies are unimportant.
According to Feldman (1988), students perception of teacher
effectiveness at higher institutions was based on helpfulness and
accessibility, while faculty emphasizes self-initiated learning. These two
concepts, while demonstrated at the college level, carry over to all parts of
education. Students natural tendency is to ask for extra guidance and help
from teachers, while teachers in turn maintain the goal for training students
to be more self-directed. While seemingly at odds with each other, providing
the opportunity to give feedback to each other can teach students to be
more self-directed, while also allowing them to receive the help that they
need.

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One major fear in allowing students to provide feedback for each other,
certainly at younger ages but even in post-secondary school, is the lack of
student understanding in how to provide quality feedback. For example,
research shows that college facultys greatest fear of peer feedback is the
perceived incapability of students to produce quality feedback to each other
(Pond, Ul-Haq, & Wade, 1995). This fear is an understandable drawback, but
if students are provided with instruction on how to give valuable feedback,
then peer reviews work as a mutually beneficial teaching method (Rubin,
2006). This instruction, of course, must be appropriate and modified for age
level and readiness.
Evidence suggests that students who use social media platforms for
peer feedback show higher levels of engagement, as well as improved
critical thinking skills and higher quality of material that is being reviewed
(Demirbilek, 2015). While many studies use Facebook or Wikis as Web 2.0
tools of choice to review perception and effectiveness of social media in the
classroom, Instagram contains the same essential functions.
In UCLA, one study suggested that college age students use Instagram
more than Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. The study also showed that
Instagram was the source of the highest level of student engagement and
attentiveness to the content (Salomon, 2013). Students who are using
Instagram can use the same effective measures of peer review as those with
other applications, yet may be even more engaged due to familiarity.

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Advantages and Disadvantages

The added advantages to using Instagram over other social media
tools is two-fold. One, students are more familiar and engaged with
Instagram than they are with Facebook and Twitter. Studies show that
students are more engaged with Instagram (Salomon, 2013), and the novelty
of using their favorite social media tool provides added interest in the lesson.
Second, students who use Instagram in the classroom can use this
opportunity to be trained for the world beyond K-12 education. Many
employers, specifically in the Marketing field, are finding that new members
of the workforce are leaving school lacking the proper education on effective
and responsible use of social media (Brocato, 2015). Students also remain
unaware of the consequences that their digital footprint, or their permanent
posts onto social media, has on their future. Teaching and utilizing
responsible social media use is an advantageous step towards preparing
young learners for life after school.
Social media use is not without its own disadvantages. Naturally, when
students use social media, their perceptual understanding of right and wrong
shifts, as they are no longer speaking face to face with an individual. Cyberbullying is a common problem with todays youth, and promoting a tool that
enhances cyber-bullying to a new level could be seen by many as distasteful,
or even downright wrong. Without proper training of appropriate etiquette on
social media, problems very well could arise, making the use of social media
a disadvantage on its own.

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There is something to be said for allowing students the opportunity to

speak face to face when providing peer feedback. Giving and receiving
honest critiques can be challenging for all individuals, regardless of age, but
providing an outlet for students to practice this is essential at some point.
For that reason, shifting all reviews, updating of progress, and peer feedback
forms to online is not a recommended approach, and such uses must be
done in moderation.
Application of Technology
A prime example of using Instagram in a social studies class can be
taken from a nationwide Project Based Learning unit called History Day.
During a two month process, students in History Day choose a topic from
history that they wish to research, become experts in their topic, and then
create a product with which to share and compete against their peers.
Options for products include a paper, exhibit board, documentary, website,
or performance. Students may also work individually, or in groups of up to
four. In a project of this magnitude, progress monitoring, self-reflection, and
peer reviews are necessary to stay up to date on a quality product.
Enter Instagram. Students can take pictures of their progress, and
provide a caption explaining where they are in the process and what they
have learned. Teachers can require a certain number of posts either daily,
weekly, or bi-weekly. These posts provide an opportunity for students to
show creativity, and reflect on their own work and progress. At the teachers

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discretion, students may also be required to comment on a set number of

their peers work through Instagram. Comments could range from
compliments, questions, or critiques on others work. It is in these situations
where students must understand ethical and responsible use of social media.
Students can use Instagram for more than progress updates and
critiques. In a math classroom, a teacher could assign students to create one
instructional video on some type of math equation or problem per unit. In
these videos, students may be required to show an example of the problem
worked incorrectly, correctly, and instructions of how to avoid common
mistakes. Other students may have the requirement to post a certain
amount of questions to video creators. Not only may other learners in the
class benefit from the added, alternate explanation from what the teacher
provided, but creating ones own instructional video will often deepen the
understanding of that students knowledge on the topic.

Assessment
In assessing a students use of Instagram as a peer feedback tool,
students should be graded on their level of constructiveness in their
comments, quality and helpfulness of feedback provided, and appropriate
use of technology. The first two aspects of this assessment would be
constant whether or not students were using technology, but remains

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essential parts of the use of social media in this instance. The last aspect,
appropriate use of technology, is an important element for young students to
learn, as this is where the use of social media in the classroom differentiates
itself of social media use at home.
If learners are creating training videos on Instagram, for a math class
or otherwise, their assessment should be based off of clarity of instructions,
proper video use, and self-direction in posting to social media as well as
maintaining communication by responding to questions that students pose in
the comments. Providing feedback to peers who ask questions remains an
essential aspect of classroom social media use, so even though the majority
of an assessment such as this is based off of the instruction given in the
video, feedback remains emphasized.
Conclusion
Students who use social media tools in the classroom show increased
engagement and provide helpful support to students who need it. Instagram
specifically is considered by many adolescents to be the social media tool of
choice, so using it over other tools like Facebook or Twitter may increase
engagement due to familiarity and interest. The implications of this fact
provides a reason for teachers to cease avoiding social media use in the
classroom, and instead embrace it as a valuable learning tool.

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References
Brocato, E. D., White, N. J., Bartkus, K., Brocato, A, A., (2015). Social media and
marketing education:
A review of current practices in curriculum development. A Journal of
Marketing Education,
37(2), 76-87.
Demirbilek, M. (2015). Social media and peer feedback: What do students really
think about using
Wiki and Facebook as platforms for peer feedback? Active Learning in Higher
Education,

16(3), 211-224.

Feldman, K. A. (1988). Effective college teaching from the students and facultys
view. Matched
or mismatched priorities? Research in Higher Education, 28(4), 291-344.
Pond, K., Ul-Haq, R.,& Wade,W. (1995). Peer review: A precursor to peer assessment.
Innovations
in Education and Training International, 32, p. 314-323.
Rubin, R. S. (2006). The academic journal review process as a framework for student
developmental
peer feedback. Journal of Management Education, 30(2), 378-398.
Salomon, D. (2013). Moving on from Facebook: Using Instagram to connect with
undergraduates and

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engage in teaching and learning. College & Research Libraries News, 74(8),
408-412. Retrieved from http://crln.acrl.org/content/74/8/408.short