Anxiety+and+Social+Networking

Imagine developing [|anxiety] part way through third grade. You deal with the butterflies in your stomach, fear and tears. You start fourth grade and love your teacher and classmates. Then in the very beginning of your fourth grade year you are so overcome with anxiety that you cannot step into your classroom.

Anxiety is real and can be brought on by a variety of means.

The student I am referring to suffers from a medical condition that has unfortunately brought on the side effect of an anxiety disorder. Thank goodness she is a strong student in all academic areas. She suffers panic attacks, fear, uncontrollable crying, loss of appetite and more. With such uncontrollable feelings her school day has been effected. She is arriving at school but unable to enter the classroom. Therefore the anxiety disorder is isolating her from her fellow students, her teacher, and access to schoolwork.

Fortunately she is seeking help. She is receiving medical help as well as psychological help. Another helpful tool is using the Web2.0 tool of social networking. Through brainstorming with the student, her teacher, her parents, and the nurse we determined that using Google hangout would be a beneficial tool to ensure she can feel part of the class, connected to her classmates, and not slip to far behind in her academics.

However, social networking could be a barrier for someone who already suffers from anxiety. Since the anxiety cannot always be predicated, using new tools could increase the symptoms. Being different is another added stress.

Without social networking students could obtain the lessons for the missed schoolwork but would not feel as connected. [|Social networking] allows the student to still experience school in real time and not just as an observer but also as a participant with text or audio contributions all while gaining self confidence. This technology tool will hopefully act as the buffer to help deal with stress and allow for student success in the school and with decreasing the level of anxiety and ease her way back into classroom. __ Reference articles: __

Anxiety Disorders []

The Bad, the Ugly, and the Good of Kids' Use of Social Media

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Anxiety claims the lives of many students all over the country, ranging from early elementary all the way through high school, college, and even into adult life. Some learn coping mechanisms and are able to live normal, functioning, and healthy lives, while others find it more challenging. While the classroom can offer many comforts for students to grow and learn in, some students do not see it this way. In fact, just the mere idea of having to socialize with other students can be stressful, let alone giving a presentation or discuss an idea in class. I have seen this a lot more frequently over the past several years in high school students. However, this is just one example in which Web 2.0 can help close that achievement gap and offer students who have anxiety to collaborate and socialize with their peers.

Using social media can significantly help students who suffer from social anxiety, and give them the power to learn ways around those fears. VoiceThread and Screen-casting is an prime example in which students can use these tools to share information to the class, or within a group, who may fear speaking in front of others. These tools let them record themselves in the safety of their own, private environment and later share with others, hopefully encouraging and promoting confidence, that could in turn help overcome their anxiety. Sites, like padlet.com, allow for screencasts/movies/presentations to be posted to a class wall so that all the student can view the projects submitted and offer a "new" way of collaborating and student presentations.

Reference Article:

[|Can Social Media Help School Phobia?]

Anxiety manifests itself in lots of different behaviors in the elementary classroom. Foster children often display generalized anxiety disorder and can have a very hard time managing their behavior in the classroom.

"Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by excessive, exaggerated anxiety and worry about everyday life events with no obvious reasons for worry. People with symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder tend to always expect disaster and can't stop worrying. Daily life becomes a constant state of worry, fear, and dread. Eventually, the anxiety so dominates the person's thinking that it interferes with daily functioning." - See more at: [|http://www.afamilyforeverychild.org/kids/CommonDiagnoses.php#sthash.E0T6e2NH.dpuf]

Using social media and other technology tools can be a way to for students with anxiety issues to connect with their peers and learn to react appropriately to their peers. Using Skype, Google Hangout and some robotics tools can assist in having them make safe healthy connections. When children are hospitalized for their anxiety or other health issues another way for them to connect is to use robots equipped with the ability for the user to control and communicate through them. This is a non-threatening, safe way for them to stay connected and to maintain classroom connections.

“These robots help the students stay current in school, but they also have much to do with healing. When a child is so ill that he or she can’t physically go to school, they become isolated,” says Harvey. “With the robots, these children can maintain social engagement, which has a great psychological advantage.”

Reference Article:

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In another article titled: The Impact of Social Media, it talks about both benefits and drawbacks to the use of social media in different areas besides education. One section of the article in particular that focuses on the drawbacks ties into the anxiety that children might have around social media. Although there are many benefits of using social media for children who have high anxiety, anxiety can also be caused by the social media. For example, cyber bullying is extremely prevalent. It often times happens outside the regular school hours, but is most of the time brought back into the school and affects the child in a negative way. We as teacher, need to keep an eye on this because it can cause the child to be more anxious about seeing their "bullies" at school and withdrawn than they might already be.

Article reference: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/800.full

How can we support students so that social media usage in the classroom does not become the cause of anxiety?

Social networking sites have the ability to bring out an increased sense of loneliness. When using social media in the classroom it is imperative that all students feel safe, supported, and included doing so. In Graham C.L. Davey PhD’s article in Psychology today he shares the details of a study in which, “Facebook use can become an [|addiction] [3], and has even been shown to activate the same [|brain] areas as addictive [|drugs] such as [|cocaine] ”. Social media can have a strong hold over people's lives. The ways we can make sure this is not happening in the classroom are by monitoring and modeling appropriate use. If asking students to interact with one another on social media teach them first how to do so correctly. To make sure all students are feeling include ask your students to respond to a new person every assignment or even assign students a specific person to respond to. Ultimately anxiety is a huge issues but if there is any way it can be alleviated just a little bit in the classroom we should try.

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