Opinion: Social media's supporting role in uncertain times

As teachers, we are like magpies. As drama teachers, even more so, due to the breadth and depth of knowledge, and the range of resources needed, to teach our subject effectively. We know that this is one of the greatest challenges for early career drama teachers – to build a bank of resources which become an enduring part of your toolkit. Over the last year, the toolkit has changed considerably in response to the challenges of online learning, and how we acquire new skills and resources has changed considerably too.

So, what has social media's role been during the pandemic? A poll on Twitter, asking if social media had been a positive force during Covid, resulted in nearly 90% of teachers saying that it had indeed helped them professionally in terms of acquiring resources and discovering new CPD. On Facebook groups I asked how social media had helped during the pandemic, with nearly 70% of teachers saying it had helped them to acquire new resources, with nearly 30% citing ‘finding new CPD’ as a main factor for engaging with platforms. These were only small polls and are in no way conclusive studies, but perhaps give a snapshot of the reliance of drama teachers on #edutwitter and Facebook Groups – a totally understandable shift during such challenging times.