The Pitfalls of TikTok – How to Transcend Social Media and Improve Students’ Attention Spans in the Era of Short Form Content

**New Course**

3 Credits In-Service Course (45 Hours)

Summer 2026: July 13th-July17th

Instructor: Gayle Meinkes-Lumia – gaylelumia@yahoo.com

Course Description: Students currently are bombarded with truncated versions of everything, creating a mindset that loses concentration and focus readily. TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2019 and has since then added to the depletion of students’ abilities to concentrate. This course will explore the ways in which social media can be utilize to educators’ advantages, rather than disadvantages. Through a myriad of investigations, articles, and pedagogical research findings, participants will comprehend the ways that social media platforms can play important roles in their classrooms. The course will address interdisciplinary instruction, guiding students through effective direct and independent instruction, ways to inculcate social media into students’ readings and writings, as well as social media utilization in mathematics and science instruction.

*A Must for K-12 Educators*