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Life

28th Mar 2017

Dublin primary teacher conducts social experiment to teach her class a valuable lesson

Cathy Donohue

A Dublin-based primary school teacher is on a 24-hour mission to teach her class the power of social media.

Deirdre got in touch with us this evening to explain how she’s hoping to teach her fourth class students about how quickly social media spreads and the potentially dangerous implications it can have.

She uploaded the below Facebook post asking people to comment and give their location so that the pupils can see just how many eyeballs view a social media post and more importantly, how quickly this happens.

We contacted Deirdre for more information and she explained the reasoning behind her idea and said time is of the essence as the experiment is strictly 24 hours.

“My 4th class are learning all about media education and how fast information can travel around the globe in a short space of time. I want to try and get as many likes and shares on the post, and also locations that the post has reached in 24hours in order highlight to my class just how quickly information can spread and the dangers associated with this.

I feel it is crucial to raise awareness of the dangers associated with social media as there are so many issues connected to it and its misuse. For example the ever prominent issue of bullying which has touched many of our lives personally. I only have until 4.30pm tomorrow when at that stage the post will have been live for 24hours so all likes, shares and county/country locations would be greatly appreciated”.