USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM TO ENGAGE LEARNERS IN DEVELOPING AS LEADERS: The Personal Leadership Experiment

Finding effective ways to reach today’s college audience is challenging and social media is one way to attempt to meet students in their environment. This application brief discusses a course activity and assignment that combines the scholarship of leadership education with reflection about personal leadership behaviors through social media. This assignment has been used in leadership education courses with undergraduate students both in a traditional face-to-face course setting and in an online format. The assignment attempts to help students integrate what they are learning about leadership with their actual behaviors as a leader. By documenting their leadership actions and thoughts through Twitter or Instagram, students are held accountable to develop their leadership capacities