Using TikTok/Social Media to Educate Students

By Cindy Cortez, college adviser for East Duplin High School in Duplin County, N.C.

With having so much material to distribute to students about the college application process, it is very easy for this information to be overwhelming and disregarded. We, as professionals, do also need to take into consideration the methods in which we are providing this information to our students.

During something like a global pandemic that has truly shifted all our typical day-to-day activities and plans, being creative is essential! Of course, we still want to maintain clear formatting of the resources we provide, but a fun way to distribute these things is with social media — specifically TikTok!

TikTok is an extremely popular app where creators post 60-second videos about anything they please, and some of those videos are actually very educational. I’ve found a number of TikToks covering things like FAFSA, important college deadlines, student POV’s of the programs they attend, and more. I’ve put together a spreadsheet for my students of the videos I’ve found and categorized them by topic. Advisers have also started creating their own fun TikToks to post and for their students to follow for updates. TikTok also helps these topics come off a bit more lighthearted, with videos that are just jokes of how difficult completing the FAFSA is and the struggle of being a college student.

This app has made information accessible to more students in a fun and quick format, all under 60 seconds!