How to Use Emojis and Emoticons the RIGHT way in the Classroom
In the 1990s, the use of pagers was very common amongst Japanese teenagers.
Despite their popularity, these pagers were far from perfect.
In Japan, written communication is traditionally long, personal, and full of emotion and goodwill. Pagers, which only allowed for short messages, were causing a good deal of miscommunication between users.
Realizing this, Shigetaka Kurita, an employee at one of Japan’s largest pager providers, came up with the idea to let users access visual symbols to represent some of the emotions they couldn’t capture in short messages.
And thus, the emoji was born!
The word “emoji” comes from the Japanese words for “picture” (e) and “character” (moji).
In the 20+ years since their invention, the emoji family has grown to include over 2,000 images! 2017 saw the addition of an additional 69 emojis including a mermaid, dinosaurs, and broccoli.
Fun with Emoticons
Students love using emojis, even to a point that it makes teachers cringe.
That said, emoticons (the older cousins of emojis) can be a useful way for students to practice typing punctuation marks.
For a fun typing activity, you can challenge students to practice advanced punctuation and symbols by typing emoticons such as these: 🙂 🙁 😀 😛 ;-)
Start kids off practicing advanced symbols with this lesson and then have them practice typing a list of provided emoticons.
You can make the activity more creative by challenging students to create their own emoticons to represent different emotions or words using the punctuation marks they’ve learned.
The Great Emoji Debate
Today, emojis are a ubiquitous part of daily communication for children, teens, and adults alike.
Many sociologists and communication experts allege that emojis allow us to communicate more successfully through digital means.
Much of the meaning you get from talking with someone in person comes from their gestures and facial expressions. This aspect of communication is lost in the visually devoid world of texting, and emojis pick up the slack, making digital communication more precise.
That said, there are plenty of more formal instances where you shouldn’t use emojis.
Most teachers can sympathize with having received an email or message from a student that is plastered with emojis or emoticons.
This emoticon exercise could be a great opportunity to talk to students about the appropriate use of emojis and emoticons in informal versus formal communication.
What’s your policy for when students can and cannot use emojis or emoticons in their writing? Leave us a comment below sharing your take.
Happy typing! 😀
hello i am done with some lessons already.
The word “emoji” comes from the Japanese words for “picture” (e) and “character” (moji). that is awsome
I always thought that emoji meant emotion :*)
I thought that too, but I thought that it was an abbreviation for “emotion”
I really like it.
i only know this one 🙂
because im not very smart
Even though you only know of the ☺ enoji didn’t mean that you are not smart.👍
😉
whut do you mean????? ;-p
I’ve probably been using emojis all wrong an d i did not know you an use them in the classroom! 😀
this is a good idea
Personally, I don’t use emojis excessively and I try to be appropriate but only in personal settings like in texting but I will definitely not use emojis professionally. Emojis may enhance a simple text to friends or relatives but not professional docs like letters, memos, reports etc.
I agree, like you said I probably wouldn’t use emojis in a document but it might be all right in a text to a close friend of family
whenever i tried to log in i always got some error
I agree with Dhanrajee. Emojis can be used in familiar settings but not in a formal email. For example, my AP students have to reply to an email and have to follow a formal approach to receive full credit. I believe that the least we can do is to teach the new generation that there is etiquette to follow in life.
Right, I like using emojis , but there comes a time when they cross the line, and again I would be comfortable putting them in a text, say to my close freind, but if I was writing a report, it might not be appropriate.
I love emojis. I can’t do without them.
Me either!!!😋🙉😘😁😂☺
boi😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
hey guy’s i love emoji’s to they are really understanding especially when it comes to emotion’s but i didn’t know emoji was a Japanese word which means picture that’s really cool actually Bye Guys oh this is what I’m feeling right now😝😊😀
Emoji means Picture Character…WOW
yea!
My student asked me yesterday what emoji meant and I didn’t know,so a student reffered me to this site and here it is!!!!!!Well,duh!Now I know what it means.
i thought that emoji means your emotions on how you fill in that situation well okay then
They Are So Fun TO Use!
Agreed
Yes They Are Mr.John (NEOC) So This Is Why We Should Make Sure They Can Be Used
I Agree With Both Of Yall Because They Are Very Fun To USe An We Should Use Them Alot!!! LOL!
This is great!!!
it was really great! For teaching students……..
Emojis are awesome! 🙂
I love love love love love love emojis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
emojis for me are a way to show people your feelings in text form
Yes, they are sooooo awesome!😋
I think that the emoji is the absolute best thing that have ever happened to me in the entire world!!!!!💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 to emojis!!!
love it
Emojis are super cool and all, but we probably don’t need to use them allllll, the time.😉😁
This is a good idea!😃😙
Emojis are super cool and all,but we probably don’t need to use them allll the time.