A Worldwide Survey on the Use of Social Networking in Higher Education (original) (raw)

The Attitude Towards and the Use of Social Networking in European Higher Education

International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments, 2020

Nowadays, social networking is becoming a more and more powerful tool for students for communication, sharing of information and discussions on various topics. The study presented in this article investigates the extent to which teachers from different European countries use social networking sites in their teaching practice for different purposes and what their attitude is towards the use of social networking in higher education in general. The study is intended to seek clarity on the issues, whether the use of social networks is related to teacher information about social networking sites; their participation in interest groups and research for the use of social networks in education; and whether the results obtained from the survey vary according to the country. For this purpose, the statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics is used. On the other hand, the study explores specific areas of the use of social networking in higher education, with an emphasis on their efficacy.

Social Networking in Higher Education: Perceptions of Teachers and Learners

American Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2019

English language has become one of the most popular international languages that has been most widely taught, learnt, and used by millions of people. Therefore, many higher education institutions in Turkey provide compulsory English language education, but the students are less likely to get chances to practice the language outside the classroom. Language teachers also find it as a challenge to get their students to practice the language after school. To be able to cope with this challenge, social networks, such as Edmodo, which is a social network created for educational purposes, offer promising alternative social spaces that support social interaction and enhance fast and easy information exchange. Constructed in a mixed methods research design, this study, including teachers and students as both stakeholders, aimed to obtain in-depth data on the perceptions of Edmodo use in language classes. The survey given to the learners and interviews conducted with the teachers revealed similar positive perceptions regarding Edmodo. According to majority of the participants, networks like Edmodo provide opportunities for lifelong learning, international collaboration, practical assessment, time and space independent communication, and easy performance monitoring. Highlights of this paper  Both from learner and teacher perspective Edmodo use in EFL teaching context was found to be advantageous.  Social media can be considered as fruitful tools for improving the quality of learning and teaching in or outside the school environment by providing teachers and learners with advantages of sharing, collaborating, communicating and enabling social learning.  Edmodo enhances the connectedness of this century and converts conventional teaching and learning into a collaborative, interactive, and motivating experience.

Facebook and the others. Potentials and obstacles of Social Media for teaching in higher education

Social Media tools are seen by many authors as powerful drivers of change for teaching and learning practices, in terms of openness, interactivity and sociability. However, extensive surveys about actual use that are carried out with large samples at a national level are rare. This study reports the results of a survey addressed to the Italian academic staff, with the aim of identifying the uses of Social Media in the field of university teaching practices. The response rate was 10.5%, corresponding to 6139. The respondents were asked to identify frequency of use, motivations, teaching practices and obstacles related to the use of a number of tools: generic social network sites (Twitter, Facebook), professional and academic networking services (LinkedIn, ResearchGate and Academia.edu), tools to write and comment (blogs, wikis) and to archive and retrieve content material for lectures and group work (podcasts, YouTube and Vimeo, SlideShare). Analyses of data tested which socio-demographic variables mostly affected frequency of use, and the relationships between motivations, ways of use, barriers to use and the scientific discipline. The results show that Social Media use is still rather limited and restricted and that academics are not much inclined to integrate these devices into their practices for several reasons, such as cultural resistance, pedagogical issues or institutional constraints. However, there are differences among academics in the ways they use Social Media or perceive them, mostly depending on the scientific discipline of teaching. Overall, the results emphasise ambivalent attitudes towards the benefits and challenges of Social Media in the context of higher education with obstacles prevailing over advantages.

Towards Formal Acceptance of Using Social Networking in Higher Education

In recent years there has been extensive academic and research interest in the use of social networking for educational purposes. There is also a trend towards more formal acceptance of their role in higher education by participants in the educational process. The article presents the results of a survey on attitudes towards (in the direction from informal to formal use) the extent and scope of application of social networking in teaching and learning by teachers and students. INTRODUCTION The wide academic and research interest in the use of social networking for educational purposes in higher education is the natural result of constantly growing popularity of social networking. The literature found several examples of the successful use of social networking by teachers [2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8] to develop interaction, communication and cooperation between students, to stimulate students' creativity, to increase students' motivation for active participation in the learning process, and to provide feedback. Although many teachers are sceptical and think that the use of social networks can disengage students [1] and lead to lower results, we have witnessed significant changes in this direction. Today we observe a transformation from the informal use of these networks in the educational environment to their formal adoption by participants in the educational process (students, teachers and administrators). In recent years, research on this topic has increased exponentially worldwide [5] but much less is known about the development of this trend in Bulgaria. The study presented in this paper is intended to seek clarity on this issue. On the one hand, it aims to assess the extent to which the use of social networking for educational purposes shall be formally accepted by the two main groups of participants in the educational process (students and teachers) and to what degree it is still informal. On the other hand, the study explores specific areas of the use of social networking in higher education, with an emphasis on their efficacy. The paper presents the methodology, organization of the study and analyses of the results separately for the two target groups (teachers and students) in accordance with the study objectives. Some general conclusions about the latest trends in the use of social networking in education are derived.

Social Media and its Implementation in Higher Education

MIMBAR PENDIDIKAN

ABSTRACT: The social media comprises of diverse applications with different main functions configurations and characteristics. This paper is to gain insight into the potential use of social media in the context of higher education and particularly into the teacher use of Facebook in their teaching. The literature review presented in this paper begins by synthesizing the definition and types of social media and exploring its characteristic as well as critically interrogating related studies as to how social media, particularly Facebook, is being used in order to connect learners and support teachers teaching. It can be concluded that social media comprises of diverse applications with different main functions configurations and characteristics. The most prevalent and high profile social media is SNSs (Social Network Sites), for example Facebook, that has proved its ability to assist education through numbers of studies which show its benefits in education, but then, again at the same...

Use of Social Networks as an Educational Tool

Contemporary Educational Technology, 2011

Social network, particularly Facebook, can be defined as a unique online service, platform, or area where social communication and/or social relations can be established and individuals intensely share information. This definition implies that communication specialists should have more expertise and interest in social media than any other group of experts. Based on this assumption, the present study investigated the views and attitudes of instructors in the Faculty of Communication Sciences at Anadolu University in Turkey, which is a country where the total number of Facebook users ranks fourth in the world. The sample of the study consisted of 67 professors with various levels of academic titles. Data were gathered through a specially-designed survey form including 52 items in four subcategories. Results suggest that three fourth of instructors have a Facebook account and they spend less than half an hour per day on Facebook. There is no genderrelated difference among the faculty in terms of attitudes toward Facebook. Instructors who are younger than 45 years old login Facebook on daily basis, while senior faculty login several times a week. Two in every three instructors use Facebook mainly as a tool of communication with friends. Finally, two thirds of the faculty think that Facebook can provide important contributions to social interactions among students as well as to communications between instructors and students.

Use of Social Networks as an Education Tool

Social network, particularly Facebook, can be defined as a unique online service, platform, or area where social communication and/or social relations can be established and individuals intensely share information. This definition implies that communication specialists should have more expertise and interest in social media than any other group of experts. Based on this assumption, the present study investigated the views and attitudes of instructors in the Faculty of Communication Sciences at Anadolu University in Turkey, which is a country where the total number of Facebook users ranks fourth in the world. The sample of the study consisted of 67 professors with various levels of academic titles. Data were gathered through a specially-designed survey form including 52 items in four subcategories. Results suggest that three fourth of instructors have a Facebook account and they spend less than half an hour per day on Facebook. There is no gender-related difference among the faculty in terms of attitudes toward Facebook. Instructors who are younger than 45 years old login Facebook on daily basis, while senior faculty login several times a week. Two in every three instructors use Facebook mainly as a tool of communication with friends. Finally, two thirds of the faculty think that Facebook can provide important contributions to social interactions among students as well as to communications between instructors and students.

Prospects and Challenges of Using Social Sites in Higher Education

Pakistan Journal of Education, 2017

Social networking is a virtual thread of grouping individuals. The present study has explored the prospects and challenges of using social sites in higher education. The study involved mixed method for collecting comprehensive information about the issue. A survey was conducted to randomly selected 21 university teachers and 279 university graduate and post graduate students. A significant difference was found between the perceptions of students having technological facilities in their universities and those having no facilities in higher education. Most of the participants supported the statements related to utility and possibility of using social sites for disseminating course schedules, outlines of courses, reading materials (audio, video, photofigures, print), discussing course problems, exchange of educational ideas and looking for better opportunities of admissions and career. The qualitative part of the study employed a series of focus group discussions conducted with student...