Extend use of Facebook in the educational process Boulouta Konstantina PhD candidate, Computer Engineering & Informatics Department, University of Patras, 26504, Patras, Greece
[email protected]
Abstract Today, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) dominate in all areas of society and their consolidation brought about significant changes. Children and young people communicate daily with each other and the skills and knowledge they have acquired from experience are many. Today, new technologies are considered indispensable and anyone who has no skills in this field is considered as an 'illiterate', like in the past for those who did not know to read and write. Their consolidation at all levels makes the use of new technologies necessary for all, since without the knowledge of these people are not able to participate in key areas and processes that define them both as people and as citizens (Amin, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to study how Facebook can be utilized in the field of education, giving a new perspective to learning.
Keywords: social networks; social media; new technologies; education; Facebook.
1. Introduction The development of the New Technologies of Information and Communications in recent years had a significant impact on modern world’s life. Education is seen as the most important investment of each country and an essential element for the progress of each person, which will contribute to the progress and development of all mankind. Besides, this has been proven by history itself. The Teaching approach of all subjects with the use of IT is now considered necessary with the involvement of both the student and the teacher. The teacher will be the facilitator and the partner to the student in order for the latter to utilize the computer and generally the information technology to its advantage. It is essential therefore to use the computer in the teaching process. This paper presents the role of social media in education, and then focuses on the role that Facebook can play in educational process.
2. Social media and education The social media is the result of what we call Web 2.0, the second generation of the Internet in which each user has access to publishing content and the interactivity with the published content or with other users. A virtual online community where one can build a
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personal network of friends, colleagues or people with common interests. There are several ways that offer interactivity to the members in each network, such as e-mail, instant messaging, video etc. The social networking services are changing the ways people use and engage with the Internet and with each other. Young people, especially, are very easily adapted to new technology in a way that often the boundaries between online activities and real world activities are becoming increasingly blurred. As the number of visitors to social networks increases, so do the new services along with the existing (in the relatively short life of the Internet) websites that add, develop or redefine the features or services tools of social networks. The ways in which we connect with the social networking services are extended and whether it is about gaming applications or mobile applications interacting with web applications where there is a great development. In terms of social networks, it can be said that these couples maintain relationships, e.g. partnerships, friendships that is bonds between two people based on one or more relationships (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). The social networking services can be defined broadly as: social spaces on the Internet that are accessible also by mobile phones in order to facilitate communication, collaboration and content sharing to people in contacts networks. A social networking service focuses on creating online communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social networking services are on the Internet and offer various ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services. Social networking has encouraged the formation of new ways to disseminate and share information and results in social networking websites that are used regularly by millions of people. Garton, Haythornwaite and Wellman (as referred to in Hempell A., 2004) define social networks as a means of communication via computer that connects people or organizations or a group of people (or even their social organizations), which are linked to relationships such as family, friendship or professional ties (Hempell, 2004). Boyd (2003) suggests that people tend naturally to use software as a means to promoting their personal interests and interact socially. Therefore, almost any software program could be considered as social networking (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). In other words, a social networking service, which is essentially the social network itself, is a social structure made up of bonds (which consist of individuals or organizations) that have interdependencies like values, visions, ideas, financial transactions, friendships, sexual relationships, dislikes or commercial transactions or online (web) contacts. Social networking services offer users a place where they can maintain their relationships, their conversations and share information. Moreover, they are given the
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opportunity to build new relationships through existing friends. The social networking sites are often considered by their users as closed environments, where members talk to each other. This impression of the social networking services as a provider of a private space is likely to be responsible for the conduct, the language and messages that cannot be translated well outside their intended closed context. It is important for everyone, especially for children and young people, to understand the public nature of much of their activity within the social networking services (and to be able to make use of licensing and privacy control to manage their personal information and communication), and namely to ensure that the on-line activity is understood holistically. Avoiding the anonymity that was previously marked in the on-line experience, millions of people have gathered in social networking sites where members create and maintain their personal profiles enabling them to connect with other members. The network that emerges from friends or contacts, who have similar interests, business objectives, or academic courses has replaced, for many people, especially young people, the older notions about the community. The most basic social networking software allows friends to comment on one another’s profile, send private messages within the network, and see one another’s contacts network created in the profile of each member. The most sophisticated networking services allow members to enhance their profiles with audio and video clips, and even some services offer open source software to allow third parties to develop and build applications or widgets, small software programs that run inside the member’s profile. These programs include games, quizzes, tools to edit photos, and notes on anything new that has happened. Sometimes a popular application lures thousands of members in a predetermined profile, thus creating demand for the services of the application developer, resulting in increasing the value of that profile within the community. At best, a social networking service, namely a social network that works as a creativity hive, with users and developers to satisfy their desire to see and be seen. Critics, however, see these websites as boorish popularity contests, in which “strong users” follow the lowest common denominator on a quest to gain more friends. With hundreds of millions of unique visitors to use many of these social networks in the world, extreme cases even within the same group of friends can also be observed. Each user upon registration creates a personal page, where there is some personal information (name, date of birth, profession, etc.) and a photo. Then through a search engine, one can search for old and new friends. Also, the user can do a quick search to friends of friends, as it is very likely to find interesting acquaintances among them. An important element for the operation of social networking sites is the frequent update of the content of the personal pages. The most active users, namely those who post
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photos or videos, take part in games and send messages, are the most popular and usually have more friends. Many social networking sites support the creation of internal networks on specific themes, for example common past and/or common interests. There are, for example networks of workers in the same company, classmates, fellow students or graduates, fans of football teams, etc.
3. Facebook in education Facebook is considered as a favorable learning tool, because of the structure and the various services of public benefit. On the other hand, how and for what purposes these tools will be used in the educational contexts is still awaiting the attention of researchers. Certain related studies support that Facebook and other social networks facilitate informal learning because of their active role in the daily life of their members. The social network supports collaborative learning, where people cultivate their critical thinking and enhance communication and the written speech. Scientists argue that social networks are pedagogical tools because people can use them for connectivity and social support, collaborative discovery and exchange of information, content creation, knowledge, information accumulation and modification. In this study, the educational use of Facebook was examined under three aspects: communication, cooperation and material exchange (Facebook, 2015).
Communication The educational use of Facebook for communication consists of activities such as the ability to establish communication between students and teachers, facilitating the classroom discussion after the announcements for courses and information about resources and links related to the courses.
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Cooperation Facebook provides opportunities for members to participate in new networks, which paves the way for the collaborative learning (Selwyn, 2007). People can share ideas, exchange information and cooperate with people with whom they have common interests, ideas and needs. The educational use of Facebook for cooperation consists of activities such individuals engaging in scholarly groups associated with schools, their departments or classes and create group works by sharing designs and ideas. Material exchange Since people can exchange ideas and information on Facebook, they can also share resources, materials, designs and documents. With features such as the video and photo uploading, and adding and following links to external sources or pages, the Facebook users are provided with visual materials and resources. The educational use of Facebook in sharing resources and materials consists of activities like exchanging multimedia, video, audio material and other. In this study (Facebook, 2015), it was found that using Facebook can have positive effects on education if used, or better, if its features and popularity are properly exploited. This popular communications platform may further serve as an additional instrument for strengthening the educational process and communication of both students and teachers with each other, if there is motivation and appetite for new research efforts - studies aimed at finding practical ways of making Facebook safer and fit for educational use.
4. Conclusions Social networks enable students to network with colleagues, something that can be interpreted variously. On the one hand one could say that there is a felt need for contacting people associated with the subject of their studies but not for online communication with people they socialize daily. On the other hand, there may be signs of emerging strong competition and the need for personal development or exposure and publicity by broadening the circle of acquaintances and collaborative learning experience probably comes second. In general, the use of social networks in education enriches the teaching process with images, animation, audio and the possibility of interaction. These features in the first place, make the learning environment more attractive for the students and secondly help them to understand difficult and abstract concepts. They give the course a more enjoyable and more realistic form and this has the effect of attracting the attention and interest of the students, which is particularly desirable in the educational practice, since the simple interest is expected to turn into learning and active engagement (Sang et al ., 2010).
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Especially universities can use Facebook to inform the public about their activities and provide links to educational materials or subjects of educational interest. Also, the use of Facebook by the universities could facilitate the communication between students (undergraduates and graduates) (Armstrong & Franklin, 2008). Finally, universities could develop collaborative projects with other educational institutions (Becker, 2000). Future research could focus on the views of the academics for the use of social networks in student education. This refers mainly on how the social networks help students and the teachers themselves in their work.
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