Social Media

Social Media

Serena Matheson, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Definitions and background

Social media is understood as a set of technologies by which people can create, collaborate, and network and share content (Woodley & Silvestri, 2014). Social media technologies, also known as Web 2.0, are made up of many different types of communication technologies such as blogs, wikis, online social networking, virtual worlds, social bookmarking, wall posting, photo and video sharing, etc. (Friedman & Friedman, 2013; Poellhuber, & Anderson, 2011; Woodley & Meredith, 2012). The first social networking site was introduced to the public in 1997 and has grown exponentially over the years (Ahn, 2011). What was once a one-way communication tool is now multi-tiered system of communication between peers (DeAndrea, Ellison, LaRose, Steinfield, Fiore, 2012). Over the last 6 years, Facebook and Twitter have exploded in popularity demonstrating the growth in social media usage (Evans, 2014).

Young people today use social media as their main method of communication (Casey, 2013). “Most computer users – and adolescents in particular – engage in a broad range of computerized activities, including coursework for school, watching videos on Youtube, or playing first-person shooter video games” (Appel, 2012, p. 1340). Social networking sites offer an insightful opportunity to research and learn how young people interact with others in their online communities. (Ahn, 2011).

Affordances

People are constantly learning and seeking information to create solutions for problems in the workplace, home, school, or to just satisfy a curiosity; social media is the medium used to seek information and to share solutions (Dabbagh, & Kitsantas, 2012). Integrating social media into a problem-based learning approach makes for good pedagogical practice, “as the main interpretations of social media/web 2.0, highlight more social, student- centered, collaborative and production-oriented pedagogical strategies” (Buus, 2012, p.21). With the use of social media, teachers are able to facilitate learning (Powers, Alhussain, Averbeck, & Warner, 2012). When teachers use social media in their delivery of course content, they “force students to be self-starters” (Friedman & Friedman, 2013, p. 6) and they teach students about the importance of using social media to network and work collaboratively with others. It is with this networking and collaboration that students are able move from data collection to knowledge and understanding of content, based upon feedback from the greater, global, social network (Friedman & Friedman, 2013). In the past, students had to rely on the feedback of reluctant peers during class or “brown bag sessions and study groups for peer support and informal learning networks” (Dabbagh, & Kitsantas, 2012, p. 4). Today, with the surge in social media technological use, learning is no longer an activity that is done alone but rather the opportunity to connect with others and to ask questions and receive answers (Chen, & Bryer, 2012).

Social media is “moving education away from a knowledge-object orientation towards process- driven approaches – not what to know, but how to know” (Tay & Allen, 2011, p. 154). Online social media permits students to collaborate, which permits students to have conversations and get critical feedback from online peers who work together to meet common goals (Rambe, 2012). Students, with guidance from their teachers, are finding information, changing information into knowledge, sharing and getting feedback from peers (Powers, Alhussain, Averbeck, & Warner, 2012). Students are motivated to do well because they are sharing their work with their peers; knowing their peers will see their work motivates students to do better work (Liu, Liu, Chen, Lin, & Chen, 2011). When informal learning is taking place on social media sites, students get quality feedback allowing higher achieving students to do better and weaker students are able to get support and feedback which reduces the achievement gap between high achievers and lower achievers (Chen, B., & Bryer, T., 2012, p.98; Casey, 2013).

Constraints

Social media gives us the ability to work together collaborative to produce a product, and build a knowledge base of information however, before that can occur, it is necessary to ensure that teachers and students are effectively using social media in the classroom by the teacher and the students. Students use social media in their private lives but that does not mean that its use translates to them knowing how to use social media effectively in the classroom or that students have the desire to mix learning environments with social media (Tay, & Allen, 2011). Social media makes it easier to be part of collaboration without actually collaborating with the group. People will often meet online and divide the work equally among the group members and complete the tasks without getting feedback from other group members (Tay, & Allen, 2011). Research shows that students are not using social media technology in their studies to the full extent of its ability. This means that it is necessary for teachers to ensure that students are made aware of its capabilities as a learning technology for the classroom. (Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012). According to Powers, Alhussain, Averbeck, and Warner, the challenge for educators is that “technological innovation needs to be enacted alongside pedagogical innovation” (2012, p. 242). In order for educators to get the desired results, teachers must become facilitators who help their students see the connections between social media resources and education (Evans, 2013).

Social media also has the potential to cause concerns legally, ethically, and socially, making it necessary for institutions and workplaces to put into place strict mandates surrounding social media use in their codes of conduct (Woodley & Silvestri, 2014). Schools systems are hesitant in allowing the use of social media for learning in the academic realm because “the “copy-cut-and-paste” generation frequently exploits the powerful affordances of Web 2.0 technologies to re-organise, edit, remix, recreate, repackage content for republication, thus plagiarising texts with impunity” (Rambe, 2012, p. 133).

Schools and universities are grappling with problems with student’s misuse of social media use in their private lives. Students do not seem to realize the negative impact of this type of social media use. Employers are requesting social media passwords to check out potential employees. Without realizing it, students are risking current and future employability from inappropriate social media posts (Woodley & Silvestri, 2014).