A review of Education and Social Media using conflict and functionalist theories

Education and Social Media: Toward a Digital Future (2016), edited by Christine Greenhow, Julia Sonnevend, and Colin Agur, is a compilation of essays by leading contributors to the digital and social media movement in education. The chapters within this volume provide a granular look at the current landscape of how digital media is utilized across educational levels, fields of study, and geographic areas. The book is divided into three sections discussing the emerging use of social media in education, challenges in its implementation, and potential directions as tech-based education continues to evolve. In this review, we situate the ideas presented in Education and Social Media in the functionalist and conflict theories of educational perspective to further illuminate the potential of digital learning in supporting increased access to education for marginalized student populations. We discuss how these competing views are both given voice in Education and Social Media, prompting the reader to critically reflect on advantages and dangers presented by increased use of technological platforms in educational settings. Topics discussed include online universities, peer-developed curriculum, and differential use of technology based on school socioeconomic demographics. We also suggest areas that have emerged in need of further discussion since the book’s publication.

In the context of considerations on the potential attenuation of the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic with the use of credible social media in online education during a pandemic, the subject of our own research was the fulfillment of two goals. The main research goals were to identify, categorize, and evaluate the possibilities of using social media in online education during the pandemic from the perspective of selected teachers and students from secondary schools in Slovakia. The research methods of the first phase (qualitative) of the research involved brainstorming among nine secondary school teachers. The second research phase (quantitative) used a questionnaire, which was completed by 102 high school students from all over Slovakia. The collection of both quantitative and qualitative data was used in this research. The research results revealed the most representative opinions of teachers on the current and real possibilities of engaging credible social media in online education and the views of high school students on their desired use and involvement of social media in online education. The intersection of the two findings presents a picture of the possibilities of using credible social media in online education, which can help maintain students’ interest in online education during a pandemic. Based on these findings, it can be stated that the opinions identified in the research group of teachers correspond to a large extent with the desired use of social media in education from the perspective of students. In addition, however, students would welcome more opportunities to use and engage social media in today’s online education. The result of this research is an analysis of social media patterns applied to online education, which are of greater interest to students and could act as elements for reducing the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., six forms of online education and 24 educational activities that could contribute, inter alia, to mitigating the different negative effects of the pandemic among youth generation. The findings also benefit from the presentation of many specific options and recommendations for the use of social media in online education during a pandemic.

Social media is used by many students at universities, with sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube being the most popular. Initially these social networking sites were mainly used for recreational purposes, but they have been increasingly used in an educational setting. Educators in the anatomical sciences and health professions have utilised many forms of technology to supplement and enhance a student's learning. However, the true effectiveness of using social media in anatomical and health professions education has not been fully explored. It has been hypothesised that social media in anatomical sciences and health professional education could enhance learner engagement, raise morale, relieve anxieties and improve communication. However, the evidence is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to undertake a comprehensive literature review to examine the effectiveness, or otherwise, of these tools when implemented. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method for reviewing the literature. By using specific keywords and using Google Scholar, PubMed, ERIC and OVID, we performed an extensive literature search to examine the use of social media in anatomical sciences and health professional education. A total of 155 studies were identified in this systematic review, with 99 studies investigating a variety of social networking sites being included. Overall, the evidence is supportive, with 79.8% of the studies supporting the use social media in education. Furthermore, when the use of social media in the anatomical sciences and health professional was investigated, the majority of studies advocated for its implementation. Despite this, there are some factors that limit the significance of these results, and the amount of evidence was indeed limited. Additional research must be carried out if social media is to influence modern pedagogical practices, with more focus on how the intervention affects academic achievement.

Student engagement and social media in tertiary education: The perception and experience from the Ghanaian public university

Introduction: This study investigates the influence of gender and social networking sites (SNSs) such as Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter on consuming, creating, and sharing content within the educational social media usage behaviors of higher education students. The survey method is applied to measure students’ social media usage for educational purposes. So that a more effective use of social media in education can be provided, it is important to understand how university students vary in their educational use of social media. The aim of this study is to examine how higher education students use social media for their educational purposes based on the content and activities with which the students engage. The aim of the research is to determine the correlations, if any, between gender, preferred SNS type, and educational social media in regard to consuming, creating and sharing content. Methods: The derived scale is administered in Turkey with the participation of a total of 365 university students. Psychometric, validation and reliability analysis of the scale which is used in the study to collect the data were done first. Principal component analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive, correlations and multivariate analysis of variance are applied to analyze the social media usage for educational purposes. Gender and the SNS type were set as the additional predictors of the consuming, creating and sharing content on social media. Results: The validation and linguistic adaptation of the Inside School Social Media Behavior (ISSMB) scale from English to Turkish is performed first. Results showed that the three factors of the original scale were confirmed. Secondly, the derived scale is administered with the participation of a total of 365 university students. Results indicated that gender difference was a significant factor in explaining the content creation on social media. Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube are the most preferred SNSs for educational use among students at the higher education level. No significant effect was reported for the type of the SNS used in consuming, creating, and sharing educational content on social media. The type of the SNS used by the students was not found to influence educational social media usage; accordingly, students consume, create and share content, regardless of the type of the SNS they use. Discussion: Higher education level students prefer watching videos more than any other social media activity for their educational purposes. The second most frequently preferred social media usage activity was reported as searching for the learning resources or information pertaining to schoolwork. Creating content was the least favorable social media usage. When the social media usage purposes focus on schoolwork and are furthermore educational, males’ social media usage outperforms the females. Thus, males were more likely to create content by using social media for inside schoolwork purposes than the females. Males were also more likely to have sharing habits than the females in sharing learning resources e.g., class notes with their classmates by using social media for their inside schoolwork purposes. Limitations: The total number of participants used in the research sample is a limitation of this study. The study data were only collected in Turkey, and so the study results are only regionally generalizable. Conclusion: Higher education students are consumers of the social media when they use it for educational purposes. Accordingly, students prefer being “passive consumer social media users who avoid active content creating”. Students prefer watching the uploaded ready-to-watch videos who avoid instead of creating and uploading their own video content. When sharing items are compared with creating content items, students responded more to the latter. Students do share their information with classmates e.g. exam schedules and lecture notes. Compared to other sharing content usages, students less frequently preferred sharing extracurricular learning resources. The gender difference found herein is a predictor of social networking site usage among young people, and social networking usage changes according to gender. Males are reported as being more “giving” within a school setting when it comes to sharing the educational content with their colleagues and friends. Social media is a reality of our modern lives, one that is growing exponentially; it is highly crucial that researchers facilitate a better understanding of the ongoing changes and developments that are emerging and transforming learning. Both outside and inside school, the social media usage behaviors of young people can be examined according to different age groups do determine any age-related differences. The subject can be improved with new findings and results from different sample groups.

Aim/Purpose: This study serves a constructive purpose on the effective use of social media as a technical tool in formal learning at higher education. It outlines practical suggestions for institutions to leverage the participatory design method and refine social media pedagogies. Background: Social media gains widespread usage from the majority of university students worldwide. Educators examine the potential of social media’s affordances in teaching and learning. While the use of social media in formal learning has garnered much interest among educators, the implementation of such pedagogies remains individually motivated rather than institution-wide. Methodology: This research empirically examined university students who took part in inquiry group project work in two courses (undergraduate and postgraduate) under implementation of participatory design approach. It adopted a mixed-method approach by collecting both quantitative and qualitative data to examine their expectations and preferences on social media tools. Contribution: Despite the technology’s potential for facilitating teaching and learning, the effective use of social media in higher education has been a recurring problem for many educators and institutions. This study addresses the deficit and proposes a theoretical framework that consists of student’s own experience and teacher-initiated scaffolding students’ adequate use of social media in formal learning using participatory design approach. Findings: Results indicate that students wanted to use social media to gain knowledge, collaborate, communicate with each other and embraced the implementation of the participatory design approach, which offered them a greater sense of participation and ownership. Furthermore, our research has revealed that despite generally being familiar with social media use in everyday life, students relied at least partially on their lecturer’s guidance in adopting social media in the specific domain of formal learning. Recommendations for Practitioners: To incorporate social media in education, the ultimate goal is to enhance students’ use of social media tools for better and more effective learning. Our study recommends initiating organizational change in universities to the adoption of new pedagogies which allows students’ autonomy and lecturer’s scaffolding support to demonstrate the pedagogy’s positive influence by social media in teaching and learning. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers could examine and compare the effects by implementing the theoretical framework suggested in this research in different education levels, e.g., secondary school education. The researchers could consider cognitive, psychological, and social factors on incorporating social media into formal learning. Impact on Society: Social media has gained its recognition in everyday lives and academic field; however, the feasibility of social media-assisted pedagogies depends on individual educator solely. The current article provides a new pedagogy that educators can refine by students’ levels of social media proficiency and their learning expectations for institutions from around the world to make the best use of social media as part of formal university education. Future Research: With the rapid development of social media, further studies are worthy to examine the longitudinal impact of the current and the latest social media pedagogy with participatory design in scaffolding university students’ inquiry group project work on potential for use in formal learning and extent to co-create collaboration with lecturers.

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between prior use of social media in education and the perception of social media use in education and for future careers. College agriculture students and instructors were surveyed to address the objectives. The descriptive measures showed that instructors had more positive perceptions of social media than students, though neither group was in favor of social media in education in general. Prior use of social media in education was positively correlated with more positive perceptions of social media in education, with the relationship being stronger for instructors than students. The results indicate prior use could be a prerequisite for improving perceptions of social media in education. It was recommended instructors be aware of the discrepant views of social media in education that students hold when introducing social media into classes to help navigate potential conflicts as effectively as possible. Instructors should also be aware that the relationship between prior use and perceptions of social media is not as strong between different social media types. Further research is needed to better understand the direction of the relationship between prior use and perceptions. Experimental or quasi-experimental designs could address this area of research.

Recent research has discussed the opportunities associated with the use of social media tools in the classroom, but has not examined the perceptions students themselves hold about its usefulness in enhancing their educational experience. This research explores students’ perceptions of social media as an effective pedagogical tool. Undergraduate students in a midsized, private university taking a marketing course were surveyed about their social media usage and preferences as well as their perceptions regarding the use of social media in higher education. Additional qualitative data collection with students probed into motivations for social media use in education as well as instructor and university perceptions. Findings reveal openness to using social media in education, uncover interactive and information motives for its use, and offer theoretical and pedagogical implications. Importantly, we offer insights into how educators can strategically incorporate social media tools into the classroom as well as how the use of social media can potentially affect students’ views of the instructor and the university.

Social media are an increasingly important tool for educators, although their use for surgical education in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) has not been quantified. This study aimed to determine the social media presence of surgical training institutions in ANZ, quantify the proportion of their social media content that is educational, compare engagement between educational and non-educational content, and determine perspectives on using social media for education. An online search was conducted in October 2018 to determine the social media presence of surgical training institutions accredited to deliver under- and post-graduate surgical education in ANZ. All their posts on Facebook and Twitter from November 2017 to October 2018 were categorized as educational or non-educational. Engagement on Twitter was analysed using retweets. An online survey was distributed to each institution to investigate their social media strategy and opinions on the use of social media for surgical education. Seven out of 37 (19%) surgical training institutions had active social media accounts. Educational content accounted for 677/4615 (14.7%) of their posts. Educational content was retweeted more often than non-educational content (17.2 versus 5.4, P = 0.002). Seven out of 37 (19%) institutions responded to the survey, with one respondent having a policy for and utilising social media for surgical education. Social media are being used by a minority of surgical training institutions for educational purposes in ANZ. Social media content is primarily non-educational although educational posts attract more engagement. Further research is required to assess the efficacy of surgical education on social media.

The aim of this study was to identify and analyse the Islamic Education teachers’ attitudes, difficulties and purposes while using social media in the educational processes in the Saudi context. In doing so, this study adopted a quantitative, descriptive approach based on empirical data collected by means of a questionnaire. The study sample consisted of 124 teachers of Islamic Education in Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). While the participants reported positive attitudes towards the use of social media in the educational processes, the results showed their low use of social media which was limited mainly to personal purposes rather than using them for teaching learning activities. Based on the results, the study recommends developing teachers’ knowledge and skills to make them aware of the use of social media in education and encourage them to utilize them for teaching and learning activities. Since social media are ubiquitous and being widely used for personal reasons, their integration into the curricula and syllabi may further increase the teaching and learning of Islamic Education in Saudi Arabia.

The growing interest in research and technological advancement has opened doors of possibilities. Internet and virtual connectivity are such examples of possibilities. With its world wide web, the internet gave birth to social media that overthrew the old means of communication. Today, almost every field uses social media for various purposes. The field of education is no exception. Despite being popular for informal and entertainment use, social media is also used for a formal purpose like education. The current paper intends to review the use of social media in education. It presents the emergence of social media as a background that shall lead to its use in education. The paper reviewed three social media applications and their use in education in the light of previous studies. In doing so, some statistical data along with modes of use of social media in education have been discussed. It was found that social media applications like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are helpful in achieving educational purposes. However, these benefits have been found to be surrounded by some drawbacks, a few of which the paper brought to light. Keeping in view the benefits and drawbacks of using social media in education, the paper proposed some recommendations. These recommendations revolve around promoting positive use of social media in education and mitigation of possible drawbacks. Finally, the paper draws a conclusion in the light of prior discussion and recommendations.

The purpose of this article is to review previous studies focusing on the use of social media by teachers, students and educational researchers. The aim of the review on the current research studies is to find out what has been done with the use of social media for learning purposes, discuss their practical applications and discover its educational values. The emphasis of this review will be upon empirical findings rather than theoretical explanations. This review is organised into three sections that cover the major topics of current research: (a) applications of social media in education (e.g. methods applied in various research studies and the findings of different empirical research studies); (b) the effects of using social media (e.g. positive impacts of social media and negative impacts of social media) and (c) people's attitudes towards social media (e.g. students' perceptions of social media use in learning and faculty attitudes towards social media for teaching). The overall conclusion suggests that the social media may have the potential to improve learning. But there may be more positive effects if the social media tools are combined with the real interaction in class.

This chapter draws conclusions about incorporating social media into civic education, based on a study of high school teachers who used Twitter as part of their civics teaching. This chapter argues that social media has potential to be a participatory and justice-oriented pedagogical tool for civic education. At the same time, teachers who want to use social media in the classroom should teach students about the more problematic aspects of social media, such as misinformation and echo chambers. Implications from this study include developing our theoretical understanding of civic education, next steps for research in both civic education and the use of social media in education, and considerations for teachers who want to incorporate social media into their civic teaching. This chapter also offers conclusions about the potential for the use of social media in civic education.

The industrial revolution 4.0 has changed the way humans communicate and obtain information. Social interactions occur on social media, like in the real world. A person's attitude and character can be easily assessed through these patterns of social interaction. This research is a semi-systematic review that aims to map and describe various social media-based assessment methods. Data was collected through literature surveys related to affective assessments and studies related to the use of social media in learning and assessment. Data were synthesized with a meta-aggregation synthesis technique. The purpose of this study is to provide a brief overview of the importance of affective assessment, the potential of social media in education, specifically learning and assessment, and present various alternative assessment methods that can be chosen by educators in assessing the affective domain. The results of this study indicate that three theories underlie the use of social media in education, namely sociocultural, distributed cognition, and situated cognition. The benefits that can be obtained from the use of social media in the assessment are flexible, easily repeated, convenient, and easily accessible. Four affective assessment methods can be done through social media, including self-assessment, peer assessment, language pattern analysis, and group assessment. The four assessment methods can be an alternative that can be chosen by the teacher in assessing students using social media.

The main goal of this research is to identify some notable trends, opportunities and limitations regarding the application of social media in higher education based on studying the way students use social media during their education. The re-search is focused on the impact of social media on the process of learning, creation and distribution of education related content, as well as on education related communication. The target groups of the research are students in University of Economics Varna enrolled in different bachelor and master programs. An association analysis was implemented to identify the most common pat-terns regarding the application of social media in the education process. Statistical methods for testing hypothesis were used to assess the relationship between students’ specialty and derived social media patterns. The findings show that Facebook groups are а preferable social media tool for communication with colleagues, content sharing and distribution, while wikis and university Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are most used for content creation and additional learning. Some social media channels are more preferable for content creation and additional learning compared to scientific databases and e-books. Following the research results a conclusion can be drawn regarding the leading part of the students in initiating the use of social media compared to the relatively smaller role of the academic staff in this process. A medium to small relationships were discovered between students’ specialty and the application of con-tent sharing communities and forums in knowledge process with students in computer science more likely to use these social media types compared to students in economics.