Evaluations of Students on Facebook as an Educational Environment

Abstract

Taking cognizance of the transformation experienced in education technologies, the concept that comes into prominence in integration of ICTs to education process at present is web 2.0. The main philosophy of web 2.0 technologies is its contribution to content formation of users and high-level interaction between users. One of web 2.0 technologies used widely is social networking sites. In this study, educational use of Facebook, which is a social networking site, was assessed in terms of student views. To that end, 27 students were inserted to an interaction in Facebook environment as a part of a formal lesson for 2 months. The students appraised Facebook positively in aspects of dissemination of information, arousing interest, motivation, presenting interaction opportunity, whereas negatively in terms of being nested with entertainment, problem of control mechanism, excessive informational convergence. The students made suggestions about Facebook in terms of educational usage, providing teacher supervisions, introducing education in Facebook environment and including student performance in this environment into academic assessment process