Experiences and perspectives of social media in learning and teaching in higher education

Alison J Purvis,Helen M Rodger,Sue Beckingham

doi:10.1016/j.ijedro.2020.100018

Alison J Purvis, Helen M Rodger + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2020.100018

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Abstract

A qualitative study conducted at a large UK post-92 university explored the experiences and perceptions of lecturers and their use of social media in learning and teaching contexts in different disciplines across the institution. Discussion between participants in two focus groups revealed a range of complex and interdependent factors that influence the successful use of social media for learning and teaching. The facilitated discussions exposed three different perspectives for consideration: personal (the experiences and attitudes of the lecturer and the student), pedagogy (demanded by the learning context in question) and institutional (dictated, or driven by the institution). Themes that arose were used to cluster and further analyse the data. Based on the intersectionality of perspectives, a series of recommendations are made for consideration by higher education institutions for institutional strategy and support for the applied use of social media in learning and teaching contexts.

Highlights

Contemporary technology has a long history of innovating in higher education (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004)
Group 1 answered the questions with optimism, they did show some caution. They established a shared understanding of social media rooted in the benefit of sharing social dimensions, community, communication and intimacy, and based on personal feeling: “...it’s my mates, it’s my family, but certainly over the last few years for me, it’s been related to myself as an academic and my own personal learning and I’d say it’s that massive network that I feel I’ve got that extends beyond the University ”. (F2)
The focus group conversations revealed a complex picture of interdependency and overlap between personal, pedagogic, and institutional perspectives

Summary

Introduction

Contemporary technology has a long history of innovating in higher education (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004). Appropriate use of technology can improve learning by facilitating us to carry out our established practice more effectively or to innovate practice. Technology has the potential to have a transformative effect on education, not least through the capacity of asynchronous communication tools and behaviours to enhance the face to face learning experience (Chen, 2018; Garrison & Kanuka, 2004); for the simulation or enhancement of environments, for the development of behaviours, or the creation of opportunities for experimentation and discovery. Technologies that introduce or maximise the potential of synchronous and asynchronous contributions (Hrastinski, 2008), or that facilitate online teaching (Murphy, Rodríguez-Manzanares & Barbour, 2011) can contribute to learning within the face to face classroom: pre-class, during or as post-class activities. Popular social media spaces such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn are designed to be intuitive to use and entirely accessible from any online connected device

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