The Attitudes of Islamic Education Teachers Towards the Use of Social Media in Teaching and Learning

Badr Abdullah Al-Harbi

doi:10.5539/ies.v12n11p154

Abstract

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.

Highlights

There have been recent successive developments in various fields, especially in the field of information and communication technology (ICT)
The results showed that the participants had positive attitudes towards social media
The results indicated that faculty members, whether male or female, with different degrees tend to use social media in their teaching and have positive attitudes towards them

Summary

Introduction

There have been recent successive developments in various fields, especially in the field of information and communication technology (ICT). The advent of the internet and its widespread use is one of the most important reasons that led to a rapid and massive development in science and to the interconnection of the world. This has facilitated the rapid transmission of information anywhere in the world and the World Wide Web has entered various areas of life thereby reducing time and effort (Al-Sadhan, 2015). Since 2003, as mentioned Redecker, Ala-mutka, and Punie (2010), the internet has seen a stunning growth in applications controlled by the end user such as blogs, podcasts, wikis, social media, navigators, auction websites, games and Voice over Internet Protocol services, in addition to the emergence of web 2.0 technologies. Social media (e.g. My Space, Facebook) and the sharing of multimedia can be considered as part of the Web 2.0 applications and are part of the internet programs that help learners learn, share information and collaborate with others through digital communications (Redecker et al, 2010)

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