Student-initiated Facebook sites: nurturing personal learning environments or a place for the disenfranchised?

ABSTRACT

Facebook is social media that is ubiquitously used in higher education contexts by both staff and students. It provides a platform for student networking and expression. The authors illuminate how pre-service teachers in an Australian university, undertaking undergraduate units, use Facebook as a student-initiated social media community. Although an increasing number of research studies have investigated student use of social media in higher education, this is an under-theorised area. In particular, little has been written about the student-initiated use of Facebook as a commentary on the activities running simultaneously to formal online learning programmes in universities. Data drawn from 15 semi-structured interviews support an investigation into student Facebook use. Findings highlight that student-driven Facebook sites have a range of purposes and offer ever-present access to a relational community online, although this can sometimes be problematic. When emotional support is not forthcoming from academics or there is disenfranchisement in formal learning spaces, membership in student-initiated learning communities can afford immediacy, informality, influence and shared emotional connections.     

Use of Facebook: a case study of Singapore students' experience

Facebook has become one of the most popular social network sites among many students. However, current research on Facebook use has focused mainly on Anglo-American students. Relatively little is known about Facebook use in Singapore. Data were collected from 83 students (ages ranged from 15 to 23). This study uses a naturalistic case study wherein the students' decision to use Facebook is a personal decision and on a voluntarily basis; their participation is not a required or graded component. The specific objectives of the study are first, to examine Singapore students' motives for using Facebook; second, to investigate the types of friends they communicated with on Facebook; and third, to examine how students manage their privacy on the social networking site. Findings suggested that the current sample of Singapore students used Facebook primarily for non-educational purposes. Specifically, Facebook was used to maintain relationships with existing known friends such as former or current schoolmates. Respondents also reported using Facebook for entertainment purposes and to vent their emotions. No respondent reported using Facebook for educational purposes. The most common strategy for privacy protection utilized by the respondents was to decrease profile information visibility through restricting access to only known friends. Educational implications of the findings as well as suggestions for future research are provided.     

#Socialmedia: A Preliminary Report of Social Networking Use Among University and College Counseling Center Mental Health Providers

The social networking use of university and college counseling center (UCCC) mental health providers has not been widely researched. Most of the 20 providers surveyed in this preliminary study reported engaging in social networking despite identifying pros and cons to its use. Participants’ reported use of social media may indicate that social networking sites are used primarily to glean information. Risks associated with social networking for UCCC practitioners are discussed and implications for training and social media use are provided.     

“Actually, I Wanted to Learn”: Study-related knowledge exchange on social networking sites

Social media open up multiple options to add a new dimension to learning and knowledge processes. Particularly, social networking sites allow students to connect formal and informal learning settings. Students can find like-minded people and organize informal knowledge exchange for educational purposes. However, little is known about in which way students use social networking sites for informal learning and about characteristics of these students. In this paper, three studies examined the study-related knowledge exchange via StudiVZ, the German equivalent of Facebook. Results indicated that about one fifth of participants exchange study-related knowledge through StudiVZ and that these students are especially freshers seeking contact with other students and orientation. Consistent with previous research, it is shown that students use social networking sites mainly for social interaction and integration. However, results also imply that communication about social issues on social networking sites goes hand in hand with study-related knowledge exchange.     

Facebook: a potentially valuable educational tool?

This paper is concerned with the educational value of Facebook and specifically how it can be used in formal educational settings. As such, it provides a review of existing literature of how Facebook is used in higher education paying emphasis on the scope of its use and the outcomes achieved. As evident in existing literature, Facebook has been used mainly for social networking purposes through the establishment and collaboration of social groups in educational settings. However, a set of recent studies has exemplified how Facebook can provide an empowering means for achieving educational goals and supporting students develop crucial skills (e.g., writing, networking, collaborating) by serving as members in various learning communities. Concluding, we argue that Facebook can provide a valuable pedagogical tool that enhances student learning. Hence, future research towards further exploring Facebook’s use in educational settings is warranted for the purpose of producing scientific evidence about the ways in which Facebook could be utilized to enhance learning.     

Facebook and classroom group work: A trial study involving University of Botswana Advanced Oral Presentation students

In the 21st century, the use of information technology in the classroom is advancing rapidly, especially in higher education. The Internet, through social networking, has made it possible for students to learn and teachers to teach outside the classroom walls. Facebook in particular has made it possible for students to interact and communicate with their teachers and among themselves about their progress and about the problems they encounter in learning. Yet, limited research exists on the use of Facebook in education in Sub‐Saharan Africa more especially in Botswana. This is in spite of the observation that Sub‐Saharan Africa is the fastest growing Internet population with a growth of more than 2500% between 2000 and 2011. This study therefore set out to examine (1) the students' interest in using Facebook to facilitate group work activities in the Advanced Oral Presentation Skills course; (2) whether the students interact and communicate using Facebook on matters relating to the Advanced Oral Presentations course; (3) whether the students benefitted from using Facebook for learning advanced oral presentation skills; and (4) what challenges the students encountered when using Facebook in the Advanced Oral Presentations course. In this trial study, students were allocated groups and assigned to conduct their group activities via Facebook. Although this was optional, more than 80% of the groups opted for Facebook and less than 20% chose to do their group work traditionally. A follow‐up evaluation of the experiment was done through a questionnaire and interviews. The findings suggest that Facebook could facilitate student communication and interaction about group assignments.     

Ethical dilemmas on social media: Swedish secondary teachers’ boundary management on Facebook

With the aim of contributing to the research about the educational use of social media, the paper explores teachers’ experiences of ethical dilemmas on Facebook. The paper draws upon focus group interviews with Swedish secondary teachers. Two main categories of ethical dilemmas, related to the border between private and professional, are detected. The dilemmas concern (1) teachers’ moral responsibility for pupils’ actions and (2) how teachers appear on social media. Different boundary work practices created and used by teachers are identified. The main conclusion is that, by having contact with pupils in a virtual social arena originally intended for private use, teachers’ use of social media brings to fore and intensifies deep-rooted ethical questions about what the teacher role is and should be. Teachers’ participation on social media such as Facebook compels them to reflect upon and position their preferred teacher role in these new social arenas.     

The Social and Political Role of Social Media

Social media such as Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and so on are not only use for entertainment and communication, but also plays social and political role on people's daily life. Whether social media enhance democracy or not and how social media impact on journalism and the issues of social media, especially the social networking will be discusses on this article.     

利用“Facebook”发展网络学习社区

当高等教育机构都在宣传远程教育“一站式服务”特点的时候,他们并没有热衷于（至少在现阶段）把Facebook这样的工具加入他们的绑定服务。这些服务现在可以通过诸如Angel和Blackboard的课程管理系统（CMSs）实现。高等教育现在还没有准备好完全接纳CMSs。从理论上说,学生们在CMSs中可以更有效地学习。然而,其他的社会网络工具（如博客、维客和播客）显得要比Facebook更适合在远程教育中使用。要注意的是,对CMSs进行＂整合＂而不是＂代替＂是这一类工具现在唯一的功用。使用这一类网络工具的用户大部分都支持这一事实即Facebook能为大学生们提供一种社会出路。因为,不管它效果如何,社会交往总是人类教育的核心。在这一方面,Facebook会起到作用,但是把这一作用融入到远程教育中却缺少了一股推动力。学生们可以把它作为合作学习中次要的信息交流途径。例如：学生们可以通过在自己的空间中邀请同学来共同完成小组作业。Facebook提供的服务（如聊天、结识新同学、安排社会、学术会议等）可以通过使用CMSs当前的技术来实现,同时避免社会网络中普遍存在的安全漏洞和其他法律问题。目前对于Facebook应用在网络学习社区中的观念很可能一夜之间被颠覆,基于Facebook的新发展,技术融合以及远程教育管理者观念的改变,面对一些学生学习花费时间长的这一情况,Facebook改进了原来在推进学习（如完成任务花费的时间）中的功用。Facebook的引入可能使学习环境很舒适,但是笔者很想深刻的挖掘该技术,并探索将它用于学术领域的可能性,把它作为一种潜在的方式使学生可以远程互相学习而不用挤在一个狭小的空间。     

Facebook-Induced Motivation Shifts in a French Online Course

This study explores the effects of instructor’s self-disclosure using the Facebook social networking online platform on students’ motivation types in an online language course. The participants were 104 beginning French students enrolled in an online French course at a major research university in the southeast U.S. The participants were divided into a Facebook group, where they could access the instructor’s Facebook profile throughout the semester, and a control group. The Academic Motivation Scale (Noels, Pelletier, Clement, & Vallerand, 2003) was used for determining whether the participants were intrinsically or extrinsically motivated, anchoring this research within the Self-Determination Theory model (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Post-treatment results indicated that participants assigned to the Facebook group experienced a significant shift in motivation type that research has determined as being beneficial for language learning (Gardner, 1985). No such shift occurred in students assigned to the control group. This shift is of particular importance in an online course environment where the instructor’s Facebook profile was the only means of teacher’s self-disclosure unlike a face-to-face environment where teacher self-disclosure can occur spontaneously.     

Behavior,perceptions and learning experience of undergraduates using social technologies during internship

Social technologies such as social networking sites, Wikis and blogs have gained popularity not only in social communication but also in other areas, such as in enhancing learning experience among students in tertiary education. This study investigated how blogs and Facebook scaffolded students’ learning during their internships in tertiary education. A mix-method approach was employed to examine students’ perceptions of blogs and Facebook in improving their internship learning experience. The results showed that blogs and Facebook encouraged students and facilitated their engagement in problem solving, information sharing and knowledge construction during their internships. In particular, Facebook showed more promising results, assisting students in reflecting on their experiences. Moreover, students acknowledged that Facebook was a better platform for online interaction and collaborative learning than blogs. This study provides empirical evidence for the use of social media tools in pedagogical scaffolding and collaborative learning during internships.

     

Responding to Big Data in the Art Education Classroom: Affordances and Problematics

The article raises questions about the use in art education classrooms of social networking sites like Facebook and image sharing sites like YouTube that rely upon the ability of Big Data to aggregate large amounts of data, including data on students. The article also offers suggestions for the responsible use of these sites. Many youth are using these sites as creative platforms and, taking their lead, the author describes his own use of YouTube as a creative tool in his pre‐service classroom. The author argues that most art educational literature that relies upon Big Data sites consider only the affordances and not the problematics involved, specifically issues of privacy and having youth effectively working as unpaid labour for global corporations.     

NAVIGATING SOCIAL NETWORKING AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY: ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL CONSIDERATIONS IN TRAINING PROGRAMS

Social networking and social media have undoubtedly proliferated within the past decade, allowing widespread communication and dissemination of user‐generated content and information. Some psychology graduate programs, including school psychology, have started to embrace social networking and media for instructional and training purposes; however, there have not been any consistent ethical guidelines or standards among training programs relating to how trainers, graduate students, and practitioners should use social networking and social media professionally. This article draws on the current yet limited research on social networking and social media, and addresses the ethical challenges when managing both professional and personal online identities in school psychology. Two relevant case scenarios are discussed, along with suggested guidelines for developing technological policies for school psychologists. Future directions in research and practical implications for trainers, graduate students, and practitioners are explored.     

Tapping the educational potential of Facebook: Guidelines for use in higher education

Facebook is a frequently used Computer Mediated Environment (CME) for students and others to build social connections, with identities and deposited self-expression. Its widespread use makes it appropriate for consideration as an educational tool; though one that does not yet have clear guidelines for use. Whether a social networking site can be used for educational objectives remains largely unexplored as a research question. This paper discusses a study conducted at the University of Auckland and at Manchester Metropolitan University on how their students use Facebook, and its impact on their social and academic lives. Using theories of social capital and knowledge management, we explore some potential educational uses of Facebook. Guidelines are included for the educational use of Facebook by tutors in a university environment. These include both positive recommendations and activities and approaches to avoid; and include educational, administrative and legal issues.     

Pre-service teachers’ and teacher-educators’ experiences and attitudes toward using social networking sites for collaborative learning

Extensive use of social networking sites by students and teachers makes educators and researchers to think whether they can be incorporated in instructional process to facilitate students’ learning. This survey-based study records and examines Pakistani pre-service teachers’ and teacher-educators’ current uses of Facebook, and their attitudes toward using Facebook for collaborative learning, and to see if there is a significant relationship between participants’ intensity of Facebook use and their attitude toward instructional use of Facebook. Results of the study indicated that pre-service teachers’ and teacher-educators’ motives for their current Facebook use are mainly limited for social purposes. Pre-service teachers’ use of Facebook is more intensified than the use of Facebook by teacher-educators. Further, pre-service teachers showed more positive attitudes toward using Facebook for collaborative learning than the attitudes of their faculty. Findings also indicated a positive relationship between participants’ Facebook intensity and their attitudes toward its use for collaborative learning.     

An Exploratory Study of Undergraduate Students' Referral Preferences

We surveyed undergraduate college students from the psychology subject pool (N = 73) about where they would refer a depressed friend for help. Students from this sample were most likely to refer friends to the counseling center followed by social support options. Students were comparatively least likely to refer to other professionals, indicating that these students view the counseling center as their primary access point for mental health care. Implications of these findings for counseling centers include the continued importance of on-campus care, outreach geared at generating appropriate referrals from social support, fostering relationships with students' parents, and providing access to psychiatric care.     

Utilising social networking sites to improve writing: a case study with Chinese students in Malaysia

With the advancement of technology, writing in English is no longer confined to the classroom as nowadays students are exposed to various forms of writing on the Internet. Specifically with Generation Y in mind, online writing is a new method that needs to be implemented to enhance Malaysian students’ writing skills. This article aims at identifying what motivates English as a Second Language students to write in English on Facebook. Ten Chinese-speaking students from a private urban school were selected for this study. These students had just started secondary education after being educated in Chinese-vernacular elementary schools for six years. The students were required to participate in an ongoing discussion on their Facebook class page in order to complete a writing task. Data for this study comprised both online discussions and interviews. The findings suggest that peer influence and school surroundings motivated the students to write better in English on Facebook. The findings also imply that the use of technology in writing tasks made students write better in English owing to the exchanges of feedback and ideas that took place through this social networking site.     

Social Networking: Boundaries and Limits Part 1: Ethics

The number of educators, administrators, and institutions that utilize social networking has increased dramatically. Many have adopted social networking in order to be up-to-date and connected with their students’ learning beyond the boundaries of the classroom. However, this increase in the use of social networking in academia presents many potential issues. In this paper, we address the growing prevalence of social networking in education and some of the issues. Next, we use social role theory to explore some pitfalls for educators using social networking. Finally, we suggest that foundational ethical principles from the field of psychology can provide a basis for developing guiding principles for use of social networking in education.     

A generational examination of instructional Facebook use and the effects on perceived instructor immediacy,credibility and student affective learning

This study examined Millennial student perceptions of use of social networking, specifically Facebook, by instructors. Two independent variables were examined: instructor age (Baby Boomer or Millennial) and use of Facebook (utilising a course group site through the service versus not using the service at all). Results revealed that Baby Boomer instructors who used a class Facebook group were rated more highly on mediated immediacy, credibility and affective learning than Baby Boomer or Millennial instructors who did not use Facebook. The role of expectancy violations theory in Millennials’ perceptions of their instructors’ communication is discussed and recommendations are made for future research.     

Enhancing survey participation: Facebook advertisements for recruitment in educational research*

Surveys are commonly used to determine how people feel about a specific issue. The increasing availability of the internet and popularity of social networking sites have opened up new possibilities for conducting surveys and, with limited additional costs, enlarge the pool of volunteer respondents with the desired background, experience, or characteristics. In this paper, three different educational research studies are described. In each, a Facebook advertisement was among the methods used for recruitment of survey participants. In two of the studies, Facebook advertising was adopted to overcome obstacles encountered when more traditional sampling procedures failed; in the third study, Facebook was used to broaden representation to include international participants within project budget limitations. Details of the studies and of the recruitment approaches adopted, and the effectiveness of using Facebook advertising are presented. The limitations of using Facebook as a source of recruitment are also considered.