Social Media in Education and Teachers’ Attitudes

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Introduction

Due to the previously identified importance of social media’s impact on contemporary life and, particularly, educational processes, a vast variety of scholarly articles and academy research on this topic exists. Since the proposal focuses primarily on the question of Saudi teachers’ attitudes towards using social media as an educational tool, the scope of the conducted literature research was the articles dedicated to the use of new communication technologies in education. The purpose of this literature research is to retrieve the most important concepts and provisions from the selected academic works in order to develop a profound understanding of how social media is incorporated in education and to connect these emerging concepts and ideas to the initial research question.

Problems and Questions Posed in the Reviewed Literature

First of all, it is essential to identify primary areas of concern that emerge in selected academic works. In order to complete this task, it is of high importance to overview problems and questions which are posed by the authors. The article by Capo and Orellana (2011) is preoccupied with the peculiarities of the use of Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom. The article covers such questions as the amount of the current use of Web 2.0 technologies by teachers, their perception of the efficiency of these technologies, and factors that influence the decision to include Web 2.0 technologies in the educational process (Capo & Orellana, 2011). Arguing that social media “can facilitate communication between students and teachers,” Bexheti, Ismaili, and Cico (2014) focus on the investigation of new communication technologies’ innovative potential, which has four dimensions: content, creation, connecting, and collaboration (p. 90).

In his dissertation, Tozer (2017) states that the primary problem is the lack of empirical studies that would investigate the influence of social media’s inclusion in the high school educational process by teachers. Oueder and Abousaber (2018) argue that students’ academic performance can be affected by the use of social media both positively and negatively. Additionally, Alwagait, Shahzad, and Alim (2015) explore the same topic, but they conduct their study with respect to the Saudi-specific educational environment. Another study in the context of Saudi is conducted by Allam and Elyas (2016), who focus on the question of social media on the educational process and peculiarities of learning English as a foreign language.

The article by Bingimlas (2017), considerably similar to the study by Capo and Orellana (2011), investigates the use of Web 2.0 technologies by teachers; however, Bingimlas (2017) is more focused on Saudi-specific aspects of the problem, and he also pays considerable attention to the role of school-level barriers. Tiryakioglu and Erzurum (2011) focus primarily on the use of Facebook by teachers and professors in Turkey, stating that new communication technologies can support the instructors’ empowering of the educational process. Alabdulkareem (2015) identifies the problem of the teachers’ adaptation to new communication technologies as a crucial factor in improving the educational process.

It should be noted that each of the selected articles is within the same area of concern, which could be generally described as the impact of new communication technologies on education. Accordingly, many research problems and questions posed by the authors are similar to some extent. However, some of them employ country-specific environments and more specific research topics.

Prevalent Themes and Concepts

As the main scope of research problems and the question of the selected literature is identified, it is possible to discuss prevalent themes and concepts that emerge from the selected academic works. Arguably, the widest and comprehensive concept that is used in the discussion of the impact of new communication means education is proposed by Capo and Orellana (2011). They provide a very inclusive and broad definition of Web 2.0 technologies: it is “the second generation of services available on the web that lets people collaborate and share information online,” and it is social software that “enables people to connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication … and form online communities” (p. 236). Bingimlas (2017) provides another definition of Web 2.0 technologies as he states that it could be called “social computing” as it represents “the range of digital applications that enable interaction, collaboration and sharing between users” (p. 100).

However, the most comprehensive and elaborated normalization of terms related to the identified area of concern of this literature review is provided in the dissertation by Tozer (2017). He defines social media communication as the “Internet-connected technology that allows users to create content, share content, and editor respond to others’ created and shared content in digital space” (p. 13). Another definition of social media is proposed by Oueder and Abousaber (2018), who consider it as “web-based applications that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas and pictures or videos in virtual communication and networks” (p. 78).

Also, the aspect of teachers’ attitude toward the use of social media technologies, which is highly important for this research proposal, is formulated as “teachers’ personal perceptions of the use of social media as a pedagogical tool in their teaching practices” (Tozer, 2017, p. 13). Capo and Orellana (2011) observe that the aspect of attitude is highly important because it is the primary determinant of the efficient inclusion of social media technologies in the educational process. Additionally, it is possible to mention the definition of social media by Alabdulkareem (2015), who states that it is “a group of Internet-based applications ‘interactive platforms’ that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 that allow the creation and exchanges of user-generated content” (p. 215). Thus, it is evident that the most important and elaborated concept is social media.

Dominant and Secondary Perspectives

It is evident from the conducted literature analysis of proposed problems, questions, and concepts that the majority of contemporary scholars are preoccupied with the investigation of peculiarities of Web 2.0 technologies, including social media networks, and their influence on the educational process. Therefore, it is essential to identify the perspective on the identified problem, which is prevalent among the selected studies. After reviewing the authors’ conclusions, it is possible to state that the dominant perspective is the positive outlook on the inclusion of social media technologies in the educational process.

In particular, Bexheti et al. (2014) state that “teachers find social media as a very useful tool for enhancing teaching and learning,” and that social media is affecting the ways in which teachers find, create, share and learn knowledge” (p. 94). It is appropriate to observe that other selected studies also support this dominant perspective at least to some extent (Alabdulkareem, 2015; Bingimlas, 2017; Tozer, 2017). For example, the research results of the study by Oueder and Abousaber (2018) indicate that social media significantly improves “the communication between the faculty member staff and the students which facilitate the communication of the correct information and improve the understanding and the development of the ideas and the courses” (p. 87). Therefore, it is appropriate to conclude that the authors share the same dominant perspective.

However, it is also important to identify a that is considered substantive for the research question of this proposal, but which is significantly less prevalent in the selected studies. The aspect of teachers’ preparedness for the active inclusion of social media technologies in the educational process, determined by the insufficient experience of using social media platforms, is not elaborated in the majority of the studies under discussion. The article by Bingimlas (2017) is the only example in which the author is significantly concerned with the identified problem as a barrier to providing high-quality education.

Methodologies Used in the Reviewed Literature

Further, it is essential to observe the methodology that is used in the selected academic works. First of all, it is of high significance to mention that numerous authors, including Bexheti et al. (2014), Capo and Orellana (2011), and Tozer (2017), employ the method of the literature review. The observation of the existing literature on the topic is a significant aspect of any scientific research, and thus it is appropriate that the majority of authors using it. Additionally, it is possible to mention that the field of social media technologies study is currently developing at a significantly high pace, and thus it is essential to compare in incorporate different perspectives on the subject matter from various resources.

Considering the dominant research method, it is possible to state that the majority of the authors employed a quantitative methodology. The use of this particular approach could be explained by the necessity to process large amounts of information, including different variables and significantly large sample groups. A quantitative survey is the most used method of research in the selected academic works (Bingimlas, 2017; Oueder and Abousaber, 2018). The least used methodology is the qualitative approach since it is presented only in the study by Tiryakioglu and Erzurum (2011) who considered it important to investigate the teachers’ and students’ perceptions and personal perspectives od the inclusion of social media in the education.

The Connection Between the Research Question and Emerging Concepts from the Literature

Finally, it is possible to employ the data, which was gathered during the literature review process, in order to retrieve a meaningful conclusion in the context of the initial research question and its subquestions. As the main question was about the teachers’ attitudes toward the use of social media technologies in education, it is possible to state with certainty that the majority of reviewed studies indicate the overall positive perception of new communication technologies by teachers. The article by Bingimlas (2017) elaborated on the question of barriers to the utilizing of new communication technologies, which include the insufficient preparedness of teachers, the large number of students, privacy and integrity issues, as well as the cost of new technologies. The social interaction, facilitating the social life of numerous people, is the most important change that can positively influence the classroom environment. The main functional traits of new communication means are the increased accessibility of information and the integration of a large number of people into an efficient network. These two aspects can be efficiently used by teachers in contemporary classrooms in Saudi. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the conducted literature research significantly supports the initial provisions of the research proposal.

References

Alabdulkareem, S. A. (2015). Exploring the use and the impacts of social media on teaching and learning science in Saudi. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 182, 213-224.

Allam, M., & Elyas, T. (2016). Perceptions of Using Social Media as an ELT Tool among EFL Teachers within the Saudi Context. English Language Teaching, 9(7), 1.

Alwagait, E., Shahzad, B., & Alim, S. (2015). Impact of social media usage on students academic performance in Saudi Arabia. Computers in Human Behavior, 51, 1092-1097.

Bexheti, L. A., Ismaili, B. E., & Cico, B. H. (2014). An analysis of social media usage in teaching and learning: The case of SEEU. In Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Circuits, Systems, Signal Processing, Communications and Computers (pp. 90-94). Venice, Italy.

Bingimlas, K. A. (2017). Learning and teaching with Web 2.0 applications in Saudi K-12 schools. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 16(3), 100-115.

Capo, B. H., & Orellana, A. (2011). Web 2.0 technologies for classroom instruction: High school teachers’ perceptions and adoption factors. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 12(4), 235.

Oueder, M., & Abousaber, I. (2018). A study on the impact of social media usage on student academic performance: University of Tabuk an example. American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS), 40(1), 77-88.

Tiryakioglu, F., & Erzurum, F. (2011). Use of social networks as an educational tool. Contemporary Educational Technology, 2(2), 135-150.

Tozer, B. C. (2017). Pennsylvania teachers’ perceptions and use of social media communication technologies as a pedagogical tool. Web.

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