A review of social media applications in education
<p>Social media has gained m popularity as a social communication tool and become increasingly</p><p>important in our daily lives. Social media are primarily application tools for discussing and</p><p>sharing information. Social m...
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| Format: | thesis |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
2011
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ir.upsi.edu.my/detailsg.php?det=11343 |
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| Summary: | <p>Social media has gained m popularity as a social communication tool and become increasingly</p><p>important in our daily lives. Social media are primarily application tools for discussing and</p><p>sharing information. Social media applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Second Life,</p><p>and Flickr, have become a global phenomenon attracting millions of users. Thus, social media</p><p>popularity and its unique features contribute to potential e-learning, especially in online</p><p>distance learning. It increases interest among educators to make use of social media</p><p>technologies in education. It is also attracting the attention of many researchers to examine the</p><p>usage and implications of social media applications, implemented in education.</p><p></p><p>This project attempts to review the functions and uniqueness of social media applications. It also</p><p>focuses on current research findings and their impact in education. A "Documentation and</p><p>Application Review" method is used to explore social media functions, uniqueness, current research</p><p>findings, and their impact in education. Several popular applications and related articles have</p><p>been chosen as the object of this review. A total of eight social applications were selected. based</p><p>on the most popular applications, as listed in TopTen Reviews</p><p>(http://www.toptenreviews.com) and Ebizma (http://www.ebizmba.com). Meanwhile, articles were</p><p>chosen from conference proceeding papers and journal articles, from academic databases, such as</p><p>AACE, ACM, IEEE. EBSCO. and ProQuest, through the Multimedia University's Siti Hasmah Digital</p><p>Library. A total of 12 papers were selected for this review project.</p><p></p><p>The findings show that social media supports social interaction. Users interact with people through</p><p>constructing, contributing, and sharing, their content. Different social media applications</p><p>serve different functions and uniqueness. Social networking allows the connection of people,</p><p>where they can maintain their updates</p><p>with other people. The blog application allows users to publish. post, and share their</p><p>content, with other bloggers. In addition, wiki allows the user to read about news topics and</p><p>comment on articles. Social bookmarking allows the user save bookmarks online and share them with</p><p>others, while the virtual world allows social interaction through an immersive and engaging</p><p>environment. This review shows that social media have both positive and negative implications on</p><p>education. However, it promises a conducive and effective learning environment. Social media allows</p><p>instructors to connect with learners to discuss assignments, upcoming events, useful links, and</p><p>other work, out of the classroom. Some of the regularly discussed issues include privacy, security,</p><p>identity, and motivation. Most of these issues are internet issues. Most studies report that the</p><p>implementing of social media in learning is still at the nascent stage, and thus, requires more</p><p>research and exploration to accommodate an effective learning.</p><p></p><p>Hence, these findings provide an overview of information about social media applications in an</p><p>educational setting. This may assist further research on social media, which promises better</p><p>learning and strategic implementation. Future project recommendations into web based social media,</p><p>may extend its focus to mobile media, and augmented reality. The benefits of mobile computing</p><p>devices and ubiquitous technologies, as powerful access devices, may offer tremendous</p><p>opportunities to implement social media within m-learning.</p><p></p> |
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