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USAGE BLOGS & SOCIAL NETWORKS IN TEACHING

AUTHOR-J.JESINTHA 1ST M.COM CA, MAHENDRA ARTS & SCIENCE COLLEGE, KALIPATTI
CO-AUTHOR-G.GIFTA 1ST M.COM CA, MAHENDRA ARTS & SCIENCE COLLEGE, KALIPATTI

Abstract:
Social media are becoming the most important tools for interaction among people, where
everybody can share, exchange, comment, discuss and create information and knowledge
in a collaborative way.
The aim of this study is to analyze the use of social media in teaching and learning based
on literature study and experiences in different faculties at South East European
University. The study examines the impact of the social media applications on personal
and teaching use. Based on a representative sample of teaching staff from all the faculties
at SEE University, the study investigates their level of awareness and their experiences in
the use of social media, as well as the opportunities and value they see for addition of
social media applications as part of the teaching process

Keywords:
social media, teaching, learning, higher education

Introduction:
ALTHOUGH the mission of higher education has remained the same for centuries, the
environment in which that mission exists is changing dramatically. Consequently,
teachers should come up with innovative strategies that anticipate and embrace this
change. The main driver of this change is the digital revolution which has shifted many
aspects of teaching and learning

STUDY OF SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE


Social media are becoming more and more widespread in higher education. The trend can be
observed in many higher education institutions around the world [9][10]. There are many
ways of appropriating online social media for teaching and learning. Higher education
institutions including SEEU are putting their efforts into developing such environments.
The aim of thisstudy is to observe the personal (private) as well as the use of social media
web sites for teaching by the teaching staff at SEEU.
In this study, teachers use of social media as a tool forenhancing the teaching and learning
process was explored. Like the wider public, teachers may use social media web sites for

numerous reasons. This research will distinguish and observe the influence of the social
media web sites for
Personal and for teaching use.

Best practice use of social media for teaching and learning:


For examples of using social media in these ways, go to the social media page on the
Learning and Teaching Portal[link] or see the Appendix.

Communicating expectations:
If the expectation is that students will be using social media in your unit, you will need to
communicate this to them,
let them know what type and level of participation is expected of them, and whether this
will be assessed. Students who opt out of social media will need to have an alternative
venue for participation.

Moderating and facilitating:


With any social media environment, success in creating a vibrant learning community is
dependent upon the establishment of social presence, authentic voice, and a sense of trust
(Preece, 2004). As a facilitator and moderator of the environment, the teacher has the
opportunity and responsibility to ensure that these
qualities are present; in fact, this is not so different from establishing a welcoming and
comfortable environment in a face to face classroom.

Peer sharing:
One of the great advantages of social media is the opportunity it provides for students to
learn from each other in the content they produce. There are many ways this can happen,
whether they are showcasing their work or collaborating on a project or workshopping in
an instance of formative assessment or reflective practice.

Critical literacy skills


Social media provides a perfect opportunity for students to engage in critical thinking and
digital literacy skills development. While many students use social media sites, many also
do not use them critically, or deeply. Yet there is an opportunity to encourage students to
become more critical and more discerning about the information shared on social media
sites, and to nurture the graduate attributes of lifelong learning

Informal and participatory learning:


Much of what we learn we learn informally, through conversations with our peers and
through experimentation. Social media provides an opportunity to engage students in
these important informal dimensions of learning, in informal discussion, practice and
creative solutions. The opportunity to participate and engage as a novice, without the
inhibition of assessment, is often where learning occurs

Five ways to use Social Media in Language Teaching :


Create a Facebook page that your class can 'like'. Start posting updates to your
timeline, but not in English. Ask your pupils to translate the text using Facebook's
in-line Bing translation tool and ask them to gauge its accuracy.
Create a Twitter account. Start tweeting in a foreign language, keeping in mind
that you have a 140 character limit, and see if your pupils can strike up a
conversation with you. Impose a non English only reply and retweet rule.
Create a YouTube account. Ask each of your pupils to record a video blog, or
vlog, of their hobbies, thoughts or opinions on topical news stories, but speaking
only in a foreign language. Those who want to have their video uploaded should
send it to you first.
Create a Pinterest account. Take some pictures of prompt cards, post it notes or
even objects with their description in another language and 'pin' them on your
boards. You could even look for photos of the country, or infographics about
languages in general, to help your pupils understand more about why they should
learn it.
Create a blog or Tumblr. Dedicate it entirely to publishing content in the language
you teach. Show your pupils why you love the language and inspire them to do
the same. Ask them to write something, however small, and post it for the whole
world to admire.

Using social media environments at Victoria University:


Some of the tools and technologies enabling social media and social learning are
available within the e-learning suite of tools andenvironment at Victoria University.
These include tools that can be harnessed from within or linked to the learning
management system.

Advantages of using institutional social media tools include:

1.Institutional record keeping of student participation for assessment and other purposes;
2.An authenticated, equitable, secure, accessible and safe environment for students to
participate within, guaranteeing information privacy;
3.The provision of ITSsupport and troubleshooting for institutional tools;
4.Use of Victoria University login procedures.
VU-supported institutional tools that currently include social media to various levels of
integration include WebCT, PebblePad, SNAPVU

Teachers use of social media sites for teaching purposes:


The majority of surveyed SEEU teachers are well aware of social media, and most are
using them for personal purposes. But, in order to identify if they also think that social
media can be a part of their course syllabuses, teachers were asked to identify their use of
social media in their classes, posting for student use out of class, and use as part of
student homework or in class assignments. It is obvious, based on the results, that
teachers include considerably social media in their teaching classes. Online video from
either YouTube or other online video sites are seen as having the greatest value for use in
classes. This corresponds with the usage pattern of those sites, where online video is the
most used form of social media in courses.

Survey Design:
The survey included a mixture of open and closed questions. The closed
questions were check boxes where respondents could select one response
from a range of possible answers. Open questions allowed respondents to fill
in a text box with as much information as necessary. The survey questions
were arranged into 3 sections as listed below.
Section 1-General. On this part were gathered some general data about the
profile of the respondents such as: teaching experience, department and age.
Section 2-Social Media Usage. This section is the central part of the survey
and included more detailed questions regarding the specific social media
tools and their importance in improving teaching and learning process.
Section 3 Interviews. This part had open questions regarding the use of
social media in teaching and learning. The responders gave their personal
opinions, experiences and views about social medial use in teaching and
learning process.

CONCLUSION:
The study showed that social media are already affecting the ways in which teachers find,
create, share and learn knowledge, through the media opportunities and in collaboration
with each other.
Teachers find social media as a very useful tool for enhancing teaching and learning. It is
important to think about the characteristics of social media that we rementioned above
and think about how this relates to classrooms.Almost all teachers(participants in the
survey) are aware of the majorsocial media sites; more than 75%visited a social media
site within the past month and nearly 25% posted content.
However there is a large diversity among the patterns of use
from one social media site to another. For personal use,
Facebook is both the most visited site YouTube and online videos are almost half of the
overall usage of social media for online videos in teaching
.

Reference :
Garrison, D. R., & Vaughan, N. (2008). Blended learning in higher education.San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Alexander, A. Levine. Web 2.0 Storytelling: Emergence of a New
Genre.EDUCAUSEReview, vol. 43, no. 6. November/December 2008
.
Hew, K. F. (2011). Students and teachersuse of Facebook. Computers in Human
Behavior, 27, pp. 662-676

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