Use of social networking as an instructional aide in higher education

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study:

The widespread usage and phenomenal growth rate of social networking has brought up the question of how can we harness this tool. Businesses and non-profit organizations saw the growth of social networking as an almost ideal way to reach customers and users. Educators for the most part are "for" or "against" social networking. The educators who believe that social networking is just another tool to reach students are doing just that, they are reaching students using a medium that students already use and are comfortable with using.

This study used a mixed method approach to examine and gather data. The rich thick descriptive responses to the personal interviews add tremendous insight to the thoughts of faculty as it relates to social networking.

Findings and Conclusions: The results of this research indicate that the majority of faculty who feel they are using social networking to connect with students are in reality connecting with students using the D2L learning management system. The growth and functionality of social networking sites continues to change and evolve, as do the number of companies making software applications to enhance those same social networks.

More research should be conducted at other two year colleges to ascertain to what extent faculty are using social networking to reach students both for communication purposes and as an instructional aide. Until a suitable application is developed for Facebook and for Twitter, it is my recommendation that faculty interested in promoting their field of study and increasing student awareness about the same should build a blog page to house content. The blog page could then be promoted using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.