Using Social Media In Education Research

924 Words4 Pages

The trend of social networking sites presents unique opportunities for education, especially when youths today are tech-savvy. As such, the area of education cannot be left indifferent to such favourable circumstances. Facebook (FB), which is one of the popular social networking, has been a common Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tool in schools (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). Although there are now many web-based collaborative platforms where students and teachers interact and communicate, FB is still one of the preferred platforms for communicating as it has remained one of the most used social sites in Singapore - with an average of 16 hours consumed by 15-24 years old (Infographics.SG, 2013). In addition, Facebook appears …show more content…

This included developing a sense of self-directed learner who questions, reflects, perseveres and takes responsibility for his or her own learning ("21st Century Competencies", …show more content…

The speculation was understood that students who have low self-esteem would be more conspicuous online (virtual world) compared to in reality.

However, there are very little articles discussing the relationship between FB’s features and the uses for teaching and learning in Singapore. This could be attributed to the fact that educators have been reluctant to use social networking tools in the classroom, or not encouraging students to participate in them (Green & Hannon, 2007 in Solomon & Schrum, 2010: p. 82).

Thus, in this paper, I will be looking into the features of Facebook, used as an ICT tool, and how it affects students suffering from lower self-esteem. The following literature reviews attempt to discover the assumption and re-evaluate the hypothesis.

The paper is organized as follows: The first section describes Facebook and its features used as an ICT tool in schools, followed by exploring the hypothesis (both pros & cons) by reviewing 3 main articles; and finally, the third section reports the conclusion of the literature review.

Facebook as an ICT tool in