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HOW SOCIAL MEDIA IS CHANGING EDUCATION
Social media permeates today’s society with millions of us engrossed, some would argue to the point of unhealthy addiction, in the latest happenings via apps such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook famously had its origins in Harvard University before extending to other colleges in the US, so it is perhaps appropriate to look at the role of social media in education today, a decade on from its beginnings in the bedrooms of Mark Zuckerberg and his college friends.
According to usage statistics gathered earlier this year by Ofcom, 66% of all adults aged 16+ have a profile on at least one social networking site, and though the report doesn’t break down these figures by age group, it’s reasonable to assume that among those of university age, that percentage could potentially be much higher. We know that universities and other education providers have responded by increased use of social media marketing to showcase their courses and attract students, but are they harnessing the full power of the medium to engage and interact with those same students once they begin their studies? Does social media have a place as a teaching tool or is it simply a distraction?
It seems that some lecturers are indeed beginning to tap into the potential benefits of social media in education. Many faculties and societies have attuned to the fact that 75% of students admit to being on Twitter “all the time” (Source: TopUniversities.com) and are using the micro
-blogging site as a forum to share content, encourage debate and answer queries, with some even setting up hashtags for individual courses to create online discussion communities for their students. Indeed, the latter is a strategy believed by some educators to provoke more thoughtful responses from students - the idea being that when they know their comments can be read by the peers and not just by their lecturer they not only consider what to say more carefully but pay more attention to how they write it and take more care with grammar, spelling and punctuation.