Benefits of Using Social Media for Education

Question:

Discuss about the Impact of Social Media On Education.

The social media like the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube helps the students to study course materials online over the Internet sitting at the time. They can learn and study according to their convenience via e-learning programs. The students who do a job and the students who are shy and introvert can be largely benefitted by the e-learning programs. The students can even get the opportunity to communicate with the teachers, can even get the opportunity to communicate with the peer group over the social media all throughout day and night. The social media can enhance the education more in coming future (Gikas & Grant, 2013). The institutions have started to offer certificate programs recently and more and more students are showing interests in pursuing the study course via social media websites. It is hoped that the course study offered over the social media platform will come up with some advanced and profitable features in future and the courses will be supported worldwide. All the aspects of social media on education has been highlighted in the report. 

Thesis Statement: The trend of using social media is increasing every day and this approach is facilitating both the students and the teachers. They are now able to communicate and share information in quick times. This approach can enhance the productivity, can help them to work in collaboration or in groups. The social media can help in conducting researches as well.

Influence of social media network on student academic performance

The Social Media can be helpful in acquiring knowledge about a particular subject, about a particular study course, the Twitter, Facebook and YouTube can help in. The communication between the people was previously restricted due to the long distance range. However, with the advent of the Internet and advent of the social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have come up as the giant contributor in the social world (Tess, 2013). They a contribute immense benefits to the education and have a greater impact on the lives of the students. The advantage lies within is that the students in schools and colleges can use the social media for their benefits like they can open a Google account and browse the video course on YouTube. The lecturers from various reputed college and universities upload their lectures and the students of those universities can view those lectures and learn the content course. The students can pause the video, can repeat the video and play video at any time, can learn the contents any time sitting at home. The approach is basically helpful for the students. The students who take up the online video course and the distance learning program can be largely benefitted from this approach (Cheston, Flickinger & Chisolm, 2013). The students can learn the course materials sitting at home at any time and along with that, the students can get time to do any job.

Acquiring Knowledge with Social Media

Massachusetts Institute of Technology has made various courses for the students and published those on YouTube. The students all over the world can access those quality materials and can learn the course materials.

The shy introvert students who hesitate to interact with the professors and any other friends can join a community and can learn many kinds of stuff (Strasburger et al., 2013). Also building a group or community students can learn important lessons, course materials.

The StackOverflow is one of the platforms where coders from every corner of the world can join and talk about the code. In this platform, they can also solve issues and can prescribe solutions. The coders can be greatly benefitted by this approach.

The Facebook page can help the students to learn course materials as well.

The video quality is far better and rich in contents (Au & Lam, 2015). Thus the students can learn the best stuff. This can help the students to perform well and get good marks in the exam.

Contribution of social media and how it contributes the achievements of educational goals

The details of the contribution of social media to education can be stated as –

The students by working on the computers and surfing web browsers daily can get well versed with the computers or similar other electronic devices.

With the help of technology usage in business and education, the students can learn new skills that can give them immense benefits (Davis et al., 2015).

The students who are good at coding can showcas4e their talents online and can get recognition and hence can get better job opportunities.

The students can inform common people with their if they face any kind of issues and problems (Tess, 2013). The social media can bring awareness and can solve problems of the students if possible The talents like anyone good in music, anyone good in dance can be recognized by their talent showcase on the social media sites.

The students having expertise on photography can take pictures, snapshots and can share those snapshots over the Internet and the social media sites like Facebook, Google+ and lots more (Buckingham & Willett, 2013). This approach can help them to get feedback and based on that the students can hone their talents and enhance their career growth.

The students can communicate online over the social media sites with their teachers and the teachers can solve their issues or queries online sitting at home.

The Importance of YouTube in Education

The instructors and the teachers and the lecturers often underestimate the usage of social media and the mobile technology (Cheston, Flickinger & Chisolm, 2013). However, with the advent of the smartphone and the Internet technology, the students can learn the course materials by simply installing an android app or iOS app.

There are various benefits YouTube offers to the students. The students from all over the world can learn the course materials with ease. The students can learn the materials at their own pace. The students can get access to best materials. The students can earn certificates and credentials from specific sites like Udemy, Coursera and this can give them benefits to grow and enhance their career

Challenges and difficulties students face in using it         

Besides the benefits but the students face challenges using it, there are also many negative aspects of the social media. The social media has many disadvantages and they are as follows-

All the students are not equipped with the computer system, not equipped with the software and the internet so they sometimes feel uneasy to use the computer system.

The students may face difficulties while following the lectures, but do not get the opportunity to communicate with their lecturers or the teachers (Cheston, Flickinger & Chisolm, 2013).

Sometimes students want to feel the school environment, want to feel the college environment and the students prefer the school or college environment to the online video course.

The students may get distracted by any other images, videos, music and jokes not related to the academic course thus their academic work can get disrupted (Attai et al., 2015). Thus the usage of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter can have adverse effects on the students’ academic performance. That is why students prefer schools or colleges.

The students nowadays spent more time on the social networking site rather than spending time socializing with the persons (Tess, 2013). The students sometimes get depressed and lost energy in studies. Students want to play and study and learn and thus avoid study from the social media sites. Because of the social media, the social interactions are getting lost, the face-to-face communication is becoming vague, this can lead to havoc and the students can face communication problems or can feel uncomfortable while communicating with others.

Many students do not have social media accounts and they do not want to indulge in the social media. Thus it is a serious challenge for the social media usage.

Challenges of Using Social Media for Education

Sometimes students want to separate the online social life and the academic life and so this is a challenge.

In the year 2015, ECAR conducted a survey and found that the students want to separate the social media and the academic lives, the percentage has increased from 43.5% in 2012 to 65.1% in 2015. Thus ECAR survey can conclude that the social media can be a challenge for students.

The negative impact of the social media can be traced by the effect of the Facebook site. Many students or the teenagers commit suicide due to the leak of private information on the website. On Facebook, it has been found the students get engaged in an illicit relationship which results in loss of students’ lives (Au & Lam, 2015). Because of Facebook, the students get distracted from studies and thus the academic performance gets suffered due to this approach.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above discourse that the social media has become an integral part of the students’ lives and this cannot be restricted. The social media can help them to complete the project, can help the researchers to carry out research incorrect and effective manner. The social media can assist the students to communicate with the teachers, it also helps the students to participate in the community group and this approach can benefit the introvert students. The students can get immense benefits from the distance learning programs conducted over the social media. The social media sites besides having positive aspects have some negative aspects. Therefore, the students must be careful and should use the social media cautiously. All these aspects have been discussed in the report.

References

Attai, D. J., Cowher, M. S., Al-Hamadani, M., Schoger, J. M., Staley, A. C., & Landercasper, J. (2015). Twitter social media is an effective tool for breast cancer patient education and support: patient-reported outcomes by survey. Journal of medical Internet research, 17(7).

Au, M., & Lam, J. (2015). Social media education: Barriers and critical issues. In Technology in education. Transforming educational practices with technology (pp. 199-205). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Buckingham, D., & Willett, R. (Eds.). (2013). Digital generations: Children, young people, and the new media. Routledge.

Cheston, C. C., Flickinger, T. E., & Chisolm, M. S. (2013). Social media use in medical education: a systematic review. Academic Medicine, 88(6), 893-901.

Davis III, C. H., Deil-Amen, R., Rios-Aguilar, C., & González Canché, M. S. (2015). Social media, higher education, and community colleges: A research synthesis and implications for the study of two-year institutions. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 39(5), 409-422.

Gikas, J., & Grant, M. M. (2013). Mobile computing devices in higher education: Student perspectives on learning with cellphones, smartphones & social media. The Internet and Higher Education, 19, 18-26.

Strasburger, V. C., Hogan, M. J., Mulligan, D. A., Ameenuddin, N., Christakis, D. A., Cross, C., … & Moreno, M. A. (2013). Children, adolescents, and the media. Pediatrics, 132(5), 958-961.

Tess, P. A. (2013). The role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual)–A literature review. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(5), A60-A68.