Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media in Education

S. Mohan Raj, Dr. V. Sunitha

Department of English , School of Social Sciences and Languages , Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) Vellore, Tamilnadu- 632 014

*Corresponding Author E-mail: rajmohan251@gmail.com

ABSTRACT:

Social media are the centre of attraction for the students and youngsters. It occupies a sufficient time in their daily routine. It opens a window to the world outside. It links the students apart from the classrooms and other places. It has been discussed widely about the pros and cons of Social media in Education. But still, it continues in one way or the other. India is in the third position in the utilization of networks to access Social Medias like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and on. Students feel comfortable, relaxed and relay the information in the social media. In the age of globalization, technical and technological advancements turn it as a mandatory thing to stay online. Being a techie-bird and nested on the internet has its own merits and demerits which is the focus of this paper.

KEY WORDS: Social media, education, challenges and trend

INTRODUCTION:

Technology and Education are connected and closely attached to each other in the present decades. The usage of technical gadgets in the classrooms and among the students has increased significantly. The advancement and growth of technology are tremendous. It occupies every doorstep and table. In correspondence to the growth of technology, people shift their needs and hobbies towards the social media. The habit of playing and reading books in the leisure time slowly evaded away. Online games and sports engulf the free time of the students. It breaks the inter-personal communication. But at the same time, the same social media offers a wide range of forum to support learning (web indexes, web pages, surfing, multi-media sharing, Web conferences/ communication etc.). In the NMC (New Media Consortium) Horizon report the eminent scholars put forth several challenges, changes in the trend and certain issues in the technical advancement and usage of media/technology in education.

Change in the trend of education:

A tremendous shift and trend change in the adaptation of the educational technology has increased in the modern times. It happens en route of advancement in the technology, cultural change, newer ideas/innovations and much such collaboration. The shift in the trend mainly happens because of the utilisation of technologies in the day to day life. It also had an impact on the teaching and learning. Most of the higher education centers motivate the collaborations and creativity in the field of Education. The resources are shared in the online that increases the accessibility and quality of education. The observed immediate trend shifts are the assessment tools/ways of learning and the abundant availability of resources. The analytical and statistical measurements (supported by technical gadgets) help to analyses the teaching-learning outcome, insights, material production and other factors. The dependency on resources slowly changed from the teacher to the online resources. Plenty of educational resources are available like textbooks, materials, supporting aids, power points, videos, audios and on. These resources are free and are free to access anytime. The trend shift is laid upon those resources. The high-tech tools and gadgets slowly enter into the classrooms. It makes the learning easy and more technical. Many higher education centers (Universities and colleges) provide online courses instead of full stream regular courses. The classrooms slowly shifted from the traditional lecture-based to interactive technical centered classrooms. It reduces the teaching time and maxims the learning outputs. The assignments are facilitated into projects which are submitted through online.

Challenges in the adaptation:

The challenges in the adaptation of technology in education and in the classroom can be classified into two. One is the easily identifiable obstructs and the other is the minute, yet difficult to identify and resolve challenges. The traditional model of education is centered on the teacher. The teacher who trained in the traditional set up may stammer to adopt the technology. The question of existence and change in the role of a teacher is an obstacle. The arrival of online courses, competency-based education and the increasing research attitude questions the existing learning/teaching process. The overemphasis on these technical things stands as another obstacle. The on-campus mobile connection links, WIFI connection and online communication may check the personalized teaching/learning process. The choices offered by the educational centers to pick a course provides space for the unique learning but this development put the teachers to rush behind time and technical gadgets. Implementation of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in education increases the usage of social media. Digital learning or online learning increased on these days. The nature of literacy has changed in the digital age (Hicks and Turner, 2013). Digital literacy does not mean just integrating technology into our lectures; it is related to using technology to understand modern communication and to manage knowledge in the contemporary world (Briggs, 2014). The digital literacy is one of the immediate challenges. This digital literacy decreases the students’ use of technology. The lack of awareness or backwardness in the use of technological devices is an obstacle. The teacher should update the advancements in teaching through technology. The teacher must motivate the pupil to identify the reliable sources from many available resources. The source should be measured based on the research content, quality, citations, clarity and on. The teacher should motivate the pupil to visit the blogs of researchers and innovators to bring up to date.

Education and Social Media:

Social media occupies a remarkable position in the contemporary life. Social media connects the people. It connects the students and binds them based on their common interests. The arrival of groups in (Facebook, WhatsApp etc.) the Social Medias connects people from various academic backgrounds. Sharing the relevant and related messages makes life easy and updated. The social media invariably integrate the various technical devices, it also reflects in the education. The arrival of devices remains as a check for the memory and retention of the pupil. The process of memorizing is under check. The memory and retention are related to the visual images or videos. Today’s information environment consists not only of text and images, but also of sound, video, and animation (Worley, 2010). The arrival of ICT in teaching enables the usage of sounds, videos and animation. The pupils are no longer having necessary to remember things. They can easily access the information anywhere and at any time. They naturally use social media and ICT in the learning process. It is an interesting fact that people living in the age of information but never saves any information for future reference. Often check and use new information. Facebook groups and you tube video channels are the popular media used for learning purpose. Social media may turn out to be an instructional mode also. It enables active participation of the pupil. The collaboration of social media in education constructively supports the learner. It enables the rapport among the student and teacher. Individual contribution and peer group participation are also possible. Thus, it is a technical knowledge sharing process.

Aye and Nye of Social Media in Education:

The closer link between the media and the technology creates a change in the education. The users of the Media increased a lot. For an instance, as of the second quarter of 2018, Facebook had 2.23billion monthly active users (Statista, 2018). Twitter has more than 336 million monthly active users worldwide as of the first quarter of 2018 (Statista, 2018). The debate in the utility of social media in education or the merits and demerits of social media in education is an ongoing discussion. A few advantages and disadvantages can be listed as follows,

1. Social networks and Medias may amplify the students’ inter-relationship.

2. Sharing of information is easy and increases productivity/creativity of the pupil.

3. Increases the students’ participation and to do their works easily.

4. Social media sites help to share resources in the classroom.

5. Social media can help students to stay updated which help in their career development.

6. ICT utility put up them in the professional success in the world of competition.

7. Creativity, expressive attitude and immediate feedback increase their confidence level.

The healthy discussion in the online boards enhances students’ performance. The online assignments and activities are also stipulate better performance from the students. Harmon, Alpert and Hilsten (2014) opined that the active student participation of the students in the Facebook discussion board has a positive effect on their grades. The authors further stated that the use of Facebook for educational instructions may act as an effective tool. It helps the average students to resolve doubts and also promote peer learning. The authors also advised that students must be taught about privacy settings while using the media. The theory of social constructivism was applied by Kelm (2011) to examine the use of social media in education. He summed up the findings as; the knowledge construction is possible with the social network. The collaboration helps the pupil to emphasis on learning. Also enables to constructs their own meaning. A positive connection between social media and student performance can be enhanced. According to Kelm, this innovative technology distorted a shift from verbal communication to visual and verbal thinking. Using social media in education improves performance and learning. The social media can also be used to devise new innovative measures. Foroughi (2011) listed the benefits of using social media in education in three types as, learning benefits, social benefits and educational benefits. The learning benefits are as collaborative learning, independent learning skills, team participation, peer group participation, multimedia utility, problem-solving skill and create a good rapport. Social benefits are as increased course materials, transferable skills, employability and control in the work. The disadvantages of social media in education are as follows. Social media can be a distraction while studying. It spoils the inter-communication among the students. The privacy and safety are a question while using media is a drawback. Inappropriate contents in the social media are a diversion. The ability to remember and recollect the information reduced to an extent.

CONCLUSION:

Social media enables to stay pleasant and comfortable. Now and then they evolve with new ideas and tools. It can be used not only for interpersonal communication but also for learning purposes. There are some drawbacks in utilizing social media in education such as distraction, cyber-bullying, backlash, privacy threat etc. but, using social media reliably beneficial for students. Social media can facilitate collaborative learning and improve the chance of student employability. Higher education institutions can also use social media to bring out good outcomes. While evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of social networking, it is preferable to be on the side of caution and to guard privacy.

REFERENCES:

Briggs, S. (2014). 20 Things Educators Need to Know About Digital Literacy Skills. http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2014/08/12/20-things-educators-need-to- know-about-digital-literacy-skills/.

Foroughi, A. (2011).A Research Framework for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Implementations of Social Media in Higher Education. Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development 5(1).

Harmon, O., Alpert, W. & Histen, J. (2014). Online Discussion and Learning Outcomes. International Advances in Economic Research, 20(1), 33-44.

Hicks, T., Turner, K.H. (2013) No longer a luxury: Digital literacy can’t wait. English Journal 102 (6) 58-65.

Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., and Freeman, A. (2015). NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

Kelm, O. R. (2011). Social Media: It’s What Students Do. Business Communication Quarterly, 74(4), 505-520.

Worley, R.B. (2010). Business Communication and new media. Business CommunicationQuarterly, 73(4), 432-434.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/274564/monthly-active-twitter-users-in-the-united-states/

Accepted on 29.06.2019

International J. Advances in Social Sciences.2019;7(1-2):31-34.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2679.2019.00007.0