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Using Social Networking Technology to Enhance Learning in Higher
Education: A Case Study using Facebook
Peter Ractham
Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy
Thammasat University
peter.ractham@gmail.com
Daniel Firpo
School of Information Systems and Technology
Claremont Graduate University
Daniel.Firpo@cgu.edu
Abstract
In this paper we explore the possibility of using
Web 2.0 technology, specifically social networking
technology, to support a community of practice in a
graduate-level classroom setting in order to enhance
learning. For our experiment, we utilized Facebook
as a learning resource for an MIS course for learners
to share prior knowledge and experience. We present
the results of our five-month study, and found that
Facebook provides an easy-to-use and familiar
technology for learners to leverage social networking
to share and generate tacit knowledge amongst each
other within the small group environment.
1. Introduction
Web 2.0 technology has garnered much attention
from researchers and practitioners [2]. The
popularization of the earlier generation of the World
Wide Web during the 90’s ushered in a new era, with
several new and exciting channels for communication
and networking with one another across vast
distances. E-mail, File Transfer Protocol, and
chatrooms were some of the new instruments
representing the first wave of technology, sometimes
retroactively dubbed “Web 1.0,” adopted during the
beginning of the Information Age [11]. Rapid
advancements in information and communication
technologies have transformed nearly every aspect of
people’s lives. As Thomas Friedman claims in his
seminal book, The World is Flat [6], the Information
Age has brought about a leveling of the playing field
in terms of information creation and dissemination.
The creation, synthesis, and dissemination of
information is no longer limited to professionals, and
can now be engaged in by the average layperson.
Electronic social networking services such as
MySpace and especially Facebook have rapidly
gained popularity. The model of the web as a
decentralized search engine to look for information or
communicate with others is becoming obsolete.
Today, users harness network effects and use social
networking tools to formulate their own personal
networks: People create a personal space where they
are the centralized node. The main difference
between existing as their own centralized node with
one’s own personal space in which information
revolves around oneself and simply joining or
belonging to a public domain – such as discussion
forum – is that having a personal space gives users a
sense of ownership over their online persona. [10]
[12]
Web 2.0 provides users with a personalized
platform that relies on mostly asymmetric
information exchange. As a centralized node, users
can connect with others through the different
channels of their mutually shared online social
networks, mirroring the way people network in real
life. This represents a paradigm shift in terms of how
people use technology to communicate in everyday
life. Web 2.0 technology emphasizes how people
converse, collaborate, and share knowledge amongst
one another, instead of simply having a discussion
within the public domain. Web 2.0 focuses on user-
driven content, where whatever messages users
convey within their conversation may not represent
goal-oriented communication as it does in e-mail or
chat. Although the trend in how people use Web 2.0
technology provides exciting new ways for people to
communicate, it also compels researchers and
practitioners to find new ways in which Web 2.0
technology can enhance time-honored activities, like
education.
This paper explores the use of social networking
Web 2.0 technology to enhance education. Through
social networking software, specifically Facebook,
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2011
11530-1605/11 $26.00 © 2011 IEEE
we seek to form a community of practice as a
supplement to a college-level course to better help
students share and generate tacit knowledge.
The paper is organized as follows: First, the
researchers examine the potential of using
communities of practice and different Web 2.0
technologies within the realm of education. Second,
we report on our study, in which we utilized social
networking technology to enhance learning in a
graduate-level introductory MIS course. Finally, we
report on the lessons learned during the five-month
study and suggest research findings and
contributions.
2. Background
2.1. Communities of practice
This study is grounded in the concept of
Communities of Practice [13]. Etienne Wenger
developed the concept of communities of practice
from Situated Learning theory [14]. Situated
Learning theory states that learning is most effective
when done in in-context settings than when out-of-
context are taught in a lecture hall. According to
Situated Learning, knowledge is a function of three
components: Activity, Context, and Culture. Brown
et al assert that learning knowledge concepts is like
learning new words, in that learners index both the
situations and activities in which the concepts are
used, and that they will continuously evolve with
each new occasion of use, as each use of the concept
in a new context will “recast it in a new, more
densely textured form” [15]. Brown et al further
likens learning new knowledge concepts to an
apprenticeship – cognitive apprenticeship. Much like
how a student learning to apply a new knowledge
concept in a community draws similarities to a
neophyte learning to use new tools in an
apprenticeship, the way a knowledge concept is used
is heavily reliant on the community where the
concept is learned and applied.
There are two types of knowledge: explicit and
tacit [16]. Explicit knowledge is the kind of codified
and decontextualized knowledge taught in a lecture
hall. Tacit knowledge, however, is the kind that is
generated and shared during informal conversation.
For example, it is the kind of knowledge a member of
a community would learn from conversations with
peers that he or she would later internalize and make
part of their own actions and experiences [17]. Tacit
knowledge is innately contextualized, embodying
one’s expertise [18,19]. However, it is much harder
to codify and store as an information bit.
Forming Communities of Practice is a method for
helping create the authentic situations, activities, and
contexts for generating and sharing tacit knowledge.
Communities of Practice are groups of people who
share a common concern or passion and seek to learn
it better through interaction with others within the
group [20]. Communities of Practice help foster a
culture of learning, in which learners share their prior
experience and learn from the experience of others
[13].
This study seeks to form a community of practice
within an undergraduate-level classroom setting
using social networking technology.
2.2. Web 2.0 and social networking technology
The concept of ubiquitous computing – a model
of human-computer interaction in which Web 2.0
technology integrates information processing into
everyday activities as network free from same-
times/same-p lace restraints – is inching towards
reality. As society’s inhabitants more tightly connect
to one another, we are seeing the transformation of
the world into the Global Village envisioned by
Marshall McLuhan [9]. In the concept of the Global
Village, the world is seen as a small village whose
residents are connected and communicate through
electronic means.
Li and Bernoff (2008) classify the trend in which
people utilize different kinds of social technology to
acquire information goods from one another, rather
than from an established entity (such as a company or
classroom), as a phenomenon called “The
Groundswell” [8]. This phenomenon displays two
important attributes of Web 2.0 technology: Users
recognize the web as first, a service delivery
platform; and second, as the collective wisdom of the
crowd [7]. Facebook is a strong example of this
phenomenon. It exists as both a service delivery
platform and a hive for collective groupthink. As an
example of a system that elevates the user as a
centralized node, around which information revolves,
Facebook allows users to create an online personal
space, where they can gather their friends and family
within their own personal network.
Whatever purposes people use these services for
in their lives, Web 2.0 and Social Networking
Technology represents an undeniable force that
empowers people’s ability to communicate and foster
social connections with one another to form different
types of communities of practice. This technology
has attracted the attention of several different fields.
As we have done in this study, educators can use
social networking technology to create a community
of practice within a classroom setting, wherein all
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2011
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stakeholders can engage in various learning activities
that would otherwise not be possible in a solely brick
and mortar setting, leading to an enhancement of the
informal learning process for their students. For
example, a discussion board or blogging tool would
allow students to share and catalogue – through
informal conversation with their classmates – tacit
knowledge embodying the unique histories and
experiences of their peers. Although the
implementation of Web 2.0 technologies in many
fields is still young and has yet to mature, it is clear
that the trend of Web 2.0 adoption will continue as
long as there is a need for people to socialize and
communicate.
2.3. Social networking technology in
academia
Educators have always been early adopters in
using new technology within their field. For years,
educational technology such as Content Management
Systems (CMS), Blackboard, Sakai, and WebCT
were used to help students perform better, as well as
increase their productivity within the classroom. The
aforementioned technologies enabled educators and
students to better manage the learning process and
share knowledge. Educators used technology such as
file uploading, discussion boards, and chat room
services to streamline and enhance the education
processes. Simple tasks and services such as giving
out assignments electronically, online grading, and
class note repositories are available through the web.
However, the availability of such tools and
technology comes with the advent of an increasingly
more complex learning environment for today’s
students. Learning not only occurs within the
traditional classroom, but students as well as
educators also often try to reach out to the abundance
of information and knowledge outside the classroom.
For example, students can listen to a podcast being
distributed from iTunes University (iTunes U), one of
the largest educational podcast databases in the
world. Universities stream their lectures online, and
create and store their class lectures to distribute
through the iTunes Store, where students can
download them for free in MP3 format. Another
example is the use of virtual classrooms like
SecondLife [5], where students can mimic a real-life
learning environment by attending and participating
in the learning process as it happens within a virtual
classroom. Participants can interact with their teacher
as well as other students through virtual personas
called Avatars. This has been used for distance
learning, but has other applications, e.g. letting
students in an architecture, art, or history course walk
through a virtual recreation of an art gallery or a
historically significant building they would otherwise
not be able to visit in the real world.
The aforementioned technologies serve a
common purpose in providing additional channels for
students to network and learn electronically.
Furthermore, they can be use to extend and reach out
to learners who might not otherwise have a chance to
be actively involved in the regular learning process:
These tools can be used by potential learners who
might be less involved, introverted, or simply unable
to show up to class. Hence, Web 2.0 technology
serves as a terrific tool to reach out to those students
who might otherwise have a difficult time getting
involved in the learning process – in other words: a
tool to reach out to the Long Tail of learners, e.g.
students with difficulty participating within a
physical classroom, for reasons that could include
shyness, or time and place constraints that prevent
them from coming to campus regularly – such as a
part-time job, children, or a long commute.
The concept of the Long Tail, refers to how given
a large consumer population and high freedom of
choice, the selection and buying pattern of the
population results in a power law distribution
wherein the upper 20% of items (the head) are
favored over the other 80% (the long tail) [1].
Applied to an education setting, the usage of Web 2.0
can enable the educators to reach out to as many
learners as they possibly can: While 20% of a given
classroom might already be willing to participate in
class, there is 80% that are unwilling or unable to do
so, but who might be able to via different Web 2.0
channels. Ullrich, et al. [11] suggests that use of Web
2.0 technologies can be used to break down these
participation barriers.
3. Experimental study – case study
3.1. General description
The study got its start from an annual faculty
brainstorming meeting in October 2009. Twelve MIS
faculty members from Thammasat University
attended a two-day brainstorming session. One of the
meeting objectives was to improve the teaching
pedagogy of the Introduction to MIS course (IS201).
IS201 is a required course for first year students,
providing them with basic understanding on how
management can use various kinds of information
technology to improve their business processes. One
of the major issues raised during the sessions was to
update the material taught in IS201 to be more
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2011
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relevant and timely for the first year students. The
main reason for the change was based upon the
assumption that the incoming students possessed
considerable background on Information Technology
due to the widespread popularity of IT products and
services in their lives. Hence, we assumed that the
current and future crop of student would be more
knowledgeable in basic and intermediate concepts
that would be covered in the course. Thus, we needed
to adjust our curriculum according to the changing
environments and demographics of our students.
To improve our curriculum, we discussed various
tools and techniques to be designed and implemented
to enhance teaching pedagogy as well as create an
engaging learning environment. In the end, we
decided to use the popular Social Networking Site
(SNS), Facebook, as the chosen artifact. We decided
to experiment using Facebook for three IS201
courses in June 2009. We believe that Facebook has
strong potential to achieve our two main objectives:
first, to enable our instructors to build and maintain
strong connections with and amongst the first year
students; and second, to create an informal learning
environment by having students collaborate and learn
from each other. We believed the second objective to
be reliant upon completion of the first, as sound
personal bonds are often the prerequisite to vigorous
and meaningful informal conversation between peers.
Previous studies have been conducted on generating
social capital in the classroom with social networking
software, wherein the software artifact was built from
the ground up [21] [22]. However, in doing so,
students have to overcome the hurdles presented by
having to learn to use a new tool and build a new
online identity from the ground up. Thus we reached
the decision to use Facebook as our Social
Networking artifact, as most of our students would be
familiar with it and have an existing profile ready
prior to the start of the term. We realized that to be
successful, we must also implement different
strategies that will enable our students to
communicate and collaborate effectively through
continued use of the artifact. Hence, we adhere to
Social Constructivism and Situated Learning
concepts to help us succeed in building an effective
learning environment for the course.
3.2. The Collaborative introduction to MIS
classroom
The Introduction to MIS course was held in the
Winter 2009 session (October 2009 – February
2010). It covers how organizations can benefit from
using different types of information systems and
technology. The goal was to use Facebook as an
artifact to enhance communication and collaboration
amongst all those involved in the course; students,
instructors, and instructor assistant. One of the
primary reasons for choosing Facebook over other
SNS is because of the artifact’s popularity amongst
our students. 69 out of 75 students who attended the
Facebook Social Learning Project training during the
first week of the semester already had a Facebook
account, and most used Facebook on a regular basis.
Thus, the two instructors trained and instructed all
students how to use Facebook to collaborate and
communicate with other members within the “IS201
Group.” Our goals were 1) to explore how users use
Facebook in the context of a course, 2) to investigate
the extent to which using Facebook would lead to
collaboration amongst all members, and 3) to
examine if Facebook could help foster an engaging
learning environment and 4) to form a community of
practice that enables the students to achieve learning
through social interaction via the Social Networking
artifact.
4. Results
4.1. Overview
The five-month study took place during the
second semester of the 2009-2010 academic year at
the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy,
Thammasat University. Altogether, 69 students, 2
lecturers, and 1 assistant instructor took the role of
active participants, while 6 non-registered students
and 3 faculty members from the MIS and Finance
department took the role of non-active participants.
The observation period lasted 15 weeks – 105 days –
wherein all members played different important and
interrelated roles in using the system. We explained
the system usage protocols and designated different
users’ clusters to the initial three groups (Learning
Facilitators, Active Participants, and Learning
Assistants), while the latter two groups (Observers,
Friends of the Community) subsequently joined us
during the rest of semester. We also limited the
number of privileges for the members of the latter
groups, in order to prevent certain possible misuse
scenarios (e.g. breach of students’ privacy). The five
groups were:
1) Learning Facilitators (LF) – The two
instructors attempted to guide and facilitate all
students to both learn from in-class exercises and
discussions. We provide students with class slides
and case studies and usually allow students to share
their IT-related experiences, such as their favorite IT
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2011
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gadgets and their how their use helps them in their
everyday lives, i.e. day-to-day life management. The
teaching pedagogy in enabling all the students to
fully participate during class discussion proved to be
very popular amongst all members, where lively
conversation often led to student-generated
discussion within in the classroom. In addition, the
instructors often guided the in-class discussion and
assigned students a weekly assignment where
students need to complete the assignment before the
next class discussion. This strategy allowed the
instructors to further promote collaboration amongst
all members, who can carry on class discussion
online through Facebook and allow all members to
voice and respond to each other thoughts outside of
the classroom.
2) Active Participants (AP) – 69 students used
Facebook to communicate with each other outside of
classroom. They play the important role of creating
User-Generated Content (UGC) through wall posts,
commenting on others' content, and posting photos
and videos. The active participants also constantly
update the Facebook group by posting IT-related
news, as well as responding to each others’
comments, answering and responding to others'
questions, and asking others questions through their
Facebook wall.
3) Learning Assistant (LA) - A teaching assistant
was assigned to oversee the communication lines
between all members. Her main task was to answer
class related inquiry by students, as well as send out
assignment reminders to students.
4) Observers (O) – Three faculty members from
the MIS and Finance Department who were
interested in using Facebook for their future courses.
They joined the IS201 subgroup but they mostly
observed the ongoing activities without any active
role in system usage. However, they often gave the 2
instructors off-line suggestions and feedbacks.
5) Friends of the Community (FOC) – Six
students from prior classes who requested to join the
Facebook subgroup. There was no definite task
assigned to this group, but they occasionally made
comments on various wall posts and conversed with
friends who were taking the course to advise them
and share knowledge gleaned from prior experience.
The researchers relied on data triangulation to
gain research outcomes. We employed different data
gathering techniques to obtain our data.
• Usage Analysis – We tracked and analyzed
the activities over the 5 months period. We
counted all activities from the four groups
(AP, LF, LA and FOC). We did not record
the activity by the Observer group, as they
play an inactive role in the system.
Furthermore, we analyzed the activity
according to a chronological timeline to see
the usage behavior over the entire period of
the study.
• Semi-Structured Interviews – To gain better
understanding on how users use the system,
we asked all students to submit a 3 minute
video for system evaluation. In addition,
both instructors also gained user feedback
from weekly in-class discussions.
• Survey – We also distributed a survey at the
end of semester. We intended to see if
students were able to learn by using
Facebook as a learning artifact.
4.2. How are students using Facebook in the
context of a course?
To answer this question, we employ usage
analysis to track all posts. There were a total of 2640
posts in the Facebook Social Learning Project. All
posts were tracked, coded and categorized as to
whether:
• it includes the posts by instructors, students
and teacher assistant. This content included
mainly class announcements and homework
inquiries (Wall)
• it includes the weekly assignment posts
where instructors and students
collaboratively converse about IT-related
issues (Discussion)
• it includes class attendants taken by
instructors (Professor Cam), student
presentation, group work and whiteboard
photos taken by students. Also, students
upload current IT news that are directly link
to in-class discussions (Photo)
• it includes instructors’ class introduction and
assignment example videos. Students also
submitted a 3 minutes Facebook system
evaluation video as a class assignment
(Video)
• comments from both instructors, students, the
teacher's assistant, and friends of the
community. The comments were counted
from the wall, photo, and video sections
(Comment)
• it includes a tag from photo and video
sections (Tag)
• it was one of the quizzes generated by
students (Quiz)
• it was the private communications between
instructors and students (Private Message)
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2011
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All posts were examined, analyzed, and coded by
the 2 instructors to ensure the reliability of the coding
process (See Table 1). It can be stated that the most
popular activity occurred in the comments section,
where users made comments and responded to each
other. All user groups (AP, LF, LA and FOC) were
involved in this section. Most of the comments were
students’ responses to different sections, such as IT
news, as well as their back-and-forth conversation
amongst themselves. Discussion also had a high
amount of activity, however all of the activity in this
section was mandatory, as most discussion were
based on the weekly assignment that students have to
answer the IT related questions. Three groups (AP,
LF and LA) participated in this with the exception of
FOC. Posting photos was also a popular activity,
where students used this feature to post pictures
related to IT news, as well as pictures of class
attendance. Only two groups (AP and LF) utilized
this section. Wall posts and private messages were
used as a communication channel between all
members (AP, LF, LA and FOC), and UGC such as
tagging and quizzes were used by students to tag their
friends in Facebook content, as well as create
informal and fun quizzes for others. Only Active
Participants used this section.
Table 1. Active participation by group
member
Summary AP LF LA FOC
Wall 163 105 45 10 3
Discussion 678 648 27 3 0
Photo 194 150 44 0 0
Video 78 75 3 0 0
Comment 1363 1173 155 20 1 5
Tag 104 104 0 0 0
Quiz 25 25 0 0 0
Private
Message 35 25 6 2 2
All Posts 2640 2233 282 33 20
As shown in Table 1, Observers were not directly
involved, but rather, constantly gave off-line
feedback to the main researchers on the system’s
performance.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
30/10/2 0 0
9
31/11/200
9
31/12/200
9
31/01/2 01
0
28/02/2 0 1
0
Wall
Discussion
Photo
Video
Comment
Tag
Quiz
Private Message
Figure 1. Chronological timeline of activity
Figure 1 above shows the chronological timeline
of all activities. The highest amount of activity
occurred in November- December. These months
were the busiest in terms of class assignments, as
well as members starting to get acquainted with one
another in ways which involved generating a high
amount of discussion and comments between
participants.
4.3. Can Facebook be used as a collaborative
technology?
Table 1 and Figure 1 show a surprising number of
posts on the Social Networking Site. On average each
students wrote 34 posts or 2 posts per week. The
most used feature was commenting (about 53% of
content), which shows lively communication between
students or between students and instructors. To gain
a better understanding of how students used the
system in a collaborative manner, we asked the
students to explain how they used the system to
collaborate with other students or the instructors.
Below are what some of the students said about using
Facebook as a collaborative tool:
“I like using Facebook in IS201; it gives me
the chance to interact with my classmates and the
teachers outside of classroom. Since I already use
Facebook on the daily basis so it’s nice for me to
just browse on Facebook and then visit the IS201
group to see what others are up to.”
“Facebook provides a good tool that
integrates existing web technology such as
Discussion board, chat, blog and YouTube. The
tool provides more of the ‘community-based’
feeling where I feel comfortable sharing
knowledge with the people I network with from my
class.”
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2011
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“I like the ability to ask questions on the
Facebook Wall where I can some answers from
both my classmates and our instructors”
Along with the combination of descriptive data
available from Table 1 and the qualitative data
obtained from the evaluation video, this information
shows strong evidence of a high number of
communicative and collaborative activities amongst
all students. Students were able to use different sets
of Facebook features to achieve collaboration and
help each other. Furthermore, Facebook provided a
familiar tool with which to provide a community-like
artifact where users felt comfortable to help each
other to achieve their goals. Table 2 shows how each
features was used as a collaborative tool by users
Table 2. Summary of features
Features Collaboration protocols
Wall Instructors and students use the Wall to
communicate with each other.
Oftentimes, students help each other in
answering each other's questions.
Discussion Students shared knowledge with one
another by sharing their answers to the
discussion assignments. In addition,
many returned to the discussion thread
to response to other posters.
Photo Students scanned and posted IT news on
Facebook and gave summaries of the
posted news. Many students oftentimes
made interesting comments and
responded to each other in this section.
Video Students made evaluation videos voicing
how they want to see the system
improved and subsequently suggested
that the class should use the Facebook
Quiz feature as another fun tool for use
in the class.
Comment Students made constructive comments
on each other's posts, sometimes helping
other class members to answer some
simple questions.
Tag Student tagged each other in pictures
and videos. They usually tagged each
other to identify their friends who
attended the class, thus they might
borrow their class notes if they missed
lecture.
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Quiz Students created educational quizzes and
shared them with the rest of the
participants.
Private
Message
Students mainly used this feature as a
private communication tool between
themselves and the instructors or teacher
assistant.
4.4. Does Facebook foster an informal
learning environment?
We also distributed a set of surveys to all users at
the end of the semester. Out of 75 surveys
distributed, 58 were returned, of which 55 were valid.
The results show that 78% of the students think it’s
useful to use Facebook as a supplemental learning
tool for their class. However, only 55% think that
Facebook helped them in learning. The features they
deemed as most useful for learning purposes were
Discussion and Photo. The Wall, comments, and
private messages were used as communication and
collaboration tools more than for learning purpose.
The rest of the features (Video, Quizzes, and
Tagging) were deemed as fun activities. The high
volume of communication between students and the
overall positive responses from the survey led us to
conclude that there is great potential for informal
learning environments where users utilize Facebook
as a centralized space to communicate, collaborate,
and achieve complementary learning to the in-class
material. Below are examples of some of the thoughts
students concerning their accomplishments in the
course:
“I really like to share knowledge with others
on the discussion board. Often times I would
be able to clarify what the professor said
during his lecture by looking at others’
posts. Also I can read my classmates’ input
on difficult topics I did not understand.”
“One particular topic I really like was for us
to discuss our tacit knowledge and share
with the rest of the class, that discussion
help me to know my classmates’ skills or
hobbies.”
However, an interesting phenomenon we
observed was that, though not relevant to class
activity at all, some students participated here in a
casual manner here, the same way they would
playfully interact with their friends on Facebook.
5. Further outcomes
The main purpose of the setting was to set up an
informal social constructivist learning environment.
The artifact and the setting provided students with
familiar technology to serve their different purposes.
Although many students were not familiarized with
using Facebook as a collaborative learning tool, over
time the amount of usages increased at a healthy pace
(See Figure 1). A number of features, such as
Discussion, Wall Posts, and Tagging were used by
students to converse and subsequently participate in
different collaborative activities. Sharing IT news
and responding to others in the Photo section were
popular amongst all users. Also, the Quiz feature was
a big hit, where a lot of students could create and take
each others quizzes. Furthermore, most also shared
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2011
8
the Quiz results on their friends’ Facebook pages as
well.
5.1. Proposed new features
In addition to the primary features that Facebook
offered, we also asked our students what they would
like to see in future systems. Many students
suggested that we should include different
edutainment, such as Quizzes, Games, and Mobile
features to make the class more fun.
Table 3. Proposed new features
Future
Features
Survey
Results
Suggestions
Facebook
Quiz
39 out
of 55
70% of students believe that
Facebook Quizzes have strong
potential for future courses.
However many cautioned that if
students were the allowed to
create their own quizzes, the
content validity might be
compromised. A student
suggested: “I like to see more
quizzed for our class. It is fun,
but I am not sure if the answers
were all correct.”
Facebook
Game
32 out
of 55
58% of students believe that
Facebook Games should be
included for future courses.
However, most did not mention
specifically what type of game
they are interested in. A student
suggested: “The instructors
should offer the fun Facebook
game for our class”
Facebook
Mobile
52 out
of 55
94% of students want us to
integrate mobile phone
technology for the class. A
student suggested: “I usually
use my mobile phone to answer
the question in the discussion
forum. I wish the instructors
will offer other Facebook
related homework, so I can do it
on-the-go.”
6. Conclusion
In terms of information learning via social
networking technology, as the results of the surveys
and in-depth interviews showed, informal learning
occurred in a social constructive manner where
students, instructors, and other community members
collaborated, conversed, shared knowledge, and
helped each other to gain better understanding of the
subject matter through vigorous discussion. Social
networking technologies such as Facebook allows
members to participate in a learning environment
where the learning process can occur interchangeably
from both inside and outside of the classroom.
However, the execution of certain class activities
such as lectures, homework, assignments, and
participation (both in-class and virtual) must be well
organized. An instructor should employ different
learning strategies that are well suited for
her/himself, while constantly remaining aware of the
importance of keeping the interaction fun, honest,
and – most importantly – articulated.
To summarize, the successful use of Social
Networking technology in service of social
constructivist learning and the increased value of
using the tool is substantial to both students and
instructors. For the students and the instructors, this
can be summarized with the following points:
For Students;
• Some degree of informal learning through
informal communication
• Support for collaboration
• Feedback on thoughts
• Collaboration independent of space and
time
For Instructors;
• Gaining feedback from students
• Constant communication with students
• Produce an effective instructional
technology for their customers
It can be concluded that Social Networking Sites
such as Facebook have great potential for the future
by expanding teaching and learning beyond the
classroom. It provided users with a familiar and easy-
to-use technology, which could easily be adapted
from use in a personal setting to use in an educational
setting. The smooth transition from using Facebook
at their own leisure to using Facebook in a group
setting provided great incentive for all parties to
embrace the adaptation process and subsequently
provide lively and meaningful social interaction.
Thus, we conclude that social networking technology
can be used effectively to foster a culture of learning,
as a learning tool within a small group of users.
Further research on mobile learning through
smartphones, as well as different strategies to
Proceedings of the 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2011
9
transcend from informal to formal learning should be
investigated.
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