Social media in education

Advantages and disadvantages

EDA – 590 Workshop: Teaching and learning at a distanceDon Quick. Ph.D.

• Brandon Alconcel• Ernesto Luna• William Wiess

July, 2012

Many have pointed to the educational benefits of these media (also called Web 2.0). And all agree that with the right guidance, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages (Connolly, 2011).

1. Social media tools and networking sites encourage students to interact with each other, share ideas and to express their creativity.

2. Social media helps to establish enduring relationships with real people.

A few examples are:

• Facebook can help students overcome isolation that otherwise might lead them to leave school.

• Twitter can provide shy students with information about events that facilitates face-to-face encounters with other students. Such personal interactions can create and sustain a sense of belonging.

Advantages

3. These relationships created over social media can be fostered on the community level too.

4. The Internet and social media train our brains to skim and scan (Connelly, 2011). Due too the large amount of information available on social media sites, students learn to discern easily between what is useful for them and what is not.

5. Because it is easy to use, and accessible from virtually everywhere and at any time, social media improves communication among students and teachers.

6. Social media helps prepare students for successful employment. Students entering the workforce can use social networking sites like LinkedIn to network and find employment.

Advantages

1. Being connected and searching for information on Facebook, Google, and other web services simultaneously, seizes and fragments our attention. Although students can develop “scanning and skimming” skills, they could also get used to not paying enough attention to what is important.

2. They can subvert higher-order reasoning processes, “including the kind of focus, concentration, and persistence necessary for critical thinking and intellectual development” (Lederer, 2012).

3. Some researchers have correlated heavy Internet use with greater impulsivity, less patience, less tenacity, and weaker critical thinking skills (Connelly, 2011).

Disadvantages

4. Prolonged Internet use exposes students to interactive, repetitive, and addictive stimuli that produce permanent changes in brain structure and function damaging their learning skills (Connelly, 2011).

5. While it is true that the more one uses the Internet and social media, the better the brain can skim and scan, research suggests that these gains degrade the capacity for concentration.

Disadvantages

References

Connolly, M. (2011). Benefits and drawbacks of social media in education. Retrieved from http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/news/coverstories/2011/benefits_and_drawbacks.php

Lederer, K. (2012). Pros and cons of social media in the classroom. Retrieved from

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2012/01/19/pros-and-cons-of-social-media-in-the-classroom.aspx