Social Media in Teaching and Learning : Going Beyond the Buzz Word

• Main Author: Chuah, Kee Man
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kitware Inc. 2015
• Subjects: L Education (General); QA76 Computer software
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/29974/1/Chuah%20Kee%20Man.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/29974/; https://www.insight-journal.org/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

The advent of Web 2.0 technologies has promoted the creation of many social media tools and they are used for various purposes. In general, the term “social media” refers to tools that permit users to create, share information, ideas and diverse forms of media in virtual networks. They largely cover content sharing communities (e.g., YouTube and Wikipedia) and social networking websites (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) that anyone can participate and contribute (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). On a personal basis, these tools are used with the main goal of communicating and sharing personal content such as photos or videos with friends or family members. In terms of education, advocates of connectivism principles, which are based upon Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1963) that emphasises the need to consider social and cultural context in learning, have explained how social media can play a significant role in promoting meaningful and effective learning experiences.