Faculty Usage of Social Media and Mobile Devices: Analysis of Advantages and Concerns

Abstract

This study seeks to understand the perceptions of professors using social media (also called Web 2.0 tools) in the classroom, what kinds of mobile devices are used to access the social media used, and what drives individuals to use them. In addition, it seeks to identify the advantages and concerns faculty has with the use of social media for classroom instruction. Two-Way Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) procedure was used to ascertain whether differences existed between two dependent variables and (a) gender, (b) different academic ranks, and (c) gender *rank to determine if there are any interaction effects between genders regarding the magnitude of their perceptions of advantages and concerns about social media uses for classroom instruction as they migrate through the ranks. Professors, regardless of sex or rank, held statistically the same views of the advantages as well as the concerns related to social media usage in the classroom.

The Attitudes of Islamic Education Teachers Towards the Use of Social Media in Teaching and Learning

“…Moreover, a study by Roebuck and Bell (2013) investigated the use of mobile devices and social media tools by faculty members of various disciplines in teaching and learning. The study sample comprised 201 participants working at Kenesaw University in the US.…”

“…For example, teachers complained about the absence of regulations supporting the use of social media in the educational process (Ibrahim, 2014). Therefore, Roebuck and Bell (2013) argue that there is a need to have an institutional approach to explain why social media can be useful and how it can be used in teaching and learning.…”

Higher Education Students’ Attitude Involving Cognitive Process in Using Social Media

“…Although social media was potential in building social interaction as the unifying element of learning with the perspective of social interaction, teachers should strategically involve social media in the university courses to develop students' integrity and interactivity [24]. When educator integrates social media in the learning process, they required to identify the student's attitude in utilizing social media for learning purposes [5]; evaluate the tools and ensure the tools are comfortable and supporting student to communicate and collaborate with other [25]. Therefore, Students could experience the advantage of using social media for learning through their attitude involving higher order thinking process to gain knowledge and information.…”

“…Sugimoto in his research argued that social media enables interaction among the students and educators, and facilitates them to express their ideas or opinions [3]. Utilizing social media for learning purposes train the students to develop higher order thinking skills [4] and creativity [5]. The ability of social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Blog) to facilitate broader interaction among the users encourages the implementation of studentcentered learning approach in higher education [6] [7] through student involvement [8] [9] and enhance students' self-confidence in communicating their ideas [10].…”

MOOCs AS AN INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGICAL DESIGN LABORATORY

“…Videos in the classroom, whether for teaching Volume 1, Issue 1, 2017 purposes or as part of student assignments, were used by 80% of faculty who indicated any use of social media in their courses. Despite this increase in social media use in teaching and learning, and the potential value faculty see in many social media tools in the classroom, they still reported some barriers to technology adoption including the amount of time it takes for effective integration of social media for learning as well as privacy and integrity concerns (Moran et al, 2011;Roebuck et al, 2013).…”