Perceptions of Using Social Media Networks Among Special Education Teachers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The use of social media networks has increase since the growth evolution in internet technology. Many studies have noticed the great impact of using social media networks in different fields and particularly in education field. This is because social media networks are becoming less complex, more accessible and easier to share text, audio, video, images, podcasts, and other multimedia communications. These networks goes beyond the limitations of teachers communication through providing access to various books, references, journals and research papers (Kumar, 2012). Kettunena, Sampson and Vuorinena (2015) reported that social media networks assisting teachers by offering them platforms counselling services between them, their students, and their parents. These platforms keep counsellors updated about recent research relevant to educational field and assist the teachers to gain more understanding of learning issues that they face every school day. Social media networks defined as "a group of technologies that facilitate social interaction, make possible collaboration, and enable deliberation across stakeholders" (Bryer and Zavatarro, 2011, p. 327). There are several networks included in social media a such as Twitter, Facebook and You Tup, which offer people chances to engage and interact with one another in simple and multiple ways. Despite the fact that social media networks is broadly used among individuals worldwide, it is not investigated and understood among special education teachers who specialized and trained only for teaching students with intellectual disability (ID) in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). To be more specific, most studies that tackled using social media networks concentrated on normal students and their teachers in schools and universities. However, few studies have addressed using social media by special education teachers (Khasawneh, 2019). Furthermore, it is not clear what their perceptions towards the use of social media networks in KSA (Alim, 2017). Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate how special education teachers use social media networks and what are their perception towards it. The findings of this study will expand our knowledge about the use of social media networks by special education teachers and offer a clear picture of their perception towards these networks. This will help stakeholders to be aware about the