To Like or Not to Like: Facebook® in the Higher Education Classroom

Abstract

Facebook is ubiquitous on university campuses, and yet, at the time of this writing, there was a distinct absence of Facebook in the higher education classroom – except when used by distracted students during a lecture. Facebook has pedagogical potential. Why are some faculty resistant to using Facebook for purposes of teaching and learning? What empirical data exist to support the use of Facebook? What are the disadvantages to teaching and learning of using Facebook? When faculty have used Facebook for pedagogical purposes, how was it used? These questions will be addressed in this article.

Facebook Use in Malaysian Higher Education Classroom

“…Besides, the findings of this study demonstrate similar outcomes with Freeman's (2014) study that the impetus for faculty members to use Facebook as a tool in their classrooms is distinctly pedagogical and not technological. The findings for both research questions concur with the research of Hamid et al (2011);Hamat et al (2012); and Ahern et al (2016) that Facebook has a unique and powerful position to transform teaching strategies as well as the potential to enhance and improve student learning (Ezell 2016). Thus, this study provides an empirical evidence that complements prior literature on the uses and impacts of Facebook in Malaysian higher education.…”

Social networking sites and learning in international relations: The impact of platforms

“…Thus, this experience contradicts the literature focusing on privacy concerns (Darling & Foster, 2012;Donlan 2014;Escobar-Rodriguez et al, 2014;Lieberman, 2014;Salavuo, 2008), indeed there were no concerns expressed from students about mixing their private and student lives. The very high level use of the various Facebook functions, 3,363 posts in total in one subject of 129 students, provides concrete empirical support for the case that Facebook's familiarity, accessibility, and the time spent on it, make it an ideal teaching tool (Escobar-Rodríguez et al, 2014;Ezell, 2016;Salavuo, 2008;Schroeder & Greenbowe, 2009). …”

“…The capacity to set up group pages that students can join without the need to become friends reduced concerns about privacy. Student feedback in 2015 indicated that they would contribute more if it was on Facebook and this was supported by the findings of Ezell (2016) and Schroeder and Greenbowe (2009) who noted that many students are already spending a substantial amount of time on Facebook, thereby making it an obvious SNS for the teacher. Escobar-Rodríguez et al (2014) point to the familiarity and accessibility of Facebook as a particular advantage (see also Salavuo, 2008).…”

Using Facebook to enhance student engagement in undergraduate sociology classes at Bangladeshi colleges

“…However, a strategy is essential for its successful implementation (Kosinski, Matz, Gosling, Popov, & Stillwell, 2015). Ezell, (2016) and Menzies et al (2017) found in their qualitative study that Facebook is used as a useful tool to enhance collaborative learning besides classroom learning but they analysed the issue only from the student's perspective and thus failed to get a holistic view from different perspective whereas their invitation for further research must be appreciated. On the other hand In his study Erdem and Kibar (2014) took forty undergraduate students of the fourth semester in a research program where students' view on the use and practice of Blended learning were studied, and found that most of the students under this study were more satisfied and gave positive feedback on blended learning.…”