How Social Media Improves Student Motivation ...€¦ · Web viewSurveys have shown that the amount of users 13-17 using Facebook rose from 7% in 2010 (Ignite Social Media, 2010)

Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA’S USE IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 1

How Social Media can be used to Improve Student and Faculty Communication in Secondary

Education

Jack Opkins

California State University, Long Beach

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA IMPROVES SECONDARY EDUCATION 2

Chapter I: Introduction

Introduction

Statistics show that more and more secondary students are spending more time on social

networking sites. Not only are students doing this, educators, including principals, librarians and

teachers are joining and using these social networking sites. Sites like Facebook, MySpace and

Google+ give educators the unique opportunity to communicate electronically with the faculty

and students both at their sites and within their district, not only during school hours, but before

and after school as well. Research into how social networking can be used for educational

purpose is vitally important because social networking gives schools the golden opportunity to

both collaborate in a professional learning community, with peers that teach the same subject, to

share their best learning practices, data analysis and general collaboration on everyday classroom

instruction. Not only this, but the opportunity to share extended education online with students

outside of the classroom.

What is already known about social networking sites is that a majority of administrators,

librarians and teachers are in favor of using social networking for communication between peers.

It is also known that there aren’t enough safe guards implemented by districts to allow students

to log on to these sites during school hours due to student abuse of the educational intentions of

the educational projects. However, educators are also barred from social networking sites as

well which has led administrators to call for evaluation and reconstruction of district internet use

policies.

The biggest question that remains about this research is whether or not these social

networking sites will be effective in fostering greater communication among educators as well as

their students.


Purpose of the Study

The goal of the research is to determine whether or not the use of social

networking sites will foster greater communication among educators, as well as with their

students. Research regarding how social networking may be used for educational purposes is

vitally important because social networking allows schools the chance to both collaborate in a

professional learning community (PLC) with their colleagues. Social networking also allows

them to collaborate in regards to their best learning practices, analysis of collected data and daily

instruction.

The question to be discussed in regards to the research is, “are social networking sites

(SNS) effective in fostering greater communication among educators as well as their students?”

The first hypothesis is, “the use of social networking sites (SNS) promotes greater

communication among education professionals at school and district levels”. The second

hypothesis is, “the use of social networking sites (SNS) promotes greater communication among

teachers and their students, in regards to subject matter content, before and after school hours”.

Significance of the Study

The importance of this project is to determine if education can be fostered among

educators, their peers and students outside of school hours. Clearly the American educational

system needs to be revised as status quo has proven to be ineffective. If educators can prove that

SNS can foster higher levels of collaboration and education it will force a change in the way

education is performed and will cause school districts to make the changes necessary to integrate

this technology in school sites. It will also cause school districts to ensure that the appropriate

safe guards are put into place to make this technology viable and hopefully cause districts to

restructure their internet usage policies.


Chapter II: Literature Review

Introduction

The age group 13-17 has been one of the fastest growing demographics in social media

use. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project (2010), “73% of wired American

teens now use social networking websites, a significant increase from previous surveys. Just

over half of online teens (55%) used social networking sites in November 2006 and 65% did so

in February 2008.” Surveys have shown that the amount of users 13-17 using Facebook rose

from 7% in 2010 (Ignite Social Media, 2010) to currently 20.6% in 2011 (Inside Facebook Gold,

2011). With the growth of SNSs (social networking services) educators are incorporating the

significant usage in social media among teenagers as a grand opportunity to engage and motivate

students in secondary schools. A growing body of research has explored the benefits of

integrating social media into the curriculum, yet concerns about privacy and misuse present the

need for further and in depth study of using various social media tools and sites in the classroom.

The objective of this literature review is to address the benefits and challenges in using social

media to engage, motivate, and improve communication among students in secondary schools, as

well as faculty along with discussing the impact, limitations, and direction for future study.

Synthesis for Literature

Opportunities for Collaboration

With the creation of Social Networking Services (SNS), online networking has become

one of the most effective ways to communicate and interact with, not only professionals at a

school site, but those at the district and state levels, and if desired those around the world. A

collaborative, multi-step research project by edWeb.net, IESD, Inc., MMS Education and MCH,

Inc., conducted in 2010 (edweb.net, 2010) set out to answer the questions as to how SNS could


be used in an educational environment, and how well it would be accepted. Approximately 1200

teacher, librarians and principals were asked to participate in an online survey in order to obtain

quantitative research related to implementing SNS at their school site and how it could used,

which was later followed up by a qualitative discussion in order the limitations of such a project.

The results of the research indicated that most of the principals felt that social networking

sites “have value in education as a way for educators to share information and resources;

to create professional learning communities; and to improve school-wide with students

and staff” (edweb.net, 2010). Other discoveries related to SNS included “educators who

have used social networking technology are more positive about the benefits than those

who have not”, “educators expressed a strong preference for joining a social network”,

and “schools and districts need to expose more educators to this technology” (edweb.net,

2010).

The research indicates that “61% of the educators who responded had joined one or more

social networks” (edweb.net, 2010). Principals were the least likely to join an SNS at 54%,

while teachers weighed in at 62% and librarians were “the most likely at 70%”(edweb.net,

2010). Another interesting discovery was that the group of educators in the 18-34 age range

were “the most likely to use social networks at 78%”, compared to “65% of those aged 35 to 54,

and 47% over 55 years old” (edweb.net, 2010).

All three categorical educational professions indicated that SNS has a high value “across

a wide range of applications including peer networking, creating professional learning

communities, and improving school-wide communication” (edweb.net, 2010). A majority of

those principals that participated actually indicated that SNS had a “very valuable” use in


education. Some of the web tools that principals discussed using in the classroom environment

included Webinars, Youtube and Podcasts.

The creation of SNS has enabled an easier means of communication amongst the student

population. Greenhow and Robelia discuss in their findings that whereas students acknowledge

the Internet as a tool for schoolwork, they are “far more excited” with the idea of more

communication and participation. In their study of High School MySpace users, they found that

students preferred to work collaboratively on group projects using the tools and services that

MySpace offered. Not only did the students gain technological, communication, and creative

skills, using the tools they were able to create study groups, assign tasks, check progress, and

clarify teacher instructions (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009b). In another study on the social

network Globaloria, researchers found that many students present strong evidence of being

engaged, and ascribe meaning to their experience. Students were experiencing the value of

“teamwork, people skills, and social skills” through their use of the program (Reynolds &

Caperton, 2011).

Messner (2009) used twitter to communicate with the author of a book that was being

studied by her middle school class. Students were able to discuss the topic of writing revisions

without the need for the author being physically present in the classroom. Communication

through SNSs also increased the supportive network amongst low income students, enabling

more information and resources for students dealing with issues such as low self-esteem, lack of

social belonging, lack of confidence, and major life transitions such as going to college.

Challenges of Implementing Social Media in the Curriculum

The limitations of the use of SNS were that “social networking per se is mostly blocked

for students” (edweb.net, 2010). Other barriers to the usefulness of SNS for education included


concerns such as “appropriate use”, lack of money, time for training, professional development

and personnel to manage the system.

Principals felt that a number of changes would have to be made in order to implement

SNS in educations. Among the top changes that principals indicated “students must be taught

about appropriate boundaries to online interaction”, as well at ensuring that “students be taught

critical reasoning and how to process date” (edweb.net, 2010). However, existing policies

implemented at schools do not allow students to have access to these sites. To this extent, about

half of the principals that participated in this research indicated that “their current policies were

inadequate and needed revision” (edweb.net, 2010).

The future impacts of SNS on education were many, as indicated by principals. The

changes that were mentioned by more than a handful of principals included “movement toward a

more social/collaborative view of learning, improved student motivation and engagement,

connecting to real-life learning and enhanced teacher communication and collaboration”

(edweb.net, 2010). The research’s primary recommendation, based on the results of the over

1200 educators that were that “both principals and teachers need greater awareness and

understanding of (SNS) options, experience using those tools and professional development of

how to apply them” (edweb.net, 2010), in an educational setting, such as collaborating with

colleagues, building professional learning communities (PLC) and implementing collaborative

technology into their teaching. Many of these finding, as well as the supporting quantitative

data, can be found in Appendix A.

Young, (2009) mainly discussed the problems teachers can have with students while

using Twitter. Many examples are discussed but the real focus seems to be the authors outside

view of how social media can cause a breakdown in the educational experience due to misuse by


the students. “An incident of cheating came up early in the semester – a student asked

classmates for a quiz answer” (Young, 2009). The author also stated “sometimes you have

people writing funny comments, and we have to stop and acknowledge that it happened and

sometimes that takes away from it a little bit” (Young, 2009).

Conclusion

Future study could involve a series of comparative studies – secondary school students in

different regions, states, or countries. Suggested direction of research could also be a

longitudinal study as most social media research only lasts for less than six months to a year.

Selwyn & Grant (2009) points out debates and controversies in social media research; and it

would be of interest to see trends in student motivation, engagement, and communication over a

longer period of time. Most importantly, with privacy issues constantly looming, especially with

social networking sites such as Facebook, a crucial study could be examining if and how privacy

concerns affect student engagement and communication when using social media.

With the expansion Internet access availability to today’s population, coupled with

national programs that provided access to low socioeconomic communities, the digital divide is

closing fast among our millennial learners. This has led to the rise of our student population

investing a lot of their time after school into participation in the social networking scene.

Educators have an opportunity to capitalize on using these various social networks to their

advantage to increase student motivation, engagement, and collaboration inside and outside of

the classroom. Current research is new on the topic, mainly consisting of personal accounts and

qualitative studies. Further research will need to be quantified in order for educators see a

proven positive effect on its incorporation into the classroom, and to find the correct methods of

its implementation.


Chapter III: Methodology

Procedure

The research method that will be used is descriptive. I chose this method because the

information I want to obtain is the amount of time used by educational professionals on SNS as

well as the amount of that time they used to communicate with their peers and students. This

method was chosen to describe each variable within these groups. Data will be collected by first

giving educators a very simple pre-test, via the internet, regarding SNS (Appendix B). Questions

will include if they use a computer outside of school, if they have internet access outside of

school, if they use SNS, if they know what the term SNS means, what purposes they use SNS

for, and how often they use SNS. After these pre-test are collected and scores are obtained

educators will be asked to keep a log of their daily use of computers, the internet and SNS

outside of school hours, for a month. Once the time period has elapsed, educators will be asked

to fill out the same survey as they did before. Survey results will be collected online after

follow-up activities, such as sending emails, reminding people to submit their survey. Once the

surveys are complete, data will be collected and analyzed, using a t-test to determine if SNS

help educators collaborate with their peers and students.

In regards to validity, I plan on making the research experiment be more effective than

just surface level, or force validity. The validity will be predictive validity to predict whether or

not the use of SNS by educators will be successful in the future. In regards to reliability, I plan

on using internal consistency. The reliability will be much greater if I measure the first half of

the test differently than the second half of the test.


Subjects

The subjects used in this study will be the principals, librarians and teachers at four

secondary high schools in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District in Orange County,

California. These subjects will number approximately 400 in total. There will be approximately

sixteen (16) principals, four (4) librarians, and 380 teachers. This population was chosen as

these individuals come into contact with students the most during a regular school day, and tend

to collaborate with one another on a daily basis but likely to retire to their personal lives at the

end of the school day. This sample size was chosen because it would be typical of a moderately

sized school district, much like a majority of the districts in America, rather than a single high

school district like Los Alamitos Unified, or a large district like Los Angeles Unified.

Instrumentation

The relation of the research questions to the instruments, (i.e. the pre- and post-tests) was

to ensure as little instrumental bias or instrumental decay occurred. The surveys ensure that the

rating scale will be the same both before and after research period has occurred, ensuring that the

subjects determine their level agreement with their behavior. The questions asked were very

restrictive in nature to make sure that the scale would be effective. Also, since the questions all

relate to the subjects’ home-life I would be a concealed observer in order to ensure that problems

of subjective judgment and presence of the observer wouldn’t conflict with their normal

behavior.

I believe the survey show reliability in that there is no observer error present in the data

collection system. The survey display no leading questions, few sensitive questions relating to

sex and age, don’t assume facts that might not be true, provide information on how to respond,

address single concepts and avoid jargon. Also, the use of a pre- and post-test ensures that


successive measurements will be used, and hopefully the same scores occur on both tests, and if

this is the case, than the survey is valid. Initially the survey might seem that it only has force

validity, as it looks valid on the surface, but if the survey can predict either a success or failure of

the use of SNS by educators in the future, than it creates a predictive validity.

Data Analysis

From the study, data will be collected and analyze to determine if any patterns emerge in

relation to SNS and communication between educators and their peers as well as educators and

their students. Statistics that quantify the observations, related to the educators’ access to

technology, their familiarity with SNS, their uses of SNS, their use of SNS in relation to interval

of use and amount of time per interval of use, their job title, age and sex (i.e. frequency, duration

and interval), will be collected to determine if there are any correlations present. The use of a t-

test gives the advantage of making it easy to set up the studies of these groups to determine the

best correlations among the above listed factors. Granted this only allows the attainment of two

real data points for comparison, but the use of different t-tests for each variable as it relates to

another will allow multiple data points to be discovered and shared.


References

edWeb.net, iESD, MCH Strategic Date, & mms education. (2010). School Prinicpals and Social

Networking in Education: Practices, Policies, and Realities in 2010. Retrieved from

http://www.edweb.net/fimages/op/PrincipalsandSocialNetworkingReport.pdf

Greenhow, C., & Robelia, B. (2009). Informal learning and identity formation in online social

networks. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(2), 119–140.

Greenhow, C., & Robelia, B. (2009). Old communication, new literacies: Social network sites as

social learning resources. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14, 1130–

1161.

Ignite Social Media. (2011). [Bar graph of Age Breakdown for Facebook, April 6, 2011]. 2011

Social Network Analysis Report – Geographic – Demographic and Traffic Data

Revealed. Retrieved from http :// www . ignitesocialmedia . com / social - media - stats /2011-

social - network - analysis - report /

Inside Facebook Gold. (2011). [Pie chart of Global Audience Demographics, September 1,

2011]. Facebook Stats. Retrieved from

http :// gold . insidenetwork . com / facebook / facebook - stats /

Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A., & Zickuhr, K. (2010). Social media and mobile internet use

among teens and young adults. Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from

http :// pewresearch . org / pubs /1484/ social - media - mobile - internet - use - teens - millennials -

fewer - blog

Messner, K. (2009). Pleased to Tweet You. School Library Journal, 55(12). 44-48.

http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/social-media-stats/2011-social-network-analysis-report/

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1484/social-media-mobile-internet-use-teens-millennials-fewer-blog

























http://gold.insidenetwork.com/facebook/facebook-stats/




































Reynolds, R., & Caperton, I.H. (2011). Contrasts in student engagement, meaning-making,

dislikes, and challenges in a discovery-based program of game design learning.

Education Technology Research and Development, 59, 267–289. doi 10.1007/s11423-

011-9191-8.

Selwyn, N., & Grant, L. (2009). Researching the realities of social software use – an

introduction. Learning, Media and Technology, 34(2), 79–86.

Young, J.R. (2009). Teaching with Twitter. Chronicle of Higher Education, 56, 9-12.


Appendix A



Appendix B

Please answer the following questions based on how strongly you agree or disagree with the statement as it relates to your behavior after school hours. (1) indicates that you “Strongly Disagree” while (5) indicates that you “Strongly Agree”

Question 1 2 3 4 51. I have access to a computer.2. I have a computer at home.3. I use a computer.4. I use a computer to access the internet.5. I use the internet on a daily basis.6. I know what Social Networking Sites (SNS) are.7. I have an account on a SNS.8. I have a Facebook account.9. I have a MySpace account.


10. I have a Google+ account.11. I have a Skype account.12. I visit a SNS on a yearly basis.13. I visit a SNS on a monthly basis.14. I visit a SNS on a weekly basis.15. I visit a SNS on a daily basis.16. I visit a SNS on an hourly basis.17. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 5 minutes on the site.18. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 10 minutes on the site.19. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 20 minutes on the site.20. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 30 minutes on the site.21. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 45 minutes on the site.22. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 1 hour on the site.23. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 2 hours on the site.24. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 3 hours on the site.25. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 4 hours on the site.26. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 5 hours on the site.27. When I visit a SNS I spend at least 6 hours on the site.28. When I visit a SNS I play video games.29. When I visit a SNS I look at pictures.30. When I visit a SNS I post updates about myself.31. When I visit a SNS I talk to friends.32. When I visit a SNS I talk to my colleagues.33. When I visit a SNS I talk to my colleagues about collaboration.34. When I visit a SNS I talk to my colleagues about best practices.35. When I visit a SNS I talk to my colleagues about data collection.36. When I visit a SNS I talk to my colleagues about daily instruction.37. I have established a SNS group regarding my classes.38. My students have established a SNS group


regarding my classes.39. When I visit a SNS my students talk to me about their classes.40. When I visit a SNS I talk to my students about my classes.41. I have been an educator for 0-5 years.42. I have been an educator for 6-10 years.43. I have been an educator for 11-15 years.44. I have been an educator for 16-20 years.45. I have been an educator for 21-25 years.46. I have been an educator for 26+ years.47. I am an educator at a middle school.48. I am an educator at a high school.49. I am a teacher.50. I am a librarian.51. I am a principal52. I am female educator.53. I am male educator.54. I am between the ages of 20-29.55. I am between the ages of 30-39.56. I am between the ages of 40-49.57. I am between the ages of 50-59.58. I am 60+ years old.

Documents

How Social Media Improves Student Motivation ...€¦ · Web viewSurveys have shown that the amount of users 13-17 using Facebook rose from 7% in 2010 (Ignite Social Media, 2010)