University of Trinidad and Tobago

School for Studies in Learning Cognition and Education

EDFN112B - Educational Technology

Student Name: CHRISTINA SOOKDEO

Student ID: 52927

Assignment Due Date: 24th February, 2011

Assignment: – Critique on the Use of Social Networking in Education

Instructor: Mr R Birbal

CRITIQUE ON THE USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING IN EDUCATION

Thesis: The use of social networking in education has many implications that are both positive

and negative which prominently impact students and teachers.

Social networking can be defined as the software that allows people to come together

around an idea or topic of interest through the internet. Many people have a frame of mind that

social networking is simply ‘Facebook’ or ‘Twitter’ but it is much more than that. For

educational purposes they are tools of communication that offer students and teachers to connect,

interact, research and collaborate with each other. There are many pros and cons involved in the

topic of social networking in education.

Some of the challenges in using this software tool are that it is time-consuming, there can

be miscommunication and information or knowledge gained can be subjective and/or false. To

address the first issue- ‘it can be time consuming’, we must note that not all social networking

sites is time consuming. Some such as Diigo, Linked In and Ning are websites that foster

cognitive development. However websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and others are

scientifically proven to be addictive. According to Facebook, there are more than one hundred

and fifty million users and such spend approximately five billion minutes a day on the site.

One of the main purposes of social networking sites is that it creates communication

between people. However, the wave of this communication can be corrupted because virtual

reality is not actually reality. When students or teachers cannot communicate in person,

misunderstandings about assignments, dates, classes and instructions can occur because

individuals cannot perceive physical clues such as body language, tone and inflection.

Social networking sites are not only used for communication but it can be used in

education to share knowledge. Websites such as Wikipedia for example, is frequently used to

gain knowledge of basically anything. However the information that these websites pose can be

edited by any user which makes it difficult to distinguish from what is accurate or inaccurate.

Also, because of the anonymity of information submitted students can use it incorrectly. Other

challenges are privacy concerns, disclosing too much information and health issues related to the

time and energy that students put into social networking.

Some of the opportunities or pros involved concerning the use of social networking in

education include; access to using, creating and distributing knowledge, collaboration and also

increased awareness.

The internet is being made accessible to all students in schools through computer labs or

libraries. Because of this accessibility and the fact that the cost to use the internet in school is

free of charge students are provided with the opportunity of using these networks to gain

knowledge.  In formal educational institutes, such as a public middle school for example,

teachers often lack adequate textbooks for students to each have their own copy (Baraniuk 2008).

By using social networks to connect the classroom and eliminating costs, teachers can create or

publish their own work online for free. Social networks also diversify the voice of knowledge

because any person can distribute knowledge through these websites for others to gain access to

and learn from.

Besides gaining access, creating and distributing knowledge social networking sites

create the opportunity for students and teachers in education to interact in a non-physical

environment where the boundaries of space and time are unlimited. Here, students can now

collaborate or cooperate with peers or their educators to do possibly any type of work online,

share knowledge, post links to information, updates and many more.

Because of all these factors- students can increase their awareness in the digital world in

order to become more adequate in the real world. When students interact on these websites they

become tech- savvy, globally knowledgeable and even more self-aware. Social networking sites

such as Youtube or Google are proven to increase the global awareness of students through its

up-to-date information and popularity. Students are inevitably exposed to these issues through

websites like these.

As the numbers and popularity of social networking websites increase new opportunities

present themselves as well as their boundaries become expanded. Facebook and Twitter have

certainly redefined what it means to become someone’s friend. However, they have also created

a level of interconnectedness that cannot be achieved physically and is more efficient. The

challenges that social networks cause and the potential benefits are still emerging. While social

networking is not a new or unpopular phenomenon in the digital world, it is slowly starting to

become embraced in the educational world. The technology that enables this level of connection

has the potential to open up more information to people that we can imagine possible.