Ramona BRANLaurentiu TIRU

Gabriela GROSSECK

West University of TimisoaraRomaniaWCES 2011

photo credit: http://chicagobreakingbusiness.com/files/2010/08/ct-biz-facebook-wall-aug25.jpg

agenda The social network of Facebook

Using Facebook in education

- the students’ and teachers’ perception Study methodology

- procedures and data sources Results and discussions

Conclusionsphoto credit: http://jess3.com/

Facebook was launched by Harvard StudentMark Zuckerberg and his roommatesin February 2004. It turn a profit late 2009.

In the spring of 2010 Facebook becomethe most visited site in the US,

even surpassing Google.

Facebook Games Farm Villeclaimed cover 85 mil. active users in 2010.

In 2010 Mark Zuckerberg is the Person of the Year.

almost 596.371.760 users worldwide

Credits: Amodiovalerio Verde / digitalsurgeons

Romania 2.4 MIO

Europe in 49 countries 152.5 MIO

People that are using mobile Facebook

(30% login via mobile devices) are TWICE

more active than non mobile users

create a profile (complete with personal information such as home address, mobile phone number, interests, religious views, relationship status etc.)designate other users as friendssend private messagesjoin groupspost and /or tag pictures and leave comments on these pictures as well as on either a group or an individual’s wallinstall and use third-party applications based on the Facebook platform (such as games, polls and quizzes)create pages for different events

USERS CAN:

Student’s perception

foster positive relationships

participate actively

get involved

multiple social interactions

+ attitude towards learning

interpersonal intelligence

critical thoughts

create own learning path

cultivate tolerance

respect for diversity

consolidate self-confidence and self-esteem

communicate with the teacher (??!)photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

CHANGE

FACING CHALLENGES

engaged in student culture

constructive educational outcomes

practicea differential pedagogy calibrate didactic activities

accept the studentas an interactive partner

perform efficient teaching mentoring

interconnect learning experiencesphoto credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/http://www.havefunteaching.com/images/Facebook-For-Teachers.jpg

Looking for solutions

Online survey

Similar studies

Romanian experience (there is no representative study!)

Five-point scale(1=strongly disagree

5=strongly agree)

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

Frequency Percent Valid Percent

Cumulative Percent

Valid In the morning (08.00 - 12.00) 7 5,3 5,3 5,3

In the afternoon(14.00 - 18.00) 22 16,8 16,8 22,1

At lunchtime (12.00 - 14.00) 7 5,3 5,3 27,5

In the early morning (06:00 - 08.00) 1 ,8 ,8 28,2

At night (after 22.00) 13 9,9 9,9 38,2

In the evening (18.00 - 22.00) 81 61,8 61,8 100,0

Total 131 100,0 100,0

131 students(out of almost 300)

8.67 months79.4% male & 20.6% female

convenience sampleWhen

do you accessFacebook?

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

Even if they use it for a short time, it seems important for us to underline the fact that they do use it daily (recurrently), which can

reveal a lot about a possible habit of using Facebook.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19marksdesign/5268732048/

(some) Educational aspectsof using Facebook

57.3%

students prefer the English version (44,3%)

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

only a little over 10%

feel they belong to a community

33,6% of them have a hard time imagining life without Facebook

70% of the students believe Facebook is a “cheap” tool for promoting knowledge in HE

only 26,7% of the students perceive the use of Facebook in general, and of educational groups in particular, as important instruments of change in HE

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

What we do NOT particularly appreciate is the fact that the evaluation process is not as flexible as we had expected and the teacher’s intervention is needed almost permanently on the platform.

This causes time management difficulties, especially since teachers need to adjust their feedback to each student.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/

Although the majority of students claim the page of a subject / faculty adds credibility,

just a little over 20% rely on the explosion of the social media profile,while 13,7% think that teachers have to adapt

to this highly Personal Medium of Interaction.

[...] the general conclusion we have reached is: at present we cannot define/speak about aFacebook Student in Romania

(here “Student” means being preoccupiedwith aspects of his / her formal education)

Ramona BRANLaurentiu TIRU

Gabriela GROSSECK

West University of Timisoara Romania

Faculty of Sociology and Psychology

E-mail: [rbran] [ltaru] [ggrosseck] @socio.uvt.rophoto credit: http://mashable.com/2010/06/17/facebook-connect-fail/