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maintain “intense involvement with social media” in order to have a voice in young people’s preferred channels of communication. So what’s new? Universities have long engaged with prospective and current students and alumni through Facebook, Twit er and LinkedIn – according to theunipod rankings, the University of Oxford enjoys three Twit er followers for every one of its current students. What’s new is the debate about the
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value of social media for education. Answering a poll with a tweet might be more fun than put ing your hand up, for example, and having a debate on a Facebook group might feel more current than a conference call. But is that a reason to use it, and to encourage its use? Surely education is all about that relationship between tutor and student, student and peer. The long hours in the lab or library, absorbing information and being inspired to try new things. The evidence for or against using
social media for learning is as yet fairly weak with most research showing that while there is not a necessarily positive eff ect, web 2.0 can prove useful and at worst, won’t hurt. However, there are emerging voices of real enthusiasm. Take the research of Rey Junco, associate professor of education at Iowa State University, which shows that, “If students talk about a class topic on social media not traditional educational platforms like Blackboard, their discussions in class become richer.” His work is supported by a number of other studies that show the benefi ts of encouraging conversation on social media outside the classroom. Given the limited education research,
it’s wise to source evidence from elsewhere – from fi elds like media and psychology for example, where it’s been shown that online social network users are three times more likely to trust their peers’ opinions over advertising when making decisions (Juniper Research 2007). Taken in an education context, that could translate as considerable opportunities for peer-to-peer learning. In fact the HEA report, which surveyed six institutions, found that “potential students frequently used social media sites to obtain more information about universities and courses, ignoring (it was widely believed) offi cial sources of information.” Building on this work, it’s clear that
ccording to recent research published by the Higher Education Academy, universities need to
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