Social Media in ELT

Muhammad Farkhan Fauzi

1507042030

In this recent years, social media can’t be separated in our life. The development of technology and information makes us easier to achieve a lot of new informations using social media. Internet also plays an important role to support social media as our way of life wherever and whenever. As a teacher, it’s our role to make this social media as the tools to support our English teaching learning process. Many efforts should be made in applying the development of technology such as social media to increase our quality of our ELT.

Many researches have been conducted related to social media. Students who participate in social media as part of a class feel more connected to their peers that those students who do not participate in social media (Annetta et al., 2009; Jackson, 2011; Tomai, Rosa, Mebane, D’Acunti, Benedetti, & Francescato, 2010). Social media allows students to not only group themselves with peers who are similar, but also to enhance and link existing peer groups (Jackson, 2011; Mazman & Usluel, 2010; Wodzicki et al., 2012). In addition to enhancing established peer groups, social media can bridge the diversity that exists in classrooms by establishing a neutral zone in which students can interact with one another (Junco et al., 2011; Krause & Coates, 2008; Kuh, 1993, 2009; Mehdinezhad, 2011; Pike et al., 2011). Tomai et al. (2010) found that students who used social media felt more emotionally connected to their peers because they felt as though they had people to talk to if they had a problem or if they needed help. Further, these peer connections encouraged participation by students who initially felt intimidated by in-class discussions (Arnold & Paulus, 2010; Junco et al., 2011; Rambe, 2008). 

The connections that students make with classmates through social media can impact the learning environment that is created. Participation in social media creates a more collaborative and communicative learning environment for students by providing opportunities for discussions and interactions with their peers (Heafner & Friedman, 2008; Jackson, 2011; Liu et al., 2011). By collaborating with peers on a given topic, social media offers opportunities to develop a stronger sense of community among students (Arnold & Paulus, 2010; Dawson, 2008; Heiberger & Harper, 2008; Hurt et al., 2012; Jones et al., 2009; Top, 2012). Although Dawson (2008) found that the degree to which a student feels a sense of community might be influenced by the presence and experiences of pre-existing social networks, students who interact with higher numbers of learners also exhibit a higher sense of community. The use of social media also contributes to a sense of community among students by allowing personalization of profiles, including the addition of pictures and other identifying information (Arnold & Paulus, 2010; Stevens, 2009). This personalization, coupled with the critical examination of course topics, supports an authentic relationship between students by encouraging openness and sharing of information, which also increases students’ perceived learning (Hurt et al., 2012; Top, 2012). 

When using social media, educators must be able to play an active role in the collaborative process. Educators must not only promote creativity and assess student activities but also inform and clarify misunderstandings that occur involving the content area and subsequent knowledge creation in order to maintain the integrity of the learning environment (Frye et al., 2010; Garrett, 2011; Liu, 2010). In order to support these roles, educators must be provided with professional development that demonstrates how to incorporate social media into their classrooms in order for it to be used to effectively promote student learning (An & Reigeluth, 2012; Stevens, 2009). Even though educators are supportive of using social media and may receive professional development, educators report that they do not know how to effectively incorporate it into their classroom (An & Reigeluth, 2012; Fewkes & McCabe, 2012; Heafner & Friedman, 2008). These educators are unfamiliar with the time constraints involved in creating lessons that utilize social media while at the same time creating lessons that do not use social media (Hur & Oh, 2012). However, educators are more likely to incorporate social media activities into their classroom that they have created because they are able to creatively control the content that is included; for example, content that may be assessed on state mandated tests (Annetta et al., 2009; Hur & Oh, 2012). 

There are so many forms of social media. There are BBM, Whatsapp, Line, Wechat, etc. Facebook is one example of these that has partnered with a parent-teacher association (PTA) in order to promote responsible and safe Internet use to kids, parents and teachers. If some material available is seen to cause any disruptive reactions, members can report it to the Facebook crew and make them remove subject of the matter. However, although Facebook’s popularity continues to increase, it is important to discuss what it can bring to the overall teaching for the purpose of increasing learning. The challenge of using Web 2.0 technologies in the classroom is ‘to use them in a way that enhances learning, not simply because they are available’ (Fewkes & McCabe, 2012, p. 92). Furthermore, the growing use of the Internet has also moved media language towards ‘multimodal kinds of textual organisation’, also referred to as ‘multimodal discourse’ (Durant & Lambrou, 2009, p. 5.). In short, the term implies how meaning is made through the use of multiple modes of communication as opposed to language, for example using images, music and sound. These changes are yet incomplete but it is an interesting concept for language teachers to be aware of since it has been said to be growing. 

Material can be presented in more vivid ways than in the past, which may encourage students more actively’ (American Psychological Association 2009, p. 456). This is often achieved by sharing videos, pictures, quotes or other types of postings with your members (referring back to the subject of multimodal discourse mentioned before). Online collaboration on an assignment should be considered when working with social networks in order to share knowledge and build better communication skills. However, another challenge for educators involves ‘the distinction between entertainment and true intellectual engagement’ (American Psychological Association, 2009, p. 456). To support the development, teachers must have a clear definition of the reasons behind their choice of working with social networks and, most importantly, what they want to achieve with its use. Moreover, when using social media in a workplace, there is a strong possibility that it will build personal development and career advancement among staff members in the way that it improves awareness, and provides means for users to quickly interact over the Internet, in this case for teachers to share thoughts or updated lesson material with each other. Its use will also allow less hurried conversations and for thoughts to be expressed more clearly and openly because one will have more time to reflect upon their sayings rather than if it would have been a face-to-face communication setting. There is an amount of information about how to use social media to support one’s professional development by simply searching for it on the Internet. 

Although the positive outcome of the results when using social networks in schools, some teachers are still excluding the use of it in education because of the risks that they might carry with them. However, a number of educators argue that the educational benefits of social media far outweigh the risks, and there is a concern among these that schools are missing out on an opportunity to incorporate learning tools the students, in many cases, already know how to use. While some educators have found ways to include social media into their lessons, other educators are not utilizing social media for instructional purposes (Fewkes & McCabe, 2012). The use of social media must be purposeful and as a result should be applied in situations that are the most appropriate for learning and student understanding to occur (Liu, 2010, Väljataga & Fiedler, 2009). For example, social media is best used as an introductory tool for review and collaboration, not merely as a method of advertising class reminders (Annetta et al., 2009; Fewkes & McCabe, 2012). Therefore, educators who are considering incorporating social media into their academic courses should ensure that the specific type of social media used matches the learning outcomes for the students. 

Mind Map

References :
American Psychological Association. (2009) p. 456, cited in Fewkes, A. M., & McCabe, M. (2012). Facebook: Learning tool or distraction? Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 28(3), 92-98.

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