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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 17, Issue 2, Article 3 (Dec., 2016) |
Educational values of Facebook as a social network site
The study reported a significant association between student perceived intended learning outcomes and their overall achievement. The students supported that assignment conducted with Facebook could facilitate their interactive discussion with classmates and lecturers, and inspire their further learning. This attainment of intended learning outcomes via using Facebook not only echoed but further affirmed, based on the student expressed view, the educational values of a social network site such as Facebook in enhancing interaction among learners who were facing the common interests and difficulties during studies (Selwyn, 2009). The findings also revealed that Facebook platform could promote learner interactions that are related to formal educational objectives by establishing new networks of collaborative learning (Hrastinski & Aghaee, 2012; Selwyn, 2009). Students reflected that the assessment mode using Facebook provided them with the opportunity to develop an overview of the issue holistically. This view to a certain extent supported the adoption of Facebook from the social constructivist perspective in that knowledge is constructed when individuals engage socially in talk and activity about shared problems and tasks (Driver, Asoko, Leach, Mortimer, & Scott, 2008). Despite the common view that the integration of Facebook in the course delivery process, instead of in their course assignment only, for a holistic integration into the learning process may give rise to different results, student positive learning experiences gained from learning with the social network site displayed in the findings of this study did confirm the possible direction for using Facebook to facilitate effective teaching and learning through interactions. According to Hung and Yuen (2010), a structured mechanism for interaction and information-sharing, instead of just adding a social network into a course, could contribute to successful learning.
Privacy issue of Facebook in teaching and learning
Students showed concern about the privacy issue of adopting Facebook, developed originally as a social networking platform, in teaching and learning. Significant correlation was found between privacy issue of using Facebook and student overall achievement in learning outcomes in the HKIEd group. Given slight differences of assignment submission procedures between the two institutes, the administrative design of HKU centralizing the mass upload of assignments by the lecturer using one Facebook account exclusively for the course may account for the different findings obtained. The privacy issue of using Facebook was found to have a significant impact on the overall achievement of learning outcomes of HKIEd students (as similar with the findings in the study by Wang et al., 2012). The two items regarding the sharing of assignments with friends on Facebook, which probably resulted in a blurring of private and learning zones, were the least preferred by students in both institutes when compared with other items in the questionnaire. It is suggested that in designing the course content, and its assignments, student individual differences on the preferences and concerns of using Facebook have to be taken into account carefully in order to maximize the teaching and learning effectiveness of the social network site. A discussion with the students on the most acceptable way of using Facebook in course learning and assessment may help lessen the resentment of students on adopting Facebook in their study (Kitchaharn, 2016).
Intended learning outcomes
The results showed that the theme “intended learning outcomes” is a key factor significantly impacting the overall achievement of learning outcomes of HKU students. This theme covers whether the assignment encouraged the students to be creative; whether the learning activities provided them an overview of current environmental problems in Hong Kong; whether they learnt much from the in-class discussion; and whether the assignment inspired them to pursue further learning in the subject. The significant positive correlation echoes student open-ended comments. Students mentioned that this assignment was interesting and could encourage them to think about Hong Kong’s environmental issues more and extend their views to global level. Learning from peers by reading the Facebook page was effective as they could (re-)visit the Facebook page whenever they wanted to read and it was eye-catching with nice pictures and limited words. However, students also revealed that more time should be given for preparing the assignment so as to increase its effectiveness. As some students may not be clear about the environmental issues in Hong Kong (some were non-local students), it is suggested that a brief overview of key environmental issues of Hong Kong could be provided to students beforehand.
Facebook, supported by the results in the study, can be seen as a useful educational tool for teaching and learning in higher education institutions, especially in terms of providing a platform for interactions and hence facilitating knowledge construction. However, when using Facebook, caution must be taken to minimize the use of student personal account, henceforth avoiding the invasion of their private social networking space. It is believed that both the technical designs and student perceptions and preferences of using the technology need to be considered in course planning so as to provide students with a stimulating educational learning experience.
Copyright (C) 2016 EdUHK APFSLT. Volume 17, Issue 2, Article 3 (Dec., 2016). All Rights Reserved.