Theme: Social media

Objectives of the Study:
1. To evaluate the relevance of the social media
2. To study social media as an educational tool
3. Understanding of social media by the teachers
4. The need to include innovative teaching methods in the universities/
colleges
Hypothesis of the study:
• Social media is the in-thing these days.
• Educators are not aware of its importance.
• The youth nowadays is not aware of its educational use.
• Students look out for more innovative ways of teaching.
• Social media can be used for various educational purposes.
Review of Literature
Jayme, Waddington (2011);
It concluded that Social networking among adolescents is not just a fad; it
is part of their culture. While social networking can expose teens to danger,
they are exposed to the same dangers in real life as well. A parent or teacher
cannot expect a teen to abandon the internet and be able to thrive in modern
society as computers, technology, the internet, and social networking is
utilized in all aspects of modern life, even in the workplace. This is why
social networking should not only be included as a valuable tool to enhance
the classroom but should also be utilized as an opportunity to teach students
the skills that ensure safe and enriching use of social media.
P. Brady Kevin, B. Holcomb Lori, and V. Smith Bethany (2010);
The higher educational community has been noticeably slow in adopting
social networking technologies into the curriculum. Non-commercial SNSs,
like Ning in Education, provide an exciting and innovative alternative for
higher education educators interested in the educational benefits associated
with social networking technologies. Results from this study reveal that for
a majority of students, SNSs provide significant e-learning benefits in their
courses. Ozkan and McKenzie (2008) contend that educators need to engage
students with a more 21st century approach to teaching and social networking
technologies can provide such a venue. As both distance education and SNSs
continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly more important to examine
how distance education and SNSs can be combined most effectively
Hundey, Elizabeth (2012)
Before the seminar, participants were asked to create a Twitter account, and
bring a laptop or smart phone if possible to the seminar. While giving the
presentation on using social media in the
geography classroom, the instructor
is also demonstrating how to use social media in the classroom. Therefore, the
presentation strategies are paramount to the success of the presentation and are
included in each section of the presentation. In this project the students learnt
to use the innovative way of using social media like twitter, tumblr, Wikipedia,
Poll Everywhere, Discussion boards, Facebook and Youtube.
Research Methodology
The primary data was collected from newspaper, magazine, online journals,
etc.
The secondary data was collected through survey among the youth within
the age group of 18-25 years to understand their perception of using the social
media as an educational tool. For this, questionnaire was used as a tool and
was filled by 100 respondents which were picked up randomly.
Results
The data collected from the survey has been graphically represented below.
Results can be summarized in terms of
answers to the following questions:
In the question “Rate the use of social media by various professionals”
asked to the representatives the following data has been collected which is
shown graphically in Graph No.1

In the question “Are you aware of the innovative ways of teaching” asked

to the representatives the following data
has been collected which is shown
graphically in Graph No.2

In the question “Do you think that social media should be used for the

educational purposes?” asked to the representatives the following data has
been collected which is shown graphically in Graph No.3

In the question “Why do students use social media?” asked to the representatives,

the following data has been collected which is shown graphically in Graph
No.4

In the question “Rate the following teaching methodologies as per your
preference?” asked to the representatives, the following data has been collected
which is shown graphically in Graph No.5

Conclusion
It is concluded that:
• Hypothesis No.1 stating ‘Social media is the in-thing these days’ is
accepted that social media is in thing so is accepted.
• Educators are becoming aware so hypothesis No.2 ‘Educators are not
aware of its importance’ is rejected.
• The youth is now aware about social media’s educational use so hypothesis
no.3 ‘The youth nowadays is not aware of its educational use’ is
rejected.
• Students opt and are interested in innovative way of teaching so hypothesis
no.4 ‘Students look out for more innovative ways of teaching’ is
accepted.
• Social media has opened vast platform and can be used for many educational purposes so hypothesis no.5 ‘Social media can be used for various educational purposes’ is accepted.
Discussion of the Result
• Majority of students believe that social media is used by advertisers than
the educators and companies for the promotion of their products, followed
by its usage by educators, professionals and students.
• Most of the respondents are aware about innovative way of teaching and
expect the same.
• All the respondents believe that there should be change in the existing

education system and more innovative methods like social media should

be used for education purposes.
• The use of social media for making presentations was found to be the first
priority among students then getting and making the assignment updates.
• The currently developed Educomp method of teaching is one of the most
popular among the students though other method like homeschooling was
on top priority.