Social media plays an essential role in the lives of students. However, control has to be provided to make sure that the attention of students is not diverted to other uses of social media such as networking and entertainment. Understanding the role of social media is essential as it will help learning institutions determine how it will be integrated into the curriculum to assist the leaners (Greenhow and Cathy 15). It will also help educators and learners establish how to use social media to improve their studies.
Hypothesis
It is hypothesized that social media has positive impacts on the academic performance of students. Social media can be used as a platform where students from different institutions and nations can interact and assist each other in studies. They can study together and educate each other about the best learning styles. The institutions can also use social media to motivate and support the students in education (Kimmerle 130).
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Scientific Investigation Process
In the research, I used previously done studies concerning the role that social media plays in education. I used Google Scholar in finding articles that were scholarly and reliable. I chose a sample of six articles, all written within the last ten years to make sure that the data was recently researched and findings reliable. When selecting the sample article, I used random sampling method, by selecting articles related to my topic using key phrases such as social media integration in schools, collaboration learning between institutions, the difference between real and virtual studies and networking in institutions. I skimmed through the articles to make sure that written information related to my topic. Using the already written researches would help me get a wide range of data concerning the topic since each author presents their views differently, and always trying to show why educational institutions should adopt social media in daily learning.
The independent variable, in this case, is social media. There are the most used social media networking sites, and there are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (Tess 65). The independent variable is the preferences of the students and educational institutions on which platform they should use. Twitter is more preferable because it is the fastest, LinkedIn is preferred due to the personal profiling while users of Facebook embraced the feature of creating educational groups which would help students and educators from different schools interact. The experimental manipulation I applied, in this case, is assuming that students will be using social media for studies alone and will not be tempted to get into other uses such as looking for entertainment news (Goldie 1068). The studies seem to have treated the participants the same, without issues such as addiction to social media, where the research aimed to establish the role social media plays in education. Comparisons made are between real and virtual studies (Crook 12).
Findings and Conclusion
It was found out that social media boosts the performance of students. Social media is used in teaching, learning, and communication. When an educator is not attending a class, they can twit the students of assignments, and any misunderstandings can be cleared out (Clark, Monica, and Cara 45). Students from different institutions can interact and educate each other on their study methods.
In conclusion, social media is essential to the educational success of students. It opens opportunities for students to interact with each other and learn how to improve their grades. Social media can also be used to interact with teachers thus reducing the fear of face-to-face interaction.
The results can be applied by educational institutions. They can implement the use of social media in classes. However, there should be measures implemented to ensure that intended use is achieved.
Works Cited
Clark, Melissa, Monica B. Fine, and Cara-Lynn Scheuer. "Relationship quality in higher education marketing: the role of social media engagement." Journal of Marketing for Higher Education 27.1 (2017): 40-58.
Crook, Charles. Computers and the Collaborative Experience of Learning (1994). Routledge, 2018.
Goldie, John Gerard Scott. "Connectivism: A knowledge learning theory for the digital age?." Medical teacher 38.10 (2016): 1064-1069.
Greenhow, Christine, and Cathy Lewin. "Social media and education: Reconceptualizing the boundaries of formal and informal learning." Learning, media, and technology 41.1 (2016): 6-30.
Kimmerle, Joachim, et al. "Learning and collective knowledge construction with social media: A process-oriented perspective." Educational Psychologist 50.2 (2015): 120-137.
Tess, Paul A. "The role of social media in higher education classes (real and virtual)–A literature review." Computers in human behavior 29.5 (2013): A60-A68.
