Perceptions of school children of using social media for learning

Blair, Robert, Millard, David and Woollard, John (2014) Perceptions of school children of using social media for learning. E-LEARN 2014 - World Conference on E-Learning, New Orleans, United States. 27 - 30 Oct 2014. 10 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Social media is lauded as a powerful tool for informal learning, and a tool of choice for teenagers. This paper reports on the findings of a survey of 384 secondary school pupils in the UK (aged 11-17) over a 12 week period. Our findings indicate a pervasiveness of social media usage amongst this age group, but variety in the types of engagement and self-reported importance of social media. Usage of social media for learning is dominated by logistical task support (for example, clarifying instructions) and heavily focused around homework activities. However, it appears that this provides a context for deeper engagement and learning around those homework activities. Our findings indicate that social media is being used by this age group to support their learning, but that there is still great untapped potential both in terms of the range of activities discussed, and the number of pupils engaging

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