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Perceptions of school children of using social media for learning

Perceptions of school children of using social media for learning
Perceptions of school children of using social media for learning
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 also 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.
https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/149786/
1537-2456
Blair, Robert
4c38d352-16b4-4ffd-9e73-6e9c199a6670
Millard, David
4f19bca5-80dc-4533-a101-89a5a0e3b372
Woollard, John
85f363e3-9708-4740-acf7-3fe0d1845001
Blair, Robert
4c38d352-16b4-4ffd-9e73-6e9c199a6670
Millard, David
4f19bca5-80dc-4533-a101-89a5a0e3b372
Woollard, John
85f363e3-9708-4740-acf7-3fe0d1845001

Blair, Robert, Millard, David and Woollard, John (2015) Perceptions of school children of using social media for learning. IJEL - International Journal on E-Learning, 16 (2). (https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/149786/). (In Press)

Record type: Article

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 also 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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Accepted/In Press date: 22 May 2015
Organisations: Web & Internet Science

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 377842
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/377842
DOI: https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/149786/
ISSN: 1537-2456
PURE UUID: ffd0c941-555d-4d9b-bc7c-636c68cf6d79
ORCID for David Millard: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-2710
ORCID for John Woollard: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4518-0784

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Date deposited: 23 Jun 2015 16:12
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:59

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Contributors

Author: Robert Blair
Author: David Millard ORCID iD
Author: John Woollard ORCID iD

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