Running head: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN EDUCATION

The role of social media in education: the debate surrounding its incorporation into the classroom

Allie Myers

Seton Hall University

The role of social media in education: the debate surrounding its incorporation into the classroom

As a result of being such a large part of today’s society, social media is affecting many parts of

people’s lives. One of the main ways that social media affects society is through education. As students’

use of mobile devices increases, social media becomes almost a necessary part of their lives. Therefore,

social media has begun to play a role in the academic setting, and this role comes with positive and

negative effects. As a result, there is a split between teachers who support the use of social media in the

classroom and those who oppose it. Therefore, educators must discern if and how social media will be

used in their classrooms by weighing the benefits and harms. If teachers decide that it would be

beneficial to use social media in their classes, it is imperative that it is used effectively in order to

produce those positive results.

Positive Effects of Social Media in Education

Using social media in the classroom can be extremely beneficial to students in many ways,

which is because it adds a new dimension to learning. Huffman (2013) explains this idea as she writes,

“social networking tools can be utilized to enhance the educational experience of students by extending

the learning beyond the walls of the traditional classroom” (p. 155). Chen & Bryer (2012) take this idea a

step further by explaining that a connection can be made between informal learning (in the classroom)

and formal learning (in the professional world) through the use of social media. They write, “Third-party

social media tools, such as WordPress, Wikipedia, and LinkedIn, can include members outside the class

beyond the one-semester time duration and connect learners with communities, experts in the field,

and peers across the world” (p. 89). This also can make the learning experience more meaningful for

students because they are more easily able to grasp the relevance of the material to the real world

(Chen & Bryer, 2012). This is important because students may argue that they become bored and

uninterested in their classes because the content might not seem relevant to their lives. But using social

media in the classroom creates a familiar connection between school and life outside the classroom.
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Huffman (2013) also supports this idea by arguing that social media is a great way for teachers to better

reach their students. Mao (2014) is another researcher who recognizes the growing importance of social

media to today’s students, and writes that education should adapt to include social media just as society

does. To add to this idea, “the rapid pace of socio-technical advancements generally, in contrast to the

slow pace of technology adoption and change in schools, requires research efforts that span the learning

ecology today’s young people and their teachers inhabit” (as cited in Greenhow & Askari, 2017, p. 640).

In order to create consistency between students’ home and school social media experiences, educators

should strive to close the gap between the two by integrating social media into the classroom.

In their study aimed to determine college students’ attitudes towards learning using mobile

devices, Gikas & Grant (2013) found that there were four main advantages to using mobile devices and

social media in the classroom. The first was that information could be accessed quickly, which includes

immediate access to documents that instructors post, videos to help students understand content, and

web resources that they needed to review for class. The second was that it was much easier for the

students to communicate with their instructors and their classmates. Through texting, Twitter, Skype,

and the course website, the students involved in the study found themselves working together with

their peers much more. One student involved in the study explained, “I mean with our [course

management system], it’s the thing you check into just to do school work. Twitter – it’s a social media

tool that you are on all the time anyway. And to have the education, the class, be intermingled with the

rest of our lives” (p. 22). In this study, the third advantage to using social media in the classroom was

that it provided a larger variety of methods with which to learn course material. For example, the

students responded positively to using anonymous polls and discussions on their mobile devices outside

of class, because it brought a new dimension to their learning, allowed them to share their thoughts

more truthfully, and helped them to learn from their peers. Since these discussions occurred on their

own time, they were also able to use social media to learn more about the topic before commenting.
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Finally, the fourth benefit of using social media in the classroom was found to be that it encouraged

situated learning. “Situated learning proposes that learning takes place in the same context in which it is

applied, typically in a real world setting” (as cited in Gikas & Grant, 2013, p. 22). For example, one

professor involved in the study provided his students with the task of searching for examples of

community on campus while he was away at a conference. They learned about the idea of community

while physically in the community of their campus, and were able to share their findings through social

media. Abe & Jordan (2013) also agree that continuing the learning outside of the classroom is a great

effect of using social media. They explain, “Social media provides educators with the exciting new

opportunity to connect with students in a manner that continues to provoke thought and discussion

outside of the classroom setting” (p. 16). Overall, the students involved in Gikas and Grant’s study found

that social media was beneficial to their learning experience.

Many argue that social media might be seen as a distraction from what is happening in class,

which applies to students in every grade level. Abe & Jordan (2013) combat this argument by explaining

that in order to diminish the secretive use of social media in class for one’s personal interests, social

media must be included in the classroom. That way, students will not be hiding their phones under their

desks during class to text a friend – they will not be able to text their friend in the first place because

they will already be using their phones to participate in classroom activities! Then, as a result of using

social media in the classroom, more students will have the opportunity to be engaged in the lesson. If

more students are engaged, there will be less of a chance that they will turn to their phones out of

boredom.

Abe & Jordan (2013) take this idea of engagement a step further by explaining that social media

in the classroom provides an inclusive method of class discussion. This is because it allows those who

might not be comfortable speaking in front of a large group to contribute their thoughts in a way that is

more comfortable for them. Leicht & Goble (2014) wrote that some of the quietest students in their
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classes were surprisingly the most talkative when using social media to communicate their thoughts.

This is because students prefer to share ideas and communicate in different ways. “By blending face-to-

face and online modes of communication into one, students are free to participate and engage in the

course in whichever manner they choose” (Abe & Jordan, 2013, p. 18). In addition, the use of social

media for class discussions provides a fast-paced method of communicating so that students will have to

showcase their undivided attention in order to keep up with the discussion. That way, the chances of

students becoming distracted by non-educational social media interests are minimized.

Negative Effects of Social Media in Education

Even though there are many benefits to using social media in education, there are also

numerous arguments against this practice. In a study performed by Martin, Wang, Petty, Wang, &

Wilkins (2018), 191 out of 593 middle school students (32.2%) involved in the study specifically claimed

that their least favorite characteristic of social media was related to people being mean to each other on

social media sites. Therefore, the issue of cyberbullying comes into play. Cyberbullying can be defined as

“deliberately using digital media to communicate false, embarrassing, or hostile information about

another person” (as cited in Martin et al., 2018, p. 215). In the study by Martin et al. (2018), it is

explained that cyberbullying can take the forms of spreading rumors or hurtful information about

others, which is typically done in order to get revenge or to humiliate them for some other reason. If

social media is allowed in schools, it opens the door to students encountering both cyberbullying and

face-to-face bullying during school hours. Huffman (2013) writes, “Traditional bullying occurred during

the school day. Cyber bullying broadens the abuse to a 24/7 scaffold” (p. 155). Cyberbullying itself is an

issue that using social media in schools can promote, but it becomes an even larger issue when it causes

feelings of depression or thoughts of violence.

In a study by Mao (2014), some students who were involved were concerned about the role of

social media in their classrooms. One student explained that she was initially excited to use social media
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in her class, but quickly became disappointed when her teacher stopped teaching and started relying

solely on social media to educate the class. This student continued, stating that the teacher sat in a chair

and put the assignments up on the board, so that the students would basically have to use social media

to teach themselves. “Students hope to interact with teachers more through the use of social media

rather than having teaching replaced by using social media” (Mao, 2014, p. 220). In another study, Abe

& Jordan (2013) wrote that connecting to students through social media can hurt teachers’ relationships

with them based on what they post or share. Instead of learning about their teachers face-to-face in the

classroom, students may seek to learn more about them through social media platforms – which might

not be the best way to build a relationship with them. Abe & Jordan (2013) also express this concern by

writing that student-teacher interactions can be jeopardized because social media takes away from face-

to-face interaction, including facial expressions and tone of voice, which can lead to the

misinterpretation of students’ responses.

Abe & Jordan (2013) explain that another issue with personal information on the web is that

some teachers might not want to connect with students using social media because they do not feel

comfortable sharing information about themselves. This can cause teachers to close themselves off to

students and not allow relationships to form. Plus, sharing too much information online can lead to the

concern of becoming more like a friend and less like a teacher to the students. Chen & Bryer (2012)

write that teachers might even create different social media profiles to use specifically for academic

purposes so that they are not sharing everything about themselves. They explain that “Splitting oneself

into personal, professional, and other categories diminishes the full social potential of technologies that

thrive based on a willingness to be transparent about one’s whole self. The enacted technology, then, is

less than social and, thus, less likely to generate desired learning outcomes” (Chen & Bryer, 2012, p. 98).

Overall, social media can make it difficult for students to connect with their teachers.
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Another concern involving the use of social media in schools is the permanence of information

and lack of privacy on the web. In a survey performed by Moran, Seaman, & Tinti-Kane (2011), the

results showed that 70% of the teachers who were interviewed expressed concerns about privacy issues

involved with using social media. Huffman (2013) explains that once information is posted online, it

stays in the maze of the internet forever. Therefore, using social media in schools puts the students at

risk of sharing personal information online, which is a difficult task to undo. In her thesis, Altenbach

(2016) mentions that it is difficult for teachers to monitor everything that students are posting online

during class, and that a larger issue arises when students have devices such as iPads or Chromebooks

that they are allowed to bring home. Another issue is that addressing the topic of internet safety with

students might be difficult for teachers to do. “This is a difficult concept for teachers to take on with

their students, in order to help them make wise decisions when no one is looking and use their

technology devices with maturity” (Altenbach, 2016, p.38). Sharing personal information online is not

only a problem for students – teachers can run into this issue as well. According to a study involving

middle school students, these students claimed that their teachers were not comfortable with using

social media but decided to use it in their classes anyway. This was not only frustrating to the students,

but was dangerous due to the teachers’ lack of experience with social media (Mao, 2014). A related

issue is that if teachers or students are not comfortable using different forms of social media, class time

will have to be taken away to be used for learning how to use it in the first place. Abe & Jordan (2013)

explained that it might take time to initially teach students how to use certain social media platforms

that they are not already familiar with, and then to troubleshoot any issues that students might have

when using social media for class.

An article by Leicht & Goble (2014) expresses three main concerns about using social media in

the educational setting. One is that students today are so drawn to social media that they have a hard

time separating themselves from it. Therefore, school should be the place where they can let go of their
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attachment to social media and simply be present in the moment. Plus, a study by Gikas & Grant (2013)

found that some college students considered the use of social media and mobile devices in class to be

distracting. It is difficult for students to both be drawn to their social media sites and simultaneously

focus on what is physically happening in their lives, in class. The second argument in the Leicht & Goble

(2014) article is that social media prevents students from centering their focus on anything that does not

directly interest them. Since they can search whatever they would like on social media, they have

become accustomed to ignoring information that is not interesting or personally relevant to them.

Leicht explains, “A bored teenager no longer has to listen to adult conversation in the car, at the dinner

table or on the living room TV, and so they pick up on absolutely nothing that’s not already familiar and

of interest to them. Social media is not expanding their social circle or worldview, it’s limiting it” (p. 6).

Finally, the third argument in the Leicht & Goble (2014) article against using social media in the

classroom is that students have already shown that they have become bored with online discussion

forums and are actually participating less during class than they had been before social media was so

prevalent in schools.

How to Effectively Use Social Media in the Classroom

If teachers ultimately choose to use social media in their classes after weighing the benefits and

harms, it is imperative that it is used properly and effectively in order to avoid the possible negative

effects that social media can cause in the classroom setting. There are numerous ways to incorporate

social media into the classroom to increase engagement and quality of learning. Rivero (2011) provides

many examples of social media sites that can be extremely helpful for students. One example, Edmodo,

is compatible with mobile devices and can be used for a wide variety of classroom needs, such as

sharing links to websites, posting grades, uploading class documents, and sharing relevant videos.

Another example that is provided in the article is SchoolTube, which is similar to YouTube except that

every video is approved for appropriateness and credibility. Other resources mentioned in the Rivero
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(2011) article include Glogster, an online creative presentation tool, and SurveyMonkey, a site that

provides templates for students to create surveys. Twitter is another helpful social media tool, as

explained in Simplicio's (2015) article. He provides a concrete example of using Twitter in the classroom

to help students develop their summarizing skills by having them read an article and compose a Twitter

post to summarize it. The main takeaway with this method is that Twitter only allows a maximum of 140

characters in any given post, so the students are forced to narrow their summaries to fit that

requirement. After submitting their posts to the specific hashtag the teacher has set up, a lesson on

summarizing can follow, referencing the summaries that students have posted. This technique brings in

something that students are familiar with, Twitter, and connects it to class material. Schachter (2011)

writes that the students in Mt. Vernon Township High School District in Oakland, Illinois utilize different

types of social media in their classes, such as YouTube and Twitter. For example, they create YouTube

videos for project such as mock trials, and connect with professionals in the particular subject that they

are studying by asking them questions on Twitter.

Kist (2013) writes that blogging is also an effective learning tool because it helps students to

keep track of what they are learning in class and provides them the opportunity to comment on each

other’s blogs. In turn, this allows for a continuous discussion during and outside of school. There are

many free blog websites available to students, and they can use their blogs to keep track of pictures,

videos, and documents as well. The Edudemic staff (2015) also promotes the idea of blogging because it

helps students with their writing skills and opens up a vast array of topics that can be explored. Students

will be able to include their own thoughts into their writing, as well as pictures and videos. Students can

create an online blogging community with their classmates by commenting on each other’s posts, and

can also connect with blogs from around the world. The idea of creating a community of classmates can

also be put into action through the use of wikis. Kist (2013) writes that a wiki is a website that allows

many people to edit its content. It is an effective tool in the classroom because it can be used to store
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student work (such as reports or study guides) and for group work, since one of its main purposes is to

promote collaboration.

Another idea that Kist (2013) explores is that class discussion groups can be housed on social

media platforms. It was previously explained that Twitter can be used to enhance students’ summarizing

skills, but it is important to note that it can also be used for class discussions. This can be done by setting

a specific hashtag for the class and having the students compose tweets with that specific hashtag. The

Edudemic staff (2015) agrees that Twitter can be a useful tool in the classroom because it is a quick way

to share information and can be easily accessed anytime during the day. This platform can also be used

by administrators to post announcements. Schachter (2011) writes “Bradford Saron, district

administrator of the Cashton (Wis.) Public Schools, uses Twitter to announce everything from early

releases because of bad weather to reminders that summer school applications are due” (p. 31).

Therefore, Twitter can be helpful to teachers, administrators, and students.

Kist (2013) explains that in addition to Twitter, Facebook can also be used for class discussions,

specifically through the use of Facebook groups. The Edudemic staff (2015) also supports the idea of

incorporating Facebook groups into the classroom, explaining that these groups can be used to make

class announcements, share resources such as helpful videos or images, and post assignments. Since

Facebook groups are easily accessible at all times, whether on a mobile device or a computer, students

can ask questions in the group about an assignment or a topic covered in class, and the teacher or other

classmates can respond to the question. This makes class collaboration and discussion much easier, and

allows students to interact with each other more. “Since students often learn from others, having

students share their questions, insights, or experiences with a topic can expand learning for other

students. In short, it extends the classroom discussion beyond the classroom” (Edudemic staff, 2015, p.

2). Another great aspect of Facebook groups is that parents can have access to the group as well, so they

can keep up with what is happening in the class. The article by the Edudemic staff (2015) further
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explains that many parents and students are already familiar with Facebook and regularly use it, so

posting class information on this platform allows for ease of access to the course content. Plus, regularly

hearing from their child’s teacher on social media sites such as Facebook provides parents with security

in knowing what their child is doing in the particular class.

Conclusions

The use of social media in the educational setting is a relevant and regularly discussed topic,

with detailed arguments stemming from both sides of the debate. Many educators believe that social

media should be incorporated into their classrooms, and others are against the use of social media in

the educational setting. For those who support the use of social media for academic purposes, the basic

principle that underlies their arguments is that as social media becomes a larger part of society and of

people’s personal lives, the more important it becomes to also include it in schools. The Pearson

research article by Moran et al. (2011) explains, “Pearson is acutely aware of how important it is to

understand these emerging media, the opportunities they offer to higher education faculty, and how

their adoption can evolve—and is evolving— higher education teaching and learning” (p. 4). As social

media grows and evolves in society, the use of social media platforms in schools must also be changed

and adapted. Therefore, keeping up with social media trends in the classroom requires constant work

and vigilance. The arguments against including social media in the classroom generally stem from the

fear of students becoming distracted from what is physically happening in their lives at any given

moment. Abe & Jordan (2013) write, “…having access to so many different modes of social connection

and communication may serve to overstimulate students. For example, usage of smartphones and

laptops often serves to distract students from paying attention during class” (p. 17). With one side

claiming that social media engages students in the lesson, and the other side arguing that it distracts

from the lesson, the question of whether to include social media in their classes can be a difficult

decision for teachers to make.

As a result of the differing views on the inclusion of social media into the classroom, educators

must review the research on this topic and decide for themselves if the benefits outweigh the costs, or if

the costs are too problematic. It is ultimately up to teachers to decide for themselves what they wish to

do about social media usage in their own classes. The general trend in the research involving this topic is

that most teachers see educational value in using social media with their students. In their study, Moran

et al. (2011) surveyed a total of 1920 teachers, 80% of which claimed that they use some form of social

media in their classes. But even though teachers are using social media in their classes, it cannot be

automatically assumed that the social media platforms are being used effectively for learning. This is

why it is essential for teachers to fully understand the basics of social media and its proper uses in the

classroom. Huffman (2013) writes that teachers should attend professional development workshops or

participate in other training opportunities centered on using social media. Greenhow & Askari (2017)

take this further by explaining that “sustained professional development opportunities that expose

teachers to research about students' experiences with social media and to techniques for assessing their

students’ knowledge, attitudes, and expectations” would majorly benefit students’ academic experience

(p. 641). A large amount of research on this topic supports the idea that if teachers receive the proper

training to have a firm grasp on how to incorporate social media into their classrooms, their students’

education will be supported by a stronger learning environment. This is because social media will

connect their schooling to the vast world of knowledge outside the classroom.
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