Alex Barrett Source 2

What did students and faculty think of using social media in their classroom?

Jacquemin, Stephen J., Lisa K. Smelser, and Melody J. Bernot. "Twitter In The Higher Education Classroom: A Student And Faculty Assessment Of Use And Perception." Journal Of College Science Teaching 43.6 (2014): 22-27. Teacher Reference Center. Web. 3 Mar. 2015.

This article conducted a study of using a social media website, Twitter, into graduate and undergraduate classrooms. They surveyors asked the students and faculty questions before the experiment and after the experiment. These questions included their thoughts on social media, if they used social media, if it would be useful in a class, and if it should be integrated in classrooms. There were positive and negative opinions of integrating social media into education. There were 22 undergraduate students, 16 graduates, and 17 faculty members included into the experiment.Before the experiment, the students and faculty were asked if using social media in a classroom would be constructive or distracting. About half of all participants said it would be both distracting and constructive, but it would be more distracting than constructive. Likewise, majority of people were unsure if social media would help improve discussions. Many of there participants were unsure about the effect of using a site like twitter in classes. After the study, majority of undergrads and faculty did not favor integrating social media into their classes. The graduate students, however, felt it was helpful to use twitter in their classrooms for discussions. This study found that social media could be integrated successfully into a classroom setting, but while Twitter can provide a useful place to link course topics with current news, its use for active discussion and feedback should be limited. 

This source made me change my thinking a little bit. I was on the side that favored integrating social media into education, but this study has made me change my mind about that. Since this was an actual study with real statistics, i have been persuaded that social media would not be a good idea. If it is involved in school, it should definitely be tempered. This makes me think about how classes actually use social media during their day-to-day schedules. I would tend to agree with this source since their is actual evidence. I know this was just a small experiment, but I would have to think that these results would most likely fit the general student and faculty population. This source did help me answer the question for this blog post. Most students and faculty tend to not like this integration because of the distraction. However, graduate students seemed to like using social media a little bit more for discussions. 

This source does not agree with my first source. The first source explained why teachers are using social media in their classes. According to the first source 1, teachers have began to implement social media into their curriculum because they are basically changing with the time. Social media websites are becoming far more prevalent with today;s students and teachers want to use this to their advantage. However, with source 2, the study conducted shows the students opinions of social media in education. It disagrees with the opinions of source 1. I would tend to agree with source 2 because there is actual evidence to back it up. 

How exactly are teachers using social media? Is there a distinct line between social media for personal use and educational use? The right questions to be asking are ones that ask how and why social media is used in education and how people react to it. My next thing to research is how do teachers exactly use social media in their classrooms. So far I have some advantages to social media in education and an actual study done to find out what students and faculty think of it. While there are some advantages to social media, the overall student response to it is unsure.