UNIMAS academics' views on the use of social media in teaching and learning are presented in the first article in this issue. The fourth and fifth articles highlight a few creative uses of social media in teaching and learning. In addition, one respondent gave reflective feedback about the use of social media in teaching and learning.
The above feedback provides another dimension of thought about the use of social media in relation to the university's official online learning system. In this article, I share several key questions that should be given ample attention prior to the use of social media tools in teaching and learning. The integration of social media tools in teaching and learning has been widely researched and experimented, especially in the context of higher education.
For a start, social media tools can be used to increase the level of interactivity during lectures. The issue of closeness or closeness is also very relevant to the use of social media tools, especially in relation to social networking sites and instant messaging applications. Students must therefore be exposed to the role of social media in promoting the research culture, especially in the form of collaborative projects.
Nevertheless, evaluating the capabilities of the social media tools is essential to ensure effective adoption of these tools.
Social Media as an Educational Opportunity?
UNIMAS Lecturers, What Say You?
They considered social media to be less important for improving student learning, as they assumed that students should spend time practicing the psychomotor skills they need to master during the semester. Those who returned felt that social media might not be helpful. Since preparation for teaching using social media is more time-consuming for them, they were demotivated to continue using this tool in teaching.
They looked forward to using social media in their teaching practices in the near future. We hope that their inclusion of social media can enhance their students' learning experiences. For other courses such as Animation Studio, Web Design, and End-User Computing, the lecturers created Wikispaces for the students to share information among themselves.
Content communities like YouTube and Vimeo are commonly used to show useful tutorials and conceptual video in the classes. In addition, such employment will prepare the students to be able to work independently and virtually in the future after their graduation as virtualization is slowly becoming the trend of office setting (Knorr, 2013). The purpose for using the same tool is different compared to the employment in the lecture session to explain PaperTab.
Social media will bring many benefits to students if they have the maturity and sense of responsibility towards their own learning. It is imperative for higher education academics to inspire and motivate their students to engage in meaningful learning through their presence and support in using social media in the classrooms. Social media provides great opportunities for academics to enhance their existing teaching and learning activities.
However, the use of social media in instructional opportunities must be carefully considered during the instructional design process to ensure its effectiveness. Implication of Social Media Technology (SMT) for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and International Engineering Conference 2014 (ENCON 2014). These statistics create an opportunity for the educators to integrate the social media in teaching and learning since most higher education students have a Facebook account.
Introduction
In February 2013, I set up a Facebook group for my mentees. The mentees consisted of students from different courses and study years. On the blog, my students were advised to focus on their studies at the beginning of the semester. This section explains the article on my blog, emphasizing the importance for my students to strive for good academic performance each semester.
A CGPA calculator link was placed on the blog to help them calculate their target GPA. The CGPA calculator was created by the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, and the blog post was shared with mentees on the Facebook Group. Having a GPA goal can help my mentees have a clearer vision of their desired grade.
The link to the blog post at http://smylifestory.blogspot.com/2013/09/join-dropbox.html is placed in the Facebook Group Mentor Mentor. This Facebook post was expected to provide support to the students and constantly remind them of the importance of staying healthy. Because of this, the group's online presence allows me to reach mentees easily throughout the semester.
As per my observation, there are only a few matters that can be covered in an online mentee group such as i) welcoming mentees to the university, ii) academic issues and motivation, iii) health and safety issues, iv) career and current information such as also v) question and answer. In addition to meeting face-to-face, mentees are encouraged to ask questions about any related issues in the Facebook group. Therefore, the mentor must evaluate the online mentoring activities and initiate appropriate online activities for the mentees.
The genuineness, empathy and respect that the mentors show to the mentees can be the key aspects in developing an effective online mentor-mentee relationship. An additional benefit of uploading a public video on YouTube is its presence on the Internet. You become a teacher on the world stage and comments can be sent to you.
I have used flip learning as part of Team-based Learning (Michaelsen & Sweet, 2008), where the students have to sit for a quiz on the video during class time. One of my students gave this feedback: 'The video really helps with understanding because the video can be watched over and over for more understanding, whereas in the lecture we can only hear it once'.
