Using social media in university studies
Date Issued |
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2018 |
Educational processes have been changed by the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies and their applications such as social media. The multiple discourses on social media use in university studies are often contradictory and include various views ranging from enthusiastic ones to the critical perceptions of social media as disruptive technology. Nevertheless, social media is penetrating into educational arena including university studies and research is carried out on social media educational use in university studies. Educational problem tends to persist as variability of education technologies seems to pose a challenge to the teaching staff, university teachers that may still be grappling with new appearing technologies of social media. The question of human factor seems to be marginalized. Attentiveness, pedagogical relationship, human being in the study environments saturated with technologies of social media cannot be easily counted but they are also important in education. The research object is social media use in university studies and the research investigates the phenomenon of social media use in university studies with the particular focus on the meaning of the „lived experience“ of the participants of university studies. This investigation is an inductive qualitative research with phenomenological approach and the aim of the present study is to investigate how university study participants: teachers, students and administrators make sense of social media use in university studies through their own lived experience. The meaning is revealed through exploration of teacher, student and administrator personal stories of social media use in university studies. Pursuing the research aim the following research objectives have been set: to briefly overview the discourse of social media use in education including university studies; to describe in a structural way the lived experience of the research participants: teachers, students and administrators while using social media in university studies; to disclose the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon of social media use in university studies.