Advantages & disadvantages of social media in education
To some educators, the challenge of educating students who seek to be constantly connected to the internet and their social networks, appears insurmountable. In addition to their engagement in social media students appear to be in constant text-based communications. This desire to be connected amongst many students can be viewed as being obsessive and a ‘fear of being disconnected’ appears to be apparent (Reiner, 2012). Staying socially connected at all times is a safe place to be in the networked society and one can retain a level of familiarity rather than standing out from the crowd (ibid).
In recognition of the need to engage with students in an environment which they feel safe in and in which they feel they are part of (and in which they can join new communities), it would seem that educators in the networked society need to be engaging students using social media.
Social media effectively enables the development of communities of learning engaged in the social construction of knowledge (McLoughlin & Lee, 2007). In the networked society engaging with such real-world tools to allow students to work together in groups provides a skill that is much valued in business and industry, and as such it better prepares students for the external working environment.
The danger of social media is that it promotes a shallowness of engagement that does not engender intellectual or academic thinking to aid the learning process and may lead to a low quality of actual content (Grosseck, 2009). It may distract students from the real work to be done, students may feel pressure to conform within their online and linked classroom community (Reiner, 2012).