Assessment Of The Use Of Social Media In Teaching And Learning In Secondary School

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of The Study

Social media includes an array of internet-based tools and services that are designed to advance community development through relationships and information distribution (Arnold and Paulus, 2010). They further state that the tools offer opportunities for personal manifestation as well as connections with other users. Junco, Helbergert and Loken (2011) state that social media encourages teamwork and information sharing. Social media can be used in academic settings to prop up student commitment and expedite better student learning (Kabilan, Ahmad and Abidin, 2010).  But it was noted by Skenazy (2009) that we think of phones as communication tools, but the reality is they may be just the contrary. The views of Davidson (2011) propose that people are adapting to fresh communication norms in an increasing digital world, learning to hastily attend to, process, and react to multiple and sometimes concurrent message. Given the several possible means that digital communication outfits will continue to impact practices of teaching and learning, instructional communication scholars should perform programmatic research to comprehend how these tools influence classroom communication and consequent learning outcomes (Schuck & Aubusson, 2010).

Kuppuswamy and Narayan (2010) argued that the social networks distracts the attention and concentration of the students toward learning and converts it towards non educational activities such as useless and unnecessary chatting; but these social networks websites can be useful for education based on sound pedagogical use online social networking sites to serve as tools for supporting student learning for different educational purposes. By this explanation, social networks can be investigated thoroughly in order to provide different learning opportunities, so as to simplify the student learning processes. Social networks access via mobile phones increased the active participation of secondary school’s student in the social life even during school hours. This trend makes leaning and understanding to those categories of student very difficult task. Therefore, this study examined the effect of social networks and its consequences on student academic performance especially in secondary schools in Nigeria. The issue here is not whether it benefits the student to interact socially via electronic medium without any barrier, but how it affects their studies negatively or positively thereby decreasing or increasing their performance academically.

In connection to this, several studies have been carried out on the effects of social media on the students’ learning outcome in colleges and schools. The studies have recognized both positive and negative bearings of social media on students’ academic achievement in education (Espinosa, Laffey, Whittaker & Sheng, 2006). However, the studies have not proven the effect of social media on students’ performance in secondary schools. This study will however investigate the use of social media in teaching and learning in secondary school in Nigeria.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Recently, children of school age have been very much interested in utilizing various forms of social networking sites for their communication. Prominent among these sites is Facebook, followed by Twitter, in terms of patronage across different nations of the world. The youth who are the most active users of these social networking sites use the sites to connect friends, photos, videos and games. While some researchers claim that the use of SNS by students improves their academic achievement (Ovute & Ovute, 2015). Others argue that it has impacted negatively on the behaviour and academic achievement of the learners (Morgan, Grahan, & Hodges, 2012). It has been observed that most of the secondary school students in Nigeria, no longer take their studies seriously. This may be because, instead of focusing on their studies, they may either be busy chatting with their friends and acquaintances on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or posting an update via Twitter. This ugly trend may distract the students from reading their books or being attentive during the teaching and learning process as they no longer have interest in learning. This is in line with the view of Csikszentmihalyi (1975) Flow Theory.

The origin of research on the flow theory came about when Csikszentmihalyi (1975) tried to understand why artists, especially painters, became immersed in their work to the extent that they would disregard their needs for food, water, and sleep. This theory emphasized on holistic sensation that individuals feel when they act with total involvement in activities that they are interested in doing. It implies absorption in a task such that the individual is attracted and carried away by the task being performed. Therefore, this study shall investigate the use of social media in teaching and learning in secondary school in Nigeria.

1.3 Objectives of study

General Objective

The general objective of this study was to examine the use of social media on teaching and learning in secondary schools.

Specific Objectives

1. To explore the views of teachers and students on the extent to which social media affect student performance.

2. To examine the challenges that teachers in Alaafin high school and Alaafin grammar school face in accessing social media.

3. Assess the strategies that teachers use to minimize the challenges of attaining and using social media.