To Be or Not To Be on The Facebook? Factors Contributing to Teachers’ Facebook Use for Educational Purposes

Author(s):

Emre Yılmaz(submitting)Evren Şumuer(presenting)Soner Yıldırım

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

16. ICT in Education and Training

Format:

Paper

Session Information

16 SES 10 A, Social Networks, Social Media and Learning

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-10

15:30-17:00

Room:

3005. [Main]

Chair:

Koen Aesaert

Contribution

There are a number of web 2.0 tools for several needs of people. Especially, social networking sites have gained tremendous popularity in recent years. Having 1.35 billion monthly active users as of September 30, 2014 (Facebook, 2014), Facebook is the most prominent social networking site on the internet. Similarly, it is the most popular social networking site among teachers (MMSEducation, 2012; Sumuer, Esfer, & Yildirim, 2014). In addition to social engagement, Facebook provides opportunities for teachers to support their educational and professional development activities.

It is possible for teachers to take affordances of Facebook to support teaching and learning in and outside of the schools (Callaghan & Bower, 2012). Asterhan, Rosenberg, Schwarz, and Solomon (2013) found that teachers mostly communicated with students on Facebook for management of classroom communication, help, and improvement in relationship with and knowledge of students. Moreover, Sumuer et al. (2014) revealed that sharing information, sharing resources, announcements, and communication with students were the educational activities for which teachers mostly used Facebook. Facebook also maintains the basic functions of a learning management system (Wang, Woo, Quek, Yang, & Liu, 2012). In addition, Facebook provides teachers with rich opportunities for their professional development, including sending messages, posting questions and comments, sharing resources, practices and discourse artifacts, and staying connected with peers (Rutherford, 2010; Staudt, Clair, & Martinez, 2013). Sumuer et al. (2014) also indicated that obtaining up-to-date information, exchanging information, and being informed about events were some of the professional development activities for which teachers mostly used Facebook. Therefore, it is likely that Facebook has become one of the important technologies in teachers` professional life.

Given the fact that teachers` technology use is influenced by their gender, age teaching experience, and internet use , it is important to investigate how teachers` Facebook usage differs, particularly in terms of educational and professional development activities in order to e promote effective use of Facebook in education. The study conducted by Sumuer et al. (2014) examined teachers` K12 teachers’ Facebook usage habits, intensity, self-disclosure, privacy settings and activities. As a follow-up for this study, the current study investigated teachers` educational and professional Facebook usage in terms of their demographic characteristics including gender, age, teaching experience, the level of school, computer and internet use, and Facebook use. The results of the study reveal initial evidence on the factors that are important for Turkish teachers’ engagement with Facebook for educational and professional development purposes.

Method

The participants consisted of 616 Turkish K12 teachers with Facebook account. Of % 68.2 the participants were female (n=420) and half of them were under the age of 30 (n=308). Data were collected through the questionnaire developed with the help of previous studies on the use of Facebook (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007; Pempek, Yermolayeva, & Calvert, 2009; Ranieri, Manca, & Fini, 2012; Ross et al., 2009). Although the questionnaire consisted of seven parts, present study only used data from the parts related to Facebook usage, educational and professional development activities for which teachers used Facebook, and demographics. The online questionnaire were sent to teachers via several means, including Facebook groups, open online forums, Facebook messages, e-mails, and forwarded invitations. Using chi-square tests, the study investigated whether there is an association between the frequencies of educational and professional development activities for which teachers used Facebook and their demographics including gender, age, teaching experience, school level, daily computer and internet usage and daily Facebook use.

Expected Outcomes

The chi-square tests of independence were performed to examine the relationships between teachers` demographic characteristics and their educational and professional Facebook usage. Regarding their educational Facebook use, the findings indicated that gender, age group, the level of teaching experience, the amount of computer and internet use, and the amount of Facebook use of the teachers had significant relationship with some of the activities for which they used on Facebook. The school level of the teachers was found not to be associated with teachers` educational Facebook use. With respect to teachers` Facebook usage for professional development activities, the findings showed that age group, the level of teaching experience, the amount of internet use, and the amount of Facebook use of the teachers were significantly associated with some of the professional development activities for which teachers used Facebook. However, gender, school level, and the amount of computer use did not have any relationship with teachers` professional development activities on Facebook. In particular, the school level of the teachers did not have significant relationship with teachers` Facebook usage for both educational and professional developmental purposes. In conclusion, this study investigated the relationship between teachers` demographic characteristics and their Facebook usage for education and professional development. The results indicated that teachers who are female, younger, novice, moderate computer and internet user, and heavy Facebook user are quite likely to use Facebook for educational activities. Moreover, the results showed that teachers who are younger, novice, moderate internet user, and heavy Facebook user are more likely to use Facebook for professional development activities. Based on these findings, policies, professional development programs, and guidelines could be updated to encourage teachers for effective Facebook usage.

References

Asterhan, C., Rosenberg, H., Schwarz, B., & Solomon, L. (2013). Secondary School Teacher–Student Communication in Facebook: Potential and Pitfalls. Paper presented at the The Chais Conference on Instructional Technology Research 2013: Learning in the Technological Era, Raanana. Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x Facebook. (2014). Company Info | Facebook Newsroom. Retrieved December 27, 2014, from http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/ MMSEducation. (2012). 2012 Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking, Online Communities, and Web 2.0 Tools Retrieved from http://www.edweb.net/fimages/op/reports/Educators-and-Social-Media-2012-web.pdf Pempek, T. A., Yermolayeva, Y. A., & Calvert, S. L. (2009). College students' social networking experiences on Facebook. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(3), 227-238. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2008.12.010 Ranieri, M., Manca, S., & Fini, A. (2012). Why (and how) do teachers engage in social networks? An exploratory study of professional use of Facebook and its implications for lifelong learning. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(5), 754-769. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2012.01356.x Ross, C., Orr, E. S., Sisic, M., Arseneault, J. M., Simmering, M. G., & Orr, R. R. (2009). Personality and motivations associated with Facebook use. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(2), 578-586. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.12.024 Rutherford, C. (2010). Facebook as a Source of Informal Teacher Professional Development. in education, 16(1), 60-74. Staudt, D., Clair, N. S. T., & Martinez, E. E. (2013). Using Facebook to Support Novice Teachers. The New Educator, 9(2), 152–163. Sumuer, E., Esfer, S., & Yildirim, S. (2014). Teachers’ Facebook use: their use habits, intensity, self-disclosure, privacy settings, and activities on Facebook. Educational Studies, 40(5), 537-553. doi: 10.1080/03055698.2014.952713 Wang, Q., Woo, H. L., Quek, C. L., Yang, Y., & Liu, M. (2012). Using the Facebook group as a learning management system: An exploratory study. British Journal of Educational Technology, 43(3), 428-438. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01195.x

Author Information

Emre Yılmaz (submitting)

Middle East Technical University

Computer Education and Instructional Technology

Ankara

Evren Şumuer (presenting)

Kocaeli University, Turkey

Soner Yıldırım

Middle East Technical University, Turkey

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