USING SOCIAL MEDIA VIA MOBILE DEVICES IN CLASSROOMS A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science In Computer Science By Fariba Fatemeh Derakhshan 2017 SIGNATURE PAGE THESIS: USING SOCIAL MEDIA VIA MOBILE DEVICES IN THE CLASSROOM AUTHOR: Fariba Fatemeh Derakhshan DATE SUBMITTED: Fall 2017 Computer Science Department Dr. Yu Sun _______________________________ Thesis Committee Chair Assistant Professor of Computer Science Dr. Sampath Jayarathna ________________________________ Professor of Computer Science Dr. Tamer Omar _________________________________ Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering ii ABSTRACT Social media incredibly has been taken many areas including the higher education. In today's society, social media have become an essential part of daily life of communication methods of today's world, especially among university students, who are generally heavy social media users. However, with wide spread fears that use of social media via mobile devices and cell phones may be a distractor to pedagogy, this paper investigated how social media facilitates teaching and learning. However, little is known about how social media usage via cell phones would influence the academic performance of university students. This study examined using social media as teaching and learning tool via cell phones and mobile devices in classroom which may increase performance and the impact that has on the learning engagement among university students. Some researchers assert that the use of social media and smart phones is both the current and future classroom and can enhance student engagement in the classroom. In addition, the study aims to examine the effects of social media on student's learning motivation, mainly focus on Facebook. Facebook is a most useful teaching tool which students will happily engage with thus, the use of Facebook via mobile devices has the potential to be a significant teaching tool in classroom. This is because, the social networking sites like Facebook were the dominantly used types of social media, and largely accessed through mobile phones. Students’ insights of social media as supportive learning tools display recognition of the learning potential that the technologies offer, with the fact that students were already unofficially using social media to support their learning. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS SIGNATURE PAGE...........................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................iv List Of Tables....................................................................................................................vii Appendix A………………………………………………………………………...........v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................1 1.1 Background of Study..........................................................................................3 1.2 Statement of the Problem………………………...............................................4 1.3 Purpose of the Study...........................................................................................5 1.4 Significance of Study.........................................................................................5 1.5 Limitations of Study..........................................................................................6 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE.......................................................................7 2.1 Definition of Social Media ................................................................................7 2.2 Different types of Social Media……………………………………………….8 2.3 The Use of Social Media Classrooms...............................................................21 2.4 The Use of Mobile Devices in Classrooms.......................................................22 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY....................................................................................23 3.1 Research Questions………………..................................................................24 3.2 Methodology………………………………....................................................25 3.3 Data collection.................................................................................................25 v 3.4 Survey responses…………………………………………………………….26 3.5 Data Analysis- Results……………………………………………………….32 3.6 Descriptive Statistics…………………………………………………………32 3.7 Discussion - Summary of the study………………………………………….35 3.8 Results and Analysis…………………………………………………………36 3.9 Limitations and future research……………………………………………...38 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATION, CONCLUSION..................................................40 4.1 Recommendation.............................................................................................40 4.2 Conclusion.......................................................................................................42 REFERENCES..................................................................................................................44 APPENDIX A: Definitions Of Terms…………………………………………………...49 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. THE DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE AND DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS...........27 Table 2. SURVEY FROM STUDENTS FOLLOWED CLASSROOM FACEBOOK ....31 Table 3. FACEBOOK EDUCATIONAL USAGE …………….………………..............33 vii APPENDIX A Appendix A. DEFINITION OF TERMS………………………………………………49 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Today’s technology increases learning and takes over the traditional methods in variety of different areas. Technologies play an incredible rule in advancement of learning procedures. Social media are technologies that have been extensively taken in students’ daily lives. Thus, it has resulted in growing research interest in the potential supportive role that social media can offer in learning and teaching contexts in the classrooms (Tandoc, Ferrucci, & Duffy, 2015). There has been a lot of research in the area of technology in education in general and social media in particular, has concentrated globally. Because social media has become the most popular and advance method of communication (Morriss- Kay, 2009). Specifically, among students and assists them in various types of communication and collaborative learning. In the recent years information communication technology is dominated by social media. Similarly, deliberations on the adoption of technology in education are also increasingly paying attention to social media, and have been identified its potential to support learning and achieving educational goals. The revolution in information communication technology and the ideas behind it ushered in a new era characterized by the intensive use of computing technologies (Brenner, 2013; Matney & Borland, 2009). Developments in the field of information communication technologies gathered pace in the last quarter of the 21th century, with various visionaries and researchers predicting the subsequent widespread use of information technologies. Students primarily conceive social media as a platform for social interaction and communication. Furthermore, student use social networking sites as types of social 1 media, particularly Facebook, and mobile phones as the most common devices they use to access social media. With respect to their perceptions of the role of social media in learning, the findings show that students could not only identify the learning affordances of social media but that they were also already informally taking advantages of those affordances (Brenner, 2013; Matney & Borland, 2009). Thus, social media to support networked learning show that the nature and practices of social media tools such as dialogue, user-generated content, sharing and interconnectedness, render them compatible with networked learning. It is anticipated that pedagogical interventions may help students to realize the learning affordances offered by social media, in light of their predominant socially oriented conceptions of these technologies. In this research studies, it is indicated that Facebook will be an alternative for communication of students. It is also highlighted that as smartphone ownership is high (87%), students are digital natives and have access to Wi-Fi, it is easy to communicate via Facebook. Along the same lines, Facebook can also be used as a communication medium for consulting students after school hours. They can open conversation groups for their modules or related homework/ projects. By this approach, students will become able to communicate both with classmates and teachers. A fast and effective communication method will also enable after class help when it is required. This shows that, there is an opportunity for Facebook to be employed as supporting learning environment (Tandoc, Ferrucci, & Duffy, 2015). People use Facebook as a communication tool as instant communication is very important in today's world. As mobile device (smartphone, tablets, wearable etc.) ownership increases, it is becoming easier for people to share information via social net-works, and this may affect their 2 popularity online. Moreover, students are following news and get opinions about current trends. Students reflect their mood using social networks which can be understood from their updates. In this way, they frequently