Using Social Media Via Mobile Devices in Classrooms

Home , Badoo, Meetup, Nextdoor, Plurk, Solaborate, Tinder (app)

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

Computer Science

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

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.

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

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 update their information and are able to follow what is popular and act accordingly.

1.1 Background of the Study

st According to many research studies it has proved that today's the 21 century students are not the same from past (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Today’s students have great knowledge in technology using of social media, mobile learning, social networking, and computer technology (Boyd, 2008). Today’s students constantly use blogs, e-mails,

Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, text-messaging and many other form of social networking

(Lenhart, 2012). Mobile devices are built in a way that can be handheld computer choices.

Even though there are many educators who practice social networking in their classrooms, others believe as disruptive (Prensky M., 2001) and not an effective way of teaching in the classroom. However, research studies constantly agree that social media and mobile devices a great method for teaching that facilitate learning, and unfortunately lacking from today’s classrooms (Junco, R., Merson, D., & Salter, D. W., 2010).

Further studies show that forbidding social media and mobile would result in lack of learning with the opportunity of connecting to the worldwide resources as well as networking with others (Lee, E., Ahn, J., & Kim, Y. J., 2014). However, in 21th century the traditional method of teaching in the classroom does not enhance students learning and overall achievement (Nadkarni, A., & Hofmann, S. G. 2012). As a result, students

3 may stay behind with today’s technology. Based on research studies use of social media via mobile devices can increase students’ motivation in classroom’s learning. Thus, use of technology in the classrooms must be considered as part of education (Marshall, T. C.,

Lefringhausen, K., & Ferenczi, N., 2015).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Classroom’s teaching method need to change while technologies advancing

(Greenhow, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009). Social media networking such as Facebook,

Blogs, Instagram and Twitter, as well as mobile technologies are not only for entertainment use. They are all part of our today’s society (Green & Hannon, 2007). Use of social media via mobile devices are missing from today’s classroom teaching as a powerful teaching and learning tool (Fahser-Herro & Steinkuehler, 2009-2010).

The absence of using technology via mobile devices in the classrooms’ teaching has harmful effect on today’s digital’s students, and they cannot be prepared for the real world after finishing their schools (Austin, 2006). However, educators need to be professional in implementing the use of social media via mobile devices in their classrooms teaching (Green & Hannon, 2007).

Educators need to change their traditional method of teaching and reflect the use of social media via mobile devices as part of their curriculum (Attewell & Savill-Smith,

2005). Fortunately, since students are using social media via mobile devices outside of the classrooms, they already know how to use those (Fahser-Herro & Steinkueler, 2009-

2010). In fact, teachers may be the ones who need to catch up with the technologies using social media via mobile devices in the classrooms (Richtell & Stone, 2009).

4 According to the research, the increased use in social media has sparked research interest in the phenomenon. Moreover, they argue that motivations and manners of social media use differ from one culture to another due to the fact that technology-mediated communication cannot play an important role in education. In a review of published research studies focusing on the use of Facebook by students and teachers, confirms that social media can be utilized as an effective tool in teaching and learning.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the research was to investigate student teachers’ relationships with use of social media via cell phone or mobile technology and how they identify the potential of adopting social media to support their learning. The study also investigates the research question whether the use of social media networking via the use of mobile devices enhance teaching and learning in the classrooms. Further, the research examines the use and implementation of social media networking through mobile devices in a higher education by educators in their classrooms.

1.4 Significance of the Study

Today social media networking is considered virtual communication and networking. Historically changes in technology and mobile devices have provided a significant ease of interacting with each other (Boyd, 2008). The change of technology has further provided us access to tremendous resources from all over the world (Tandoc,

Ferrucci, & Duffy, 2015). Thus, eliminating the use of technologies in the form of useful social media networking via mobile devices from the classroom teaching will impact

5 future generation (Jordan, 2008).

Hence the study is incredibly significant as the research findings show that use of social media via mobile devices has great impact in the classrooms teaching. Based on study social media networking is a step toward future in the classroom teaching.

Replacing the traditional teaching with social media networking not only has a great impact on students it is a fabulous educational and instructional tool for educators (Dunn,

2011).

1.5 Limitations of Study

The limitation of this study was that the group dissection and interview was provided among students in a higher education at one university only. It also was limited to a small group of participants. Due to time and financial constraints, there was only one semester and one college in which to conduct the research. Future researchers should consider using multiple semesters and different colleges to increase the sample size. In addition, due to ease of access to the students, only one type of class was selected for the study.

Further research should be done to determine if other class subjects could also benefit to the same degree as the class that was done for this study in using the Facebook page. This would involve creating several different Facebook pages for the different disciplines and may be time-consuming for the researchers and the instructors of the class. The final limitation of the study is that only Facebook was used to determine the effectiveness of a social network on education.

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The use of social media and cell phones continue to be considered as disturbance in the classrooms, although, the implementation of social media networking through the mobile cell phones student learnings. Educators have to realize that social media and cell phones are part of today’s life. Hence, by not accepting to use social media and cellphones in the classroom teaching as a student cannot benefit from today’s digital world (Green, 2007).

2.1 Definition of Social Media

According to the researcher social media can be explained as a combined and share of online communications, collaboration and interaction with people (Eftekhar,

Fullwood, & Morris, 2014). It refers to websites and applications dedicated to forums,microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation, and wiki s are among the different types of social media (Roblyer et al., 2010 ) Here are several popular social media examples blogs, microblogging (Twitter), content communities (YouTube), social networking sites (Facebook), and “Real-life sharing rethought for the web.” (Google+) (YouTube, 2015; Instagram, 2015).

According to the research studies educators need to use social media via smarts phones in the classrooms teaching and learning (Sachoff, 2009; Wu & Lo, 2014).

However, if social media become part of the school curriculums, teachers need to develop their setting professionally (Grosseck & Holotescu, 2011). Teachers and students

7 familiarity with the social media being used is another important concept that needs to be

st considered. However, today's millennial generation the 21 century students are different from the past (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Lenhart, Ling, Campbell & Purmobile, 2010).

Today’s students have been grown up with all types of technology so they are called as digital generation.

Thus, they are technologically knowledgeable with the use of social media, mobile learning, social networking, Instagram’s, and many more. However, in order to implement use of social media in the classroom it is important to select one that is popular and appealing. However, appropriate statistics upon different kind of social media based on their popularity needs to be investigated. According to the 2016 statistics social networks are constantly evolving. Globally, more than 2.8 billion people 37% of the world's population use social media.

2.2 Different types of Social Media

There are variety of social media, however, the way the users interact with each other, and the platforms they adopt, vary widely and they are categorized based on different purposes.

Social media categorizations seem to be guided by utility; where different forms, provide different functionality and capabilities to both the creator and the audience. The research process brought to light several interesting perspectives toward social media classifications. According to the Digital Information World, the Global Social Media

Statistics for 2017 has stated the following breakdown:

“General Purpose Social Networks:

Facebook continues to be the number one social network in the world. It reportedly

has more than 2 billion active monthly users as of June 2017.

WhatsApp is an instant-messaging social network that works primarily on

smartphones. It is now part of Facebook and has over 1 billion users as of 2016.

Messenger (New) is also an instant-messaging social network that is part of

Facebook. It has roughly 1.2 billion users as of April 2017.

LinkedIn is a social network used by professionals and is now owned by

Microsoft. The network has more than 500 million users as of April 2017.

Google+ is Google’s social network that is reported to have more than 100 million

active users. This social network is tightly integrated with all the other Google

services, such as email and calendar.

Twitter has approximately 320 million users, who can post tweets that are limited

to 140 characters.

Instagram is a photo and video sharing social network that is part of Facebook. It

has roughly 375 million active users.

Pinterest is a social network that allows photos and videos to be shared from other

sites. Pinterest has more than 175 million active users.

Snapchat is a multimedia messaging network with over 150 million daily users that

has gained widespread popularity because of its innovative image filters.

Quora (New) is a question-and-answer social network where users can get answers

to their posted questions. The site has close to 200 million active users.

9 GirlsAskGuys is a question-and-answer social network where members of the opposite gender can ask each other questions.

Nextdoor is a social network that connects neighbors by sharing upcoming events and other neighborhood activities. Over 150,000 neighborhoods in the U.S. use

Nextdoor.

ProductHunt is a social network that helps share new products and prioritizes them based on votes given by members.

AngelList is a social network used by investors and startups. The site has thousands of investors signed up as members.

Kickstarter is a social funding platform where people can pitch their products or product ideas to get funding. The site has had almost 10 million backers.

WeChat is a mobile-messaging social network with almost 1 billion monthly active users who are primarily from China. But WeChat also offers an English, international version. It has rich functionality from chatting to shopping with users even buying homes on the app.

Skype is an instant messaging platform that enables communication using text, voice, and video. It has over 300 million active monthly users and is now part of

Microsoft.

Viber is also a communication social network like Skype that allows text, voice, and video messaging. It has over 800 million users

Tumblr is a blogging network with over 350 million blogs and over 500 million users. The social network supports both web and mobile.

10 Line is an instant messaging social network that is popular in Japan but also supports English and other languages. It has over 600 million users worldwide.

Gab is an ad-free social network that allows its users to read and write messages of up to 300 characters, called “gabs.” It has roughly 200,000 users.

VK is like Facebook but more popular in Russia and neighboring countries with over 400 million users.

Reddit is a content sharing social network with over 500 million monthly visits.

Text posts or direct links can be shared on the site and voted by members to determine popularity.

Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging service that has over 100 million active monthly users.

Tagged is a social network for making new friends. The site has about 20 million unique visitors globally.

Myspace is a social network that is focused around an individual’s profile and is more popular with musicians and bands. It once was a top social network in the

U.S., but now only has a few million users.

Badoo is one of the world’s most widely used dating networks. It has over 360 million registered users.

Stumbleupon focuses on content discovery for its users. It is offered as a browser toolbar in all popular browsers.

Foursquare provides personalized recommendations based on a user’s location and previous purchases. The service has tens of millions of users and is growing rapidly in the enterprise space.

11 MeetMe focuses on helping users discover new people to chat with on mobile

devices. It has over 2.5 million daily active users.

Meetup is a social network that facilitates a group of people to meet in person

around a specific topic or theme. It has roughly 32 million users.

Skyrock is primarily a French social network that offers blogging capabilities to its

members. It has a few million members.

Pinboard is a paid social network that allows sharing of bookmarks. The users can

benefit from an ad-free experience on this site.

Kiwibox is a social network for young adults that offers blogging, photos, and

gaming features. It has about 3 million members.

Twoo is a social discovery platform that allows its 181 million members to create

profiles, upload pictures, and chat with other users.

Yelp is a restaurant review and home services site that has social features to share

photos, write reviews, and see activities of friends.

Photo Sharing Networks:

Snapfish is a photo sharing social network where the members can benefit from

unlimited storage space for their photos. The site has tens of millions of members.

Flickr is a photo and video sharing social network that supports tens of millions of

members and over 10 billion photos.

Photobucket is a photo and video hosting site that has over ten billion photos and

over 100 million members.

12 Shutterfly is a photo sharing site that allows its 2 million members to use the photos to create personalized gifts, such as mugs and t-shirts.

500px is a Canadian photo sharing social network with over 1.5 million active members.

DeviantArt is an art-sharing network with over 38 million registered members.

Dronestagram is focused around sharing photos that have been taken using drones. It claims to be “the Instagram for drone photography,” with more than

30,000 members.

Fotki is available in 240 countries. It has more than 1.6 million members and 1 billion photos. The site was started in Estonia.

Fotolog is a photo-blogging site with over 20 million unique visitors.

Imgur is a photo-sharing site where members can vote (and rank) photos. The site has hundreds of millions of images.

Pixabay shares high quality photos from its members. The site has over 1.1 million images and videos.

WeHeartIt is a social network for sharing inspiring images. The site has over 45 million members.

43Things is a site for inspiration, advice, and support where members can set goals and share with their friends the goals that they are pursuing, such as losing weight or running a marathon.

Path is a photo sharing and messaging network that has rich features for controlling privacy of the shared photos. It is popular in Indonesia.

13 Uplike (New) is a photo-sharing service based in France that lets users share

inspirations with the public. The app is currently used by millions of people in

roughly 160 countries.

Lifestyle Networks:

Last.fm is a music discovery and recommendation network that also shares what

friends on the network are listening to. The site has tens of millions of users and

over 12 million music tracks.

VampireFreaks is a community for gothic-industrial subcultures that has millions

of members. The site is also used for dating.

CafeMom is a site for mothers and mothers-to-be. It has over 8 million monthly

unique visits.

Ravelry is a social network for knitting, crocheting, spinning, and weaving. The

site has over 7 million registered users.

ASmallWorld is a paid social network that can only be joined based on an

invitation by a member. The site focuses on luxury travel and building social

connections, Its membership is capped at 250,000.

ReverbNation is a social network for musicians to help them manage their careers

and find new opportunities. The site has about 4 million musicians as members.

SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform that enables its users to

upload, record, promote, and share their originally created sounds. The service has

more than 150 million unique listeners every month.

Cross.tv is a social network that shares Christian content to its 650,000 members.

14 Flixster is a site for discovering new movies, learning about movies, and meeting others with similar tastes in movies.

Gaia Online is an anime-theme social network and forums-based website. It has over 25 million registered users.

BlackPlanet is a social network for African Americans that focuses on dating, showcasing talent, and chatting and blogging. The site has around 20 million members.

MyMFB is a social network for connecting Muslims across 175 countries. The site currently has roughly 500,000 members.

Care2 is a social network that connects activists from around the world to primarily discuss political and environmental issues. The site has about 40 million users.

CaringBridge is a social network for people facing various medical conditions, hospitalization, medical treatment, and recovery from a significant accident, illness, injury, or procedure.

GoFundMe is a fundraising network that can be used to raise money for most any cause.

Tinder is a location-based dating mobile app that is used by over 50 million users.

Crokes is a community or social network for authors. It is similar to Twitter, but limits posts to 300 characters.

Goodreads is a social network for book lovers, who can recommend books and see what their friends are reading, among other features. The site is owned by

Amazon and has tens of millions of members.

15 Internations is a social network that connects expats across 390 cities worldwide.

It has almost 3 million users.

PlentyofFish is a dating social network that is free to use but also offers some premium services. It has over 100 million registered members.

Minds is a social network that allows its users to create channels on a variety of topics and also rewards users for their online activity. It promotes freedom and privacy on the Internet and has over 2 million members.

Nexopia is a Canadian social network that allows its members to create forums on any topic and have discussions within those forums. The site has over 1 million users.

Glocals is a social network created in Switzerland for the expatriate community. It allows the members to meet, organize activities, and share information.

Academia.edu is a social networking website for academics. The platform can be used to share papers, monitor their impact, and follow the research in a particular field. The site has over 55 million users.

Busuu is a language-learning social network. The site connects learners to speakers of the native language to make the learning process easier.

English, baby! is a social network and online curriculum for learning conversational English and slang. The service is used by more than 1.6 million members.

Italki.com makes connections between language learners and language teachers to help learning new languages. The site has more than 1 million students.

16 Untappd is a mobile social network that allows it members to rate the beer they are

consuming, earn badges, share pictures of their beers, review tap lists from nearby

venues, and see what beers their friends are drinking. The site has roughly 3 million

members.

Doximity is a social network for U.S. clinicians. It has over 800,000 members.

Travel Networks:

Wayn is a travel network that connects like-minded people and also helps them

discover where to go. The site has over 20 million users.

CouchSurfing provides a platform for members to stay as a guest at someone’s

home, host travelers, meet other members, or join an event. The site has roughly 15

million members.

TravBuddy specializes in finding a travel companion. The site has about half a

million members.

Tournac is a social network for travelers that connects people traveling to the same

location.

Gaming Networks:

Cellufun is a gaming community with over 2 million members that can be accessed

using any mobile device.

MocoSpace is social gaming site with over 2 million users and over 1 billion

monthly page views.

17 Zynga offers multiple games that are played by millions of daily users. Popular

titles are Farmville, Draw Something, and Zynga Poker.

Habbo is a social gaming company for teenagers. It has more than 5 million unique

monthly visitors. The network operates nine sites for users in different countries.

Video Networks:

YouTube is the world’s leading video sharing network that enables its users to

upload, view, and share videos. It serves billions of videos daily.

FunnyOrDie is a comedy video network that allows users to upload, share, and rate

videos. The videos often feature celebrities. The network has hundreds of millions

of viewers.

Tout is a video network that helps businesses grow online video revenue and drive

deeper engagement with viewers. It has 85 million unique monthly viewers.

Vine gained popularity as a video sharing network for 6-second videos. It is now

part of Twitter.

Reunion Networks:

Classmates connects people with their high school friends in the U.S. and also

allows for the uploading of high school yearbooks. Members can also plan their

high school reunions.

MyHeritage is an online genealogy network that enables users to create family

trees, upload and browse photos, and search billions of global historical records.

The site has 80 million users worldwide.

18 23andMe is a DNA analysis company that connects its customers with their

relatives based on a DNA analysis. It also identifies if the person is likely to have

any health-related issues based on DNA analysis.

Ancestry.com is in the business of finding your ancestors — i.e., building

genealogy networks. The site has roughly 2 million paying members.

Business Networks:

Viadeo is a social network for business owners, entrepreneurs, and managers —

mostly in Europe. It has about 50 million members.

Ryze links business professionals, mainly new entrepreneurs. The site has about 1

million members.

Xing is a career-oriented social network that is used by consumers and businesses.

Xing supports closed groups to enable a private and secure network within an

enterprise.

Sprybirds is a social and business networking site where people can make business

friendships.

Solaborate is a social network and collaboration platform dedicated to technology

professionals, to connect, collaborate, discover opportunities, and create an

ecosystem around products and services.

eToro is a social trading platform that enables investors to view, follow, and copy

the network’s top traders automatically. It has over 2.5 million members.

19 Blogging Related:

Xanga hosts weblogs, photoblogs, and social networking profiles.

Plurk is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to

send updates through short messages or links, which can be up to 360 text

characters.

LiveJournal allows its users to maintain a blog, journal, or diary. It has over 10

million unique visitors monthly in the US

(Global Web Index, 2017). “

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 (Pearse, 2012; Marshall et al., 2015). People use Facebook as a communication tools 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 networks, and this may affect their 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

20 their updates. In this way, they frequently update their information and are able to follow what is popular and act accordingly (Turban, King, & Lang, 2012).

Furthermore, it is mentioned that students with high Facebook engagement show more participation in university activities, which can be a preparation step for their bachelor studies. On the other hand, use of Facebook for educational purposes can increase student concentration.

Nevertheless, it appears that Facebook and other social networks (YouTube,

Instagram) are highly used among students and there is chance that these platforms can be used as a supporting learning environment. It is also mentioned that the highest use of

Facebook is between 18 and 29 years old. In addition, as there is high use of WhatsApp and Viber within students, there is an opportunity to carry out a study on the effect of these communication tool constructed a new method where sentiment analysis of students was undertaken (Mollenhorst, Volker, & Flap, 2014).

2.3 The use of Social Media in Classrooms

When social media combined with educational practices, it can deliver new and thrilling opportunities. There are many educators and teachers who have a great interest in using social media in their classrooms teaching as a tool (Marwick, 2008). This is because social media can enhance and motivation amongst students. According to the research study it was found that there are many teachers who strongly oppose using social media as a tool in their teaching method. However, opposing social media from classroom curriculum disconnect the students from the technology of the real world at the present time (Wu et al. 2015).

21 Further, teachers who believed that use of social media allowed students

‘engagement and collaboration in the classrooms. Based on the research it was reported

that the use of social media as a means of technology tool do not cause any distraction.

Social media motivates students and enable them to interact in real world not an artificial

one. Hence, the combination of academic with social networking opens the opportunity

for today’s digital citizenship (D'Onfro, 2015; Statista, 2015).

2.4 The use of Mobile Devices in Classrooms

In the most developing countries the mobile network is more recognized than the internet

network. Mobile service costs also have significantly reduced. On the other word owning

a mobile phone is similar to other basic needs in daily life. As the telecommunication

companies constantly upgraded the technology for the mobile services which can provide

individuals with great services with a low cost. Therefore, use of mobile phone is a better

option to the computer because of factors such as low cost and Portability.

However, many educators believe that use of cell phones in the classrooms as a means of mobile learning creates distraction. However, using smart phone as an educational tool can enhance learnings and enables students to have access to global

resources (Lenhart et al., 2010).

Thus, it is time to convert from traditional teaching methods to digital and

integrate technology into the classrooms to enhance both teaching and students’ learning

(Nilson, 2010). Because use of social media via cellphones enhances greatly teaching and

students’ learning.

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This study was used to try another pedagogical tool instead of LMS in an attempt to enhance teaching and students ‘learning. According to the statistics it is indicated among all the social media sites, Facebook continues to be at the top and being the most popular having two billion of users globally (Facebook, 2017). Hence, it was decided to introduce the social media network such as Facebook as a teaching tool. Many students are already very familiar with Facebook, both its usage and application (Grosseck &

Holotescu, 2011).

The goal is to use Facebook page instead of the traditional Blackboard learning management system (LMS). Obviously, the main advantage of having Facebook over other LMS is the ability to keep students from prior years as part of the group.

However, traditional Blackboard learning management LMS all students are deleted at the end of each semester. The current students have no opportunity to communicate with students who already completed the class before in order to share experiences feedback and many resources of knowledge. According to the research studies teacher use of Facebook is received to have a positive effect on students but other research studies indicated that the use of social media via smart phones in the classroom is distracting (Mazer et al., 2007). Likewise, there are a variety of studies that have been carried out to demonstrate there is a relationship between Facebook use and individual characteristics ranging from agreeableness to esteem level (Lee, Moore, Park, & Park,

2012; Winter et al., 2014).

According to the research studies at the University of Western Sidney it was decide by the researchers to use social media network Facebook via mobile devices in the classroom. Facebook was used alongside with the traditional LMS. After the original set up and the usage of the site on two consecutive semesters, it was reported that students were highly motivated and found it very beneficial. After the analysis of a students’ survey majority responded that use of Facebook via cell phone or any other mobile technology provides motivation and engagement to the classroom teaching and learning.

3.1 Research Questions

This research study is to address the fowling questions:

1. Will students engage with Facebook when it is used as a teaching/learning tool?

2. How does Facebook influence students’ motivation in learning?

The Facebook site was used during a quarter with students who registered in the same class at Cal Poly Pomona. Thus, the Facebook was set with alongside the Blackboard learning management system (LMS). The incredible of using Facebook instead of LMS is enabling students from past years and present who can benefit from each other experiences. This is because when using LMS the students from the past are not able to remain in the blackboard and they get deleted after the end of each quarter.

Thus, the students cannot have the opportunity of sharing their experiences and provide feedback.

24 3.2 Methodology

Facebook page creation. This study examines students’ opinions on the use of

Facebook for teaching and learning purposes; monitor the use of Facebook by students in a module context; and explore students’ views more deeply on the use of Facebook in this context and more generally for teaching and learning purposes. A Facebook page was created for the software engineer classes at Cal Poly Pomona University. The class

Facebook page was a good extension that was created as a ‘business’ account, so students could only ‘like’ the page, instead of ‘friending’ the instructor. ‘Liking’ is an option on

Facebook that lets students to follow a page, and makes all the interactions between the student and the administrator of the page to be publically viewable on the page’s wall.

Another advantage in creating a ‘business’ page, the instructor is not able to see any things the students posted on their own personal page. It only shows the student’s name and profile picture.

The class Facebook page was updated by the instructor with different subject, of the course, such as homework assignments, lab assignments, lecture summary, homework, project due dates, class discussion, and examples of sample students work from prior semester. Students were invited to comment on posts, see their classmates’ work, and keep updated on class and school information. The class was not run any differently than it had in the past, with the only exception being the Facebook page that was updated on a regular basis by the instructor.

3.3 Data collection

A survey was done through questionnaire which was divided mainly into two

25 main sections. The purpose of the survey was to gather data on current use of Facebook and students’ intentions and interest in using Facebook for teaching and learning purposes. Students were given their respective surveys to complete in order to check student satisfaction with the class

About seventy students joined in the study. The data contained of 50 males and 20 females. The student ages between 19 to 24. The frequency of Facebook usage consisted of students spending less than 1hr, 1-2 hrs, 2-3 hrs and 3-4 hrs respectively. There were only 9.9%, 9.5% of students spending 4-5 hrs and 5-6 hrs respectively. However, there was 18.3% of students spending more than 6 hrs on Facebook.

3.4 Survey responses

Results of the student’ survey were analyzed after the survey’s implementation. It was determined that all 70 responses were valid based on the fact that students answered all questions and had participated in the class for the entire semester. Student responses to the survey were summarized and are displayed in Table 1.

Among the 70 respondents, 50 (70.8%) of them were male whereas 20 (29.2%) were female. There were 21 (77.1%) students with age ranged from 18 - 21 whereas the rest of 50 (22.9%) students were mature students. In terms of Facebook usage, there were

14.8%, 17.6%, 13.7%, 16.2% of students spending less than 1hr, 1-2 hrs, 2-3 hrs and 3-4 hrs respectively. There were only 9.9%, 9.5% of students spending 4-5 hrs and 5-6 hrs respectively. However, there was 18.3% of students spending more than 6 hrs on

Facebook.

26 Table 1: The demographic profile and descriptive statistics of the respondents

Measure and items Frequency Percentage (%)

Gender

Male 50 70.8

Female 20 29.2

Age

18 - 21 21 77.1

22 - 25 50 18.0

26 - 29 1 3.5

30 - 33 1 1.0

Facebook usage

Less than 1 hr 42 14.8

1 - 2 hrs 50 17.6

2 - 3 hrs 39 13.7

3 - 4 hrs 46 16.2

4 - 5 hrs 28 9.9

5 - 6 hrs 27 9.5

More than 6 hrs 52 18.3

27 The second part of the survey concentrated on the educational part of Facebook

usages. In the second phase of the survey total of 14 questions are asked to students. Ten out of 14 of the questioners are based on Facebook educational usage as a tool for teaching and learning purposes. Questions which are asked based on classroom contents

and coordination among students and teachers. These questions are such as:

• The use of Facebook improves communication between classmates?

• The use of Facebook improves communication between teacher and the students?

• The use of Facebook improves classroom discussion?

• The use of Facebook improves the delivery of course content and resources?

• The use of Facebook improves the communication of announcements about

courses, classes or school?

• The use of Facebook encourages the creation of academic groups (communities)

of the people with the same interests and needs?

• Facebook is an appropriate platform to exchange course related information?

• The use of Facebook improves student group work?

• Facebook provides the resources to share a wide variety of resources and learning

materials?

• Facebook provides rich multimedia resources and media support to improve the

educational experience?

3.5 Data Analysis- Results

Second phase of survey focus on how Facebook benefits influencing student

motivation in learning. The 4 questions are:

1. The interaction benefit in Facebook should positively influence student

motivation in learning?

2. The communication benefit in Facebook should positively influence student

motivation in learning?

3. The social relationship benefit in Facebook should positively influence student

motivation in learning?

4. The participation benefit in Facebook should positively influence student

motivation in learning?

The following Facebook benefits, influencing student motivation in learning:

• Interaction benefits • Communication benefit • Social relationship benefit • Participation benefit

There many researchers who have recognized significant variables dealing with

Facebook. Thus, this study examines 4 important benefits: (1) interaction, (2)

Communication, (3) Social relationship, (4) Participation. Online social networking is different from traditional classroom settings. Teachers become the organizers and

mediators between students and resources (Bower, 2001). A reliable online platform can

facilitate the communication and interaction between teacher and student and also allow

student to download learning materials and submit assignments.

These assumptions of benefits of Facebook usage and Facebook educational

usage were tested and analyzed. Table 2 shows the results confirmed the validity based

on the factors discussed before. Further analysis revealed that, according to students,

29 collaboration through academic groups (communities) represents the most important value of Facebook implementation in academic activities.

30 Table 2: Students’ Survey

Survey from students followed Facebook Using the scale below, please respond to the survey items by circling your level of satisfaction: 1 = strongly disagree / 2 = disagree / 3 = undecided / 4 = agree /5 = strongly agree Students Followed Facebook page 1 2 3 4 5

1. The use of Facebook improves 4 4 7 10 45 communication between classmates 2. The use of Facebook improves 2 1 5 25 37 communication between teacher and the students 3. The use of Facebook improves classroom discussion 4 2 9 30 25 4. The use of Facebook improves the delivery 1 9 5 40 15 of the course contents and resources 5. The use of Facebook improves the communication 7 3 4 44 12 of announcements about courses, classes or school 6. The use of Facebook encourages the creation of 8 8 3 35 16 academic groups (communities) of the people with the same interests and needs 7. Facebook is an appropriate platform to exchange 2 2 5 40 21 course related information 8. The use of Facebook improves student group work 5 6 3 42 14 9. Facebook provides the resources to share a wide 4 7 8 32 19 variety of resources and learning materials 10. Facebook provides rich multimedia resources and 2 1 4 35 28 media support to improve the educational experience 11. The interaction benefit in Facebook should positively 1 1 2 40 26 influence student motivation in learning 12. The communication benefit in Facebook should 5 2 2 30 31 positively influence student motivation in learning 13. The social relationship benefit in Facebook should 7 8 9 10 36 positively influence student motivation in learning 14. The participation benefit in Facebook should 1 5 10 20 34 positively influence student motivation in learning

31 3.6 Descriptive Statistics

Statistic shows that the majority of the students would like to see other teachers create a class Facebook page. The survey also showed the majority of the students who

‘liked’ the class Facebook page found it to be helpful and hope more teachers would adopt this classroom tool.

The fact that the vast majority of those who ‘liked’ the page wanted more teachers to create a Facebook page for their class should be evidence enough that there were positive aspects to the social network to validate more uses of it in education.

Of the seventy students who joined the Facebook and completed the survey were asked if they found Facebook useful and to give a reason why or why not. 68 of the 70 students that joined Facebook stated that they found it useful and gave the following reasons displayed in Table 3:

32 Table 3: Facebook Educational Usage Students’ Responds

1. Able to ask for help from people and see a reply usually straight away and doesn't just have to be the help of the tutor.

2. Access to it whilst on Facebook as I am on Facebook a lot

3. Doing the work at home

4. Flexibility in terms of managing time, freedom of expression, many varied views which leads to growth, very positive feedback from fellow students and Marion (increases confidence).

5. Allowed for students to get together in a semi-formal setting and ask questions and discuss answers.

6. Encouraged students to communicate to each other through other means of Facebook and develop friendships. - allowed me to ask questions, see other questions that students were asking - allowed me to communicate my thoughts and get feedback.

7. Allowed me to express my opinions and complete work in my own time and at leisure

8. I tend to find myself with Facebook open most of the time so I always saw what people were saying, it helped mostly during the times of assignments as everyone helped each other to answer questions, it was a brilliant idea!

9. Gave a good opportunity for working together and having help on hand whenever it was needed.

10. Other students offered their opinion which gives you a wider understanding of topics from another point of view

11. People were commenting on things I didn't know

12. Current and previous students were able to share ideas and help each other

13. Sometimes another student would ask a question, it may be something that I wanted to know.

14. To be able to see how other students are progressing and daily updates I was able to see that if I was struggling with something that I was not the only one and everyone was able to help one another out.

-The 2 students who said that Facebook was not useful tool because they see Facebook as an entertaining site so it would be distraction and hard to concentrate.

The results of content analysis found that Facebook was useful in the following ways:

• Answer questions: Students used the Facebook site to ask all variety of questions.

Having a group of students from past and presents answering questions showed to

be of huge impact as it reduced on the load of the instructors.

• Sharing relevant links: Both students and instructors were able to share related

links in regard to different topics related to their classroom subjects. This resulted

that students were able to freely express their opinions on other general matters

hence developing a greater awareness and interest on the subjects.

• Offering advice: Past and present students were able to offer advice relating to

academic, professional and personal issues. Students were able to share their

experiences with each other.

• Teaching advice from the field: Some of the past students were beginning

teachers and present students asked them questions about the state of the field.

These past students were able to provide a differing voice to university staff and

provide real life examples to share with students.

• Housekeeping: The major advantage of Facebook from the educators point view

was the general housekeeping issues that it was able to address. This included

reminders about class dates, face to face preparation, work requiring completion

or room changes. Although the normal LMS enabled announcements to be made

addressing these sorts of housekeeping issues when used in conjunction with

Facebook it grasped more student’s attentions in a faster time period.

34 • Feedback: Instructors were able to receive timely feedback about their lessons

from their students as students commented on what they did not understand.

However, the only issue about the Facebook is the setup and maintenance of the

information.

3.7 Discussion - Summary of the Study

The purpose of this study was to determine if Facebook could be used to keep

students in higher education colleges motivated, connected and informed about class

information and make students feel more of a sense of community with their classmates.

Based on the survey given students are learning more about their classmates and

instructor. Therefore, it can be deduced that the class Facebook page was a good success

in using in the classroom as a teaching and learning tool and educational purposes.

According to the survey statistics it was determined that Facebook can be considered as

Integrated model for student motivation of learning; it has Interaction benefit, meaning

that student can be motivated to learn throughout the benefit from improved interaction;

Communication benefit so in order to improve student learning motivation and facilitate student learning, the benefit from communication is very important; Social relationship benefit The benefit of participation has the strongest influence on student motivation in learning. Facebook, which are not bounded by space, location and time, allows students to access more flexibly.

In addition, according to the survey many students agreed with the benefits of using Facebook for educational usage as responds shown in the questionnaires that was asked to them. Below are the list of benefits from using a Facebook as a tool for

35 educational purposes:

• The use of Facebook improves communication between classmates;

• The use of Facebook improves communication between teacher and the students;

• The use of Facebook improves classroom discussion;

• The use of Facebook improves the delivery of course content and resources; The

use of Facebook improves the communication of announcements about courses,

classes or school;

• The use of Facebook encourages the creation of academic groups (communities)

of the people with the same interests and needs;

• Facebook is an appropriate platform to exchange course related information;

• The use of Facebook improves student group work;

• Facebook provides the resources to share a wide variety of resources and learning

materials;

• Facebook provides rich multimedia resources and media support to improve the

educational experience.

3.8 Results and Analysis

Facebook was useful in the following ways:

Using Facebook in classrooms has many benefits it can be used in a asynchronous and synchronous way. It also provides all the support to the multimodal content, images, photographs, video and URLs to other texts. Facebook as social media is type of a platform that is the most popular among over two billion of users.

36 Thus, many students are already familiar in using it. In addition, using Facebook in the classroom enables students to collaborate with other students. Further it will give the students opportunity to ask their professor questions that can result in a faster response and eliminate office hours’ crowd. Students can have their setting in the private mode that they started when they registered as the user of the Facebook. Facebook is one another means for students who have difficulty to bring up their questions in a face to face settings with their professors. Hence, the following are the benefits of using

Facebook in classrooms teaching and learning: Answer questions: Students used the

Facebook site to ask all variety of questions. Having a group of students from past and presents answering questions showed to be of huge impact as it reduced on the load of the instructors. The sort of questions posted included process or assignment questions.

Sharing relevant links: Both students and instructors were able to share related links in regard to different topics related to their classroom subjects. This resulted that students were able to freely express their opinions on other general matters hence developing a greater awareness and interest on the subjects.

Offering advice: Past and present students were able to offer advice relating to academic, professional and personal issues. Students were able to share their experiences with each other. Teaching advice from the field: Some of the past students were beginning teachers and present students asked them questions about the state of the field. These past students were able to provide a differing voice to university staff and provide real life examples to share with students. Housekeeping: The major advantage of Facebook from the educators point view was the general housekeeping issues that it was able to address.

This include reminders about class dates, face to face preparation, work requiring

37 completion or room changes. Although the normal LMS enabled announcements to be made addressing these sorts of housekeeping issues when used in conjunction with

Facebook it grasped more students’ attentions in a faster time period. Feedback:

Instructors were able to receive timely feedback about their lessons from their students as students commented on what they did not understand. However, the only thing about

Facebook is the setup and maintenance of the information. Integrated model for student motivation of learning; it has Interaction benefit, meaning that student can be motivated to learn throughout the benefit from improved interaction; Communication benefit so in order to improve student learning motivation and facilitate student learning, the benefit from communication is very important; Social relationship benefit the benefit of participation has the strongest influence on student motivation in learning. Facebook, which are not bounded by space, location and time, allows students to access more flexibly.

3.9 Limitations and future research

This study was not without limitations. Due to time and financial constraints, there was only one semester and one college in which to conduct the research. Future researchers should consider using multiple semesters and different colleges to increase the sample size. In addition, due to ease of access to the students, only one type of class was selected for the study.

Further research should be done to determine if other class subjects could also benefit to the same degree as the class that was done for this study in using the Facebook page. This would involve creating several different Facebook pages for the different disciplines and may be time-consuming for the researchers and the instructors of the 38 class. The final limitation of the study is that only Facebook was used to determine the effectiveness of a social network on education.

39 CHAPTER 4

RECOMMENDATIONS, CONCLUSIONS

4.1 Recommendations

According to the research study several recommendations were suggested that can provide great advantages in teaching and learning. The implementation and efficient use of social media via mobile devices in the higher education classrooms.

This is because todays’ digital students must be provided the educational

st essentials for the 21 Century that are wildly being used globally. The students have to be explored with the Cutting-edge technology in the field of education that is common during their time period. In addition, using the social media such as Facebook in the classroom results in motivation and engagement of students.

Social media consists of a variety of communication tools such as Blogs, collaborative projects, social networking sites, content communities and virtual world or virtual game worlds. These channels of this platform are providing unlimited opportunities to communicate interact, socialize and share with each other. In the field of

IS research, understanding user behavior for technology acceptance or adaptation is important and as well as a challenging issue. Social media has changed the entire scenario of information sharing. Schools must reflect the technology of 21st century in the classrooms. Teachers constantly should update latest developments in the use of educational networking. 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. As social media has become the most popular and

40 advance method of communication. Specifically, among students and assists them in various types of communication and collaborative learning. Students have positive attitudes about using social media, because they see social media as the way of the future.

Therefore, using social media via mobile technology in the classroom will engage students.

I believe that after the original set up, that Facebook is useful teaching tool which students will cheerfully participate with. According to the research findings it specifies that students are comfortable using it to support with all areas of their studies. Thus, that

Facebook has a great potential to be a substantial teaching tool in the classroom that students enjoy and benefit by using it.

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

41 increase student concentration.

4.2 Conclusion

Today, students primarily conceive social media as a platform for social

interaction and communication. Social media are technologies that have been extensively

taken in students’ daily lives. This has resulted in increasing research interest in the

potential supportive role that social media can offer in teaching learning in the

classrooms via mobile devices. The purpose of the research was to examine student

teachers’ associations with social media using it in the classrooms with the potential of

accepting social media to support their learning.

Student motivation is one of the important factors for student learning success.

This research focuses on examining how the social network service benefits influencing

student motivation in learning if this service is used in teaching and learning. It is

believed that Facebook is not only the social network service, its benefits can help

motivate student to learn if properly incorporated in teaching and learning.

Furthermore, students use social networking sites as a type of social media,

particularly Facebook, via 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.

The theoretical models of the purposes of Facebook usage and Facebook educational usage proposed in literature were examined using the sample of 70 students, collaboration through academic groups (communities) represents the most important

42 value of Facebook implementation in academic activities.

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.

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48 APPENDIX A

st 21 -century skills: 21st-century skills are usually referring to terms such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and advancement of technologies that schools must teach students in order to succeed in today's world.

Curriculum: curriculum refers to a series of lessons and academic content that can be

taught in a school or in any course or program.

Mobile Social Media: Mobile social media refers to a group of individuals who share

same interests and connect with each other.

Social Networking: Social networking is the practice of expanding the number of one's

business and/or social contacts by making connections through individuals, often

through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

Technology: Technology refers to science or knowledge that can be used practically as a

tool in solving problems.

23andMe: is a DNA analysis company that connects its customers with their relatives

based on a DNA analysis. It also identifies if the person is likely to have any health-

related issues based on DNA analysis.

43Things is a site for inspiration, advice, and support where members can set goals and

share with their friends the goals that they are pursuing, such as losing weight or running

a marathon.

500px: is a Canadian photo sharing social network with over 1.5 million active members.

Academia.edu: is a social networking website for academics. The platform can be used

to share papers, monitor their impact, and follow the research in a particular field. The

site has over 55 million users.

49 Ancestry.com: is in the business of finding your ancestors — i.e., building genealogy

networks. The site has roughly 2 million paying members.

AngelList: is a social network used by investors and startups. The site has thousands of

investors signed up as members.

ASmallWorld: is a paid social network that can only be joined based on an invitation by

a member. The site focuses on luxury travel and building social connections, its membership is capped at 250,000.

Badoo: is one of the worlds most widely used dating networks. It has over 360 million registered users.

BlackPlanet: is a social network for African Americans that focuses on dating, showcasing talent, and chatting and blogging. The site has around 20 million members.

Busuu: is a language-learning social network. The site connects learners to speakers of the native language to make the learning process easier.

CafeMom: is a site for mothers and mothers-to-be. It has over 8 million monthly unique visits.

Care2: is a social network that connects activists from around the world to primarily discuss political and environmental issues. The site has about 40 million users.

CaringBridge: is a social network for people facing various medical conditions, hospitalization, medical treatment, and recovery from a significant accident, illness, injury, or procedure.

Cellufun: is a gaming community with over 2 million members that can be accessed using any mobile device.

50 Classmates: connects people with their high school friends in the U.S. and also allows for the uploading of high school yearbooks. Members can also plan their high school reunions.

CouchSurfing: provides a platform for members to stay as a guest at someone’s home, host travelers, meet other members, or join an event. The site has roughly 15 million members.

Crokes : is a community or social network for authors. It is similar to Twitter, but limits posts to 300 characters.

Cross.tv: is a social network that shares Christian content to its 650,000 members.

DeviantArt: is an art-sharing network with over 38 million registered members.

Doximity is a social network for U.S. clinicians. It has over 800,000 members.

Dronestagram is focused around sharing photos that have been taken using drones. It

claims to be “the Instagram for drone photography,” with more than 30,000 members.

English, baby! is a social network and online curriculum for learning conversational

English and slang. The service is used by more than 1.6 million members.

eToro is a social trading platform that enables investors to view, follow, and copy the

network’s top traders automatically. It has over 2.5 million members.

Facebook continues to be the number one social network in the world. It reportedly has

more than 2 billion active monthly users as of June 2017.

Flickr is a photo and video sharing social network that supports tens of millions of

members and over 10 billion photos.

Flixster is a site for discovering new movies, learning about movies, and meeting others

with similar tastes in movies.

51 Fotki is available in 240 countries. It has more than 1.6 million members and 1 billion photos. The site was started in Estonia.

Fotolog is a photo-blogging site with over 20 million unique visitors.

Foursquare provides personalized recommendations based on a user’s location and previous purchases. The service has tens of millions of users and is growing rapidly in the enterprise space.

FunnyOrDie is a comedy video network that allows users to upload, share, and rate videos. The videos often feature celebrities. The network has hundreds of millions of viewers.

Gab is an ad-free social network that allows its users to read and write messages of up to

300 characters, called “gabs.” It has roughly 200,000 users.

Gaia Online is an anime-theme social network and forums-based website. It has over 25 million registered users.

GirlsAskGuys is a question-and-answer social network where members of the opposite gender can ask each other questions.

Glocals is a social network created in Switzerland for the expatriate community. It allows the members to meet, organize activities, and share information.

GoFundMe is a fundraising network that can be used to raise money for most any cause.

Goodreads is a social network for book lovers, who can recommend books and see what their friends are reading, among other features. The site is owned by Amazon and has tens of millions of members.

52 Google+ is Google’s social network that is reported to have more than 100 million active

users. This social network is tightly integrated with all the other Google services, such as

email and calendar.

Habbo is a social gaming company for teenagers. It has more than 5 million unique

monthly visitors. The network operates nine sites for users in different countries.

Imgur is a photo-sharing site where members can vote (and rank) photos. The site has

hundreds of millions of images.

Instagram is a photo and video sharing social network that is part of Facebook. It has

roughly 375 million active users.

Internations is a social network that connects expats across 390 cities worldwide. It has

almost 3 million users.

Italki.com makes connections between language learners and language teachers to help learning new languages. The site has more than 1 million students.

Kickstarter is a social funding platform where people can pitch their products or product ideas to get funding. The site has had almost 10 million backers.

Kiwibox is a social network for young adults that offers blogging, photos, and gaming features. It has about 3 million members.

Last.fm is a music discovery and recommendation network that also shares what friends on the network are listening to. The site has tens of millions of users and over 12 million music tracks.

Line is an instant messaging social network that is popular in Japan but also supports

English and other languages. It has over 600 million users worldwide.

53 LinkedIn is a social network used by professionals and is now owned by Microsoft. The

network has more than 500 million users as of April 2017.

LiveJournal allows its users to maintain a blog, journal, or diary. It has over 10 million

unique visitors monthly in the US.

MeetMe focuses on helping users discover new people to chat with on mobile devices. It

has over 2.5 million daily active users.

Meetup is a social network that facilitates a group of people to meet in person around a

specific topic or theme. It has roughly 32 million users.

Messenger is also an instant-messaging social network that is part of Facebook. It has

roughly 1.2 billion users as of April 2017.

Minds is a social network that allows its users to create channels on a variety of topics and also rewards users for their online activity. It promotes freedom and privacy on the

Internet and has over 2 million members.

MocoSpace is social gaming site with over 2 million users and over 1 billion monthly page views.

MyHeritage is an online genealogy network that enables users to create family trees, upload and browse photos, and search billions of global historical records. The site has 80 million users worldwide.

MyMFB is a social network for connecting Muslims across 175 countries. The site currently has roughly 500,000 members.

Myspace is a social network that is focused around an individual’s profile and is more popular with musicians and bands. It once was a top social network in the U.S., but now only has a few million users.

54 Nexopia is a Canadian social network that allows its members to create forums on any topic and have discussions within those forums. The site has over 1 million users.

Nextdoor is a social network that connects neighbors by sharing upcoming events and other neighborhood activities. Over 150,000 neighborhoods in the U.S. use Nextdoor.

Path is a photo sharing and messaging network that has rich features for controlling privacy of the shared photos. It is popular in Indonesia.

Photobucket is a photo and video hosting site that has over ten billion photos and over

100 million members.

Pinboard is a paid social network that allows sharing of bookmarks. The users can benefit from an ad-free experience on this site.

Pinterest is a social network that allows photos and videos to be shared from other sites.

Pinterest has more than 175 million active users.

Pixabay shares high quality photos from its members. The site has over 1.1 million images and videos.

PlentyofFish is a dating social network that is free to use but also offers some premium services. It has over 100 million registered members.

Plurk is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates through short messages or links, which can be up to 360 text characters.

ProductHunt is a social network that helps share new products and prioritizes them based on votes given by members.

Quora is a question-and-answer social network where users can get answers to their posted questions. The site has close to 200 million active users.

55 Ravelry is a social network for knitting, crocheting, spinning, and weaving. The site has over 7 million registered users.

Reddit is a content sharing social network with over 500 million monthly visits. Text posts or direct links can be shared on the site and voted by members to determine popularity.

ReverbNation is a social network for musicians to help them manage their careers and find new opportunities. The site has about 4 million musicians as members.

Ryze links business professionals, mainly new entrepreneurs. The site has about 1 million members.

Shutterfly is a photo sharing site that allows its 2 million members to use the photos to create personalized gifts, such as mugs and t-shirts.

Skype is an instant messaging platform that enables communication using text, voice, and video. It has over 300 million active monthly users and is now part of Microsoft.

Skyrock is primarily a French social network that offers blogging capabilities to its members. It has a few million members.

Snapchat is a multimedia messaging network with over 150 million daily users that has gained widespread popularity because of its innovative image filters.

Snapfish is a photo sharing social network where the members can benefit from unlimited storage space for their photos. The site has tens of millions of members.

Solaborate is a social network and collaboration platform dedicated to technology professionals, to connect, collaborate, discover opportunities, and create an ecosystem around products and services.

56 SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform that enables its users to upload, record, promote, and share their originally created sounds. The service has more than 150 million unique listeners every month.

Sprybirds is a social and business networking site where people can make business friendships.

Stumbleupon focuses on content discovery for its users. It is offered as a browser toolbar in all popular browsers.

Telegram is a cloud-based instant messaging service that has over 100 million active monthly users.

Tinder: is a location-based dating mobile app that is used by over 50 million users.

Tournac : is a social network for travelers that connects people traveling to the same location.

Tout is a video network that helps businesses grow online video revenue and drive deeper engagement with viewers. It has 85 million unique monthly viewers.

Twoo : is a social discovery platform that allows its 181 million members to create profiles, upload pictures, and chat with other users.

Untappd: is a mobile social network that allows it members to rate the beer they are consuming, earn badges, share pictures of their beers, review tap lists from nearby venues, and see what beers their friends are drinking. The site has roughly 3 million members.

Uplike: is a photo-sharing service based in France that lets users share inspirations with the public. The app is currently used by millions of people in roughly 160 countries.

57 VampireFreaks is a community for gothic-industrial subcultures that has millions of members. The site is also used for dating.

Viadeo is a social network for business owners, entrepreneurs, and managers — mostly in Europe. It has about 50 million members.

Viber is also a communication social network like Skype that allows text, voice, and video messaging. It has over 800 million users

Vine gained popularity as a video sharing network for 6-second videos. It is now part of

Twitter.

VK is like Facebook but more popular in Russia and neighboring countries with over 400 million users.

Wayn is a travel network that connects like-minded people and also helps them discover where to go. The site has over 20 million users.

WeChat is a mobile-messaging social network with almost 1 billion monthly active users who are primarily from China. But WeChat also offers an English, international version.

It has rich functionality from chatting to shopping with users even buying homes on the app.

WeHeartIt is a social network for sharing inspiring images. The site has over 45 million members.

WhatsApp is an instant-messaging social network that works primarily on smartphones.

It is now part of Facebook and has over 1 billion users as of 2016.

Xanga hosts weblogs, photoblogs, and social networking profiles.

Xing is a career-oriented social network that is used by consumers and businesses. Xing supports closed groups to enable a private and secure network within an enterprise.

58 Yelp is a restaurant review and home services site that has social features to share photos, write reviews, and see activities of friends.

YouTube is the world’s leading video sharing network that enables its users to upload, view, and share videos. It serves billions of videos daily.

Zynga: offers multiple games that are played by millions of daily users. Popular titles are Farmville, Draw Something, and Zynga Poker.