Exploring the Educational Capabilities of Social Media in
High Schools
Isidoros Perikos, Foteini Grivokostopoulou, Konstantinos Kovas and Ioannis Hatzilygeroudis
Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics, University of Patras, Patra, Greece
Keywords: Social Media, Web 2.0 Technologies, Social Media in Education, Learning Impact.
Abstract: Social media constitute an innovative technology that has transformed the way that people communicate
and collaborate. Social networks and Web 2.0 tools like wikis and microblogging have the potential to be
used by tutors in their courses with the aim to enhance the learning efficiency of educational systems and
eLearning procedures. In this work, we study the educational capabilities of social media and web 2.0
technologies like Twitter, Wikispaces and TodaysMeet, exploring their educational potential and learning
capabilities and examining their impact on students’ learning. The social networks have been extensively
evaluated in real classroom conditions and the results collected indicate that the proper utilization of social
networks and web 2.0 tools in terms of students’ active engagement can motivate and improve students’
learning.
1 INTRODUCTION
A school is by nature a social environment. Students
interact with peers, teachers and faculty members in
a variety of ways, often forming dynamic networks
or communities. These networks exist both inside
and outside of the classroom. Over the last decade,
the advent of the web has changed the way that e-
Learning and educational procedures are delivered
to students. Social media constitute a trending,
innovative technology that has transformed the way
that people communicate and collaborate. Social
networks and Web 2.0 tools like wikis and
microblogging have the potential to be used by
tutors in their courses with the aim to enhance the
learning efficiency of educational systems and e-
Learning procedures (Bennett et al., 2012). In line
with the new technologies, the role of the teacher is
also changing and is moving from the face-to-face
knowledge transmission agent to the specialist who
designs the course, utilizes and integrates
technological tools and guides the students’ learning
process (Huertas, 2007). Recently, tutors,
researchers and educational instructors are
examining and utilizing the emerging and trending
technological innovations like social networks and
web 2.0 tools for the benefit of students’ learning.
The social media technology has become an
essential part of personal life as users generate
content, share photos, choose to “like”, or interact in
web2.0 platform. Young people and students are
constantly becoming more aware and familiar with
various social platforms and web 2.0 technologies
that could become an important mean of
communication. Social networking appeals to young
people because it is an opportunity for personal
sharing of life experiences, venting frustrations and
offering reflections on a variety of social issues (Yap
et al., 2005). Indeed, microblogging services and
social media are increasingly popular among school
students and can offer numerous affordances for
learning. Learning, as an intensely social activity
(McLoughlin and Lee, 2008), is a context that can
significantly benefit from the use of social media as
they can provide various opportunities for learning
both within and outside the classroom and can
provide a strong sense of connectedness between
students (Hung and Yeun, 2010). Thus, in school
education, courses that integrate social media and
web2.0 technologies can provide various
possibilities for both formal and informal learning
activities and knowledge acquisition (Dabbagh and
Kitsantas, 2012; Veletsianos and Navarrete, 2012).
In general, social networks such as Twitter and
Web 2.0 technologies like wikis, when applied in
education and utilized by tutors in their courses can
emphasize on students' active participation, the
generation of student-centered content and
240
Perikos I., Grivokostopoulou F., Kovas K. and Hatzilygeroudis I.
Exploring the Educational Capabilities of Social Media in High Schools.
DOI: 10.5220/0005810502400248
In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2016), pages 240-248
ISBN: 978-989-758-179-3
Copyright
c
 2016 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

collaboration and can fit with the kinds of creative
and critical activities associated with all levels of
education. Moreover, they can scaffold the ways that
students learn through exposure to multiple
perspectives and abet the communication and
teamwork skills necessary for students to develop
(Bennett et al., 2012; Veletsianos, 2012). So, the
incorporation and utilization of social media and
web 2.0 technologies and tools by tutors in their
courses can be vital.
In this paper, we study the educational
capabilities of social media and web 2.0
technologies, exploring their educational potential
and learning capabilities and examining their impact
on students’ learning. More specifically, we present
a study on the way that social networks like Twitter
can be used in line with web 2.0 tools such as
Wikispaces and TodaysMeet by tutors and students
in their courses in various educational activities.
Furthermore, we examine the way and the degree
that they can benefit students’ learning and scaffold
their learning needs. An experimental study was
conducted in real classroom conditions of high
schools, revealing very promising results regarding
the learning capabilities of the social media and the
web 2.0 technologies studied and their impact on
students’ study, cooperation and learning.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows. In
the next Section, background topics and related
work on social networks and web 2.0 technologies
are presented. Section 3explains the research
methodology employed in the research and describes
the utilization approaches of Twitter network, in line
with Wikispaces and TodaysMeet tools in course
curriculum. In Section 4, the evaluation study
conducted and the findings regarding the learning
impact of the social networks on students learning
are presented. Finally, Section 5 concludes the paper
and presents directions for future work.
2 BACKGROUND TOPICS AND
RELATED WORK
Social media are an emerging domain that is
becoming an integral part of young peoples’
communication. As a term, it is broadly used to
describe any number of technological systems
related to collaboration and community (Joosten,
2012).In line with the capabilities of the web 2.0
technologies, they can be utilized in the education
field and become a new mean of educational
technology in the hands of tutors, institutes and
researchers (Perikos et al., 2015b; Schlenkrich and
Sewry, 2012). There are many definitions regarding
the term and the concepts of Web 2.0, that is defined
as the social use of the web that allows people to
collaborate, to get actively involved in creating
content, to generate knowledge and to share
information online (Grosseck and Holotescu, 2008).
Web 2.0 tools and social media can support
educational activities, student interaction and make
it easy for students and tutors to exchange
information and to share their knowledge, thoughts,
experiences and interests (Oskouei, 2010). They also
offer opportunities for students to create and
construct knowledge (Rivera, 2010). Gradually,
more individuals are gaining access and
familiarizing themselves with these technologies,
that makes their introduction into the classroom
more seam less (Thoms, 2011). Social media and
web 2.0 technologies can be used into courses to
assist students learning in almost every area of high
school disciplines. Indeed, through social media and
innovative web 2.0 technologies, motives are given
to students to increase their participation and
teachers to implement various learning,
collaboration activities between students. What is
more, the students can have a framework for better
cooperation through instant and constant
communication with their peers.
Over the past few years, the utilization of social
networks and web 2.0 technologies in education has
attracted a lot of interest (Moran et al., 2011; Tess,
2013). Several studies (Laird, 2014; Venkatesh et al.
2014) point out the important role that web 2.0
technologies can play in educational systems and in
the e-Learning area in order to assist tutors to
enhance the efficiency of their courses' learning
activities, engage and motivate students and improve
the communication and cooperation among students.
In the work presented in (Grosseck and Holotescu,
2008), authors examine the potential of Twitter
network in the educational field. The authors
describe its educational capabilities and present
various ways it can be utilized by the tutors in their
courses. The authors state that Twitter can be very
useful and assistive for both tutors’ teaching and
students’ learning enhancing their communication
and cooperation. Authors in (Hung and Yeun, 2010)
explore how social networking technologies can be
used to supplement face to face courses and provide
a mean of enhancing the students’ sense of
community. Authors indicate that the majority of the
participants in their experimental study developed a
strong feeling of social connectedness and expressed
favourable feelings regarding their learning
Exploring the Educational Capabilities of Social Media in High Schools
241

experiences in the courses where social networks
were used as a supporting tool.In (Perikos et al.,
2015a) authors presented an educational platform
and courses to assists tutors in learning how to
utilize social media and web 2.0 tools in
classroom.Authors in (Callaghan and Bower, 2012),
study the potential of social network integration into
course curriculum. The authors point the critical role
of the teacher in engaging effective online learning
in social networks and indicate that the quality of
teacher-student relationships, the extent to which a
‘learning’ rather than ‘social’ attitude was
established, and the online presence that the teacher
exerted in the social network, facilitate more
successful student learning. In the work presented in
(Ebner et al., 2010), authors present a research study
that was carried in an Austrian University regarding
the use of microblogging platforms in Higher
Education. The authors indicate that microblogging
should be seen and handled as a completely new
form of communication that can support informal
learning beyond the classrooms. Also, in (Grunspan
et al., 2014), authors examine the way that class
students interact in social networks and formulate
communities and in their study indicate that the
analysis can give a baseline understanding of
classroom network norms and illuminate crucial
aspects of learning.
3 APPROACHES OF UTILIZING
SOCIAL NETWORKS IN
EDUCATION
3.1 Social Networks and Tools Studied
A wide number of social networks and web 2.0
technologies are available for use, each one
demonstrating a set of both common and specific
functionalities and characteristics. In the study
presented in this work, we have designed an
educational social framework combining Twitter,
Wikispaces and TodaysMeet and studied it in high
school courses for a period of one semester. The
formulation of the framework and the selection of
the tools to be used were carefully conducted by
examining a wide range of Web 2.0 tools and the
aforementioned were selected since they are very
popular and widely used in educational activities and
most of all, have complementary characteristics.
Twitter is considered to be the most popular
microblogging system that has completely changed
the users, transforming them from simple passive
information consumers to active producers. In
general, students can use Twitter to communicate, to
ask questions, to ask for directions, support, advice,
and to validate open-ended interpretations or ideas
by discussing with others. Twitter has mashed up
personal publishing and communication, the result
being a new type of real-time publishing and most of
all can support students’ active and informal
learning (Kassens-Noor, 2012; Reed, 2013) in the
context of their courses in high school education.
TodaysMeet (http://todaysmeet.com) is a cloud
based tool that has much potential to offer to tutors
and students. It can be used for synchronous
communication and can be utilized by tutors for
lecturing and presentation procedures. It is very
simple for students to use, and provides productive
means for students to directly ask questions their
peers, get clarification, express their ideas and
collaborate in real time. Wikispaces
(http://wikispaces.com) is one of the wiki facilities
that operate in Web 2.0 infrastructure. It is simple
and very suitable for class collaborative learning. It
offers students the ability to literate and hone their
skills and can be used to support collaborative
learning, discussions, projects, and uploading and
downloading documents and educational material
(Sulisworo, 2012).
After the formulation of the framework, various
scenarios were designed, describing how Twitter,
Wikispaces and TodaysMeet can be utilized by the
tutors in their courses, demonstrating what activities
could be implemented by students for the best
benefit of their learning. By examining the
educational capabilities of social media, we can get a
deeper understanding of how and at which degree it
can scaffold students learning and educational
activities inside and outside the classroom’s strict
borders.
3.2 Pedagogical Approaches and
Learning Activities
The pedagogical approaches designed along with the
learning activities constitute the vital aspects of the
utilization of the social tools in the course
curriculum. Specific learning and educational
activities were created based on the characteristics
offered by each one of the social tools. In
Wikispaces, students were initially asked to join the
Wiki that had been set up by the tutor based on the
parameters and the characteristics of the course.
During the course all learning material and
announcements were posted in the Wiki. The tutor
also separated students into groups and assigned
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each group as homework to collaborate in order to
create wiki pages about various terms related to the
topic that was taught and also connect these pages
with other pages of the wiki prepared by them or
other groups. Each student had to sign in with his
own account and collaborate with his group
teammates. The tutor was able to use the monitoring
tools offered by Wikispaces to assess students and
groups’ participation degree and also use the chat
tool to communicate and if necessary coordinate the
students in a synchronous way. Students were asked
to follow the Twitter page of the lesson that had
been prepared by the tutor. The tutor would tweet a
short recap of the lesson after each lecture. Students
were able to reply and comment their questions or
feedback regarding the topics covered. As a
preparation before the following lecture, the tutor
would ask students to use Twitter to "track" specific
terms and try to guess their meaning. Using the
tracking functionality of Twitter the students would
collect various occurrences of these terms in tweets
and then try to understand their meaning from the
context. Then the students would discuss together
(in the classroom or in Twitter) their opinions and
collectively deduce their meaning. Students'
educational interaction and conversations on Twitter
can reflect their educational experiences, knowledge
construction and learning process (Chen et al.,
2014). The Problem Posing Exercises approach
(PPE) (Mishra and Iyer, 2013) is also adopted as a
problem posing based instructional strategy to
scaffold the learning of concepts, topics and aspects
of the course material. Problem posing is an
instructional strategy, in which students are naturally
or explicitly made to engage in dialog with the
instructor or with other peers and present their
queries or analytics in the form of questions.
Students were asked to state their inquiries in twitter
and based on the questions asked, the content of the
wiki pages would be expanded in order to provide
the background topics and the theoretical aspects
regarding the questions stated. The activities aim to
scaffold students’ engagement and active learning
and also support informal learning in the context of
their courses. The TodaysMeet tool was used to
allow students to synchronously communicate and
cooperate in groups regarding their assignments.
They were also able to communicate with their
group-mates and classmates, work on their
assignments and state their questions or remarks
about the lesson. Finally, the teacher would schedule
and program synchronous lectures to support
student’s inquires and difficulties. The three social
media tools were integrated into high schools
courses for a period of one semester during which
their learning capabilities were thoroughly examined
in real class conditions.
4 EVALUATION STUDY
An evaluation study was designed and conducted
with the aim to assess the way that the social
networks and web 2.0 tools assisted the students’
learning. The evaluation was conducted in four high
schools. More specifically, four classes, five
teachers of the classes and a total number of 88
students aged from 16 to 18 took part in the study.
The teachers applied the social media tools in their
class during STEM courses for a semester. Students
formed teams consisting of two or three members
and were asked to utilize Wikispaces and work
together on creating pages regarding the topics of
their courses, use Twitter in line with the specified
approaches and also use TodaysMeet to
communicate in a synchronous approach as teams,
cooperate, and also communicate with their
classmates and the teacher.
Initially, all students were asked to fill in a
questionnaire and denote their demographic
information, their expertise in using social media,
the way and frequency of using them and also the
amount of time they spend. The aim was to get an
insight of the students’ familiarity with social media
before the start of the utilization in the context of
their school courses. The age and the gender
information of the students participating in the
experimental study are presented in Figure 1 and
Figure 2.
Figure 1: The gender ratio of the students.
The primary descriptive analysis indicates that
the respondents are distributed by gender with ratios
of 47% boys and 53% girls respectively. The age of
the students ranged from 16 to 18 and the
distribution is illustrated in Figure 2.
Exploring the Educational Capabilities of Social Media in High Schools
243

Figure 2: Students age distribution.
Students were also asked to specify if they use
any social networks such as popular ones like
Facebook, Twitter etc. Furthermore, students that
had an account and used a social network, were
asked to specify for how long they were using it. In
addition, students were asked to indicate how
frequently they use a social network and for how any
hours on a daily basis they stay connected when they
login.
The analysis of the students’ answers revealed
that the majority of the students have an account and
use one (or more) social network. Indeed, the66%
uses a social network while the 34% of the students
is unfamiliar and do not use anyone. From the
analysis of the students that use a social network, a
noticeable portion of the participant students
indicates that has been using a social network for
more than two year (Figure 3). Indeed,
approximately 38% of the students use a social
network for more than two years, 28% of them for
approximately one to two years, 19% for six months
to one year and only 15% for less than six months.
Figure 3: How often students use social media.
Moreover, the students that use a social network
were asked to specify how frequent they are using it
and also how many hours on a daily basis they stay
connected and use it. The analysis of the students’
answers is illustrated in Figure 4 and Figure 5
respectively.
Figure 4: How many hours a day students spend on social
media.
The majority of the students (43%), indicated
they use social networks on a daily basis. A
considerable portion of the participant students
(27.5%) indicated they login every couple of days
while the portion of the students that login once a
week is approximately (19%). Finally, the portions
of the students that login every month are
substantially lower, and is approximately (10.5%).
Moreover, in Figure5 the time they spend connected
and using a social network is illustrated.
Figure 5: How long students use a social network.
The statistics indicate that that most students are
familiar with social media and the majority of them
are using almost every day or two a social media and
in most cases for more than one hour (64%).
As mentioned above, the pre-questionnaire was
given to students at the start of the semester and the
analysis of their answers aimed to provide an insight
of the familiarity and the way students use the social
networks before the integration into their courses.
After that, all students were given instructions by the
teachers to create accounts on the social tools that
they would utilize in the context of the course during
the semester in line with the learning scenarios and
activities described.
At the end of the semester, another questionnaire
was distributed to the participant students of the
study in order to collect feedback about their
feelings and experiences regarding the integration
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and utilization of the social tools in the school
courses. The online questionnaire was accessible to
all registered students of the classes and remained
open for a time period of a week during which all
students could fill in the questionnaire anonymously.
The questionnaire consisted of twelve questions
based on a five point Likert-scale level where the
possible answers for each question were “strongly
disagree”, “disagree”, “neutral”, “agree”, “strongly
agree”. Each question assesses specific aspects of
the educational integration of the social networks in
the course. The students’ answers and the analysis of
the results collected are illustrated in Table 1.
Table 1: Students Questionnaire Analysis.
Q Questions
Answers (%)
1 2 3 4 5
1
The social networks
assisted in building and
strengthening
relationship with my
classmates.
0 0 11.36 51.14 37.5
2
The social networks
helped me to
communicate and
cooperate more
efficiently with my
fellow students.
0 0 13.64 45.45 40.9
3
The social networks
increased my learning
efforts.
0 0 7.95 45.45 46.5
4
The social networks
enhanced my
engagement in the
course.
0 0 5.68 37.50 56.8
5
The Twitter group
assisted in the
formulation of a
classroom community.
0 11.36 40.91 47.7
6
The Twitter group
assisted me to ask
questions when facing
problems and get
answers quickly.
0 0 5.68 39.77 54.5
7
The Problem Posing
Exercises approach
assisted me to
ask/answerquestions
and efficiently learn in
Twitter
0 0 9.09 36.36 54.5
8
Wikispaces assisted in
my active participation
in educational content
creation.
0 0 10.23 47.73 42.0
9
Wikispaces assisted in
better understand the
course domain.
0 9.09 39.77 51.1
10
I feel that the social
networks should be
integrated in the course
curriculum.
0 0 4.55 28.41 67.0
Students gave very positive responses. The
results are promising and indicate that the consistent
and well-designed utilization of social networks and
tools like Twitter, TodaysMeet and Wikispaces in
the course curriculum can enhance students’
motivation and engagement in the educational
activities utilized by the teacher. Students indicate
that they felt more connected with their classmates
and their teacher and also with their team while
working on the exercises. Most of the participants
agreed that the social networks strengthened their
relationships with their teammates (88.6%) and
helped them communicate and cooperate more
efficiently (86.4%). Most students also indicated that
the utilization of the social networks assisted in
increasing their learning efforts (92%) and enhanced
their engagement in the course (94.3%). Regarding
Twitter, students stated that it helped in the
formalization of a classroom community (88.6%)
and encouraged them in posing inquires and
questions and getting answers and help quickly
(94.3%) in line with the Problem Posing Exercises
approach which they feel that is suitable for Twitter
(90.9%). Moreover, Wikispaces is indicated to have
assisted the students’ active participation in the
creation of educational content (89.7%) and in better
understanding the topics and concepts of the course
(90.9%). Finally, the majority of participants
(95.4%) feel that social networks should be
integrated in course curriculum to scaffold students’
learning needs. Students embraced the utilization of
the social media tools in their courses, had active
engagement and constant participation in the
learning activities scheduled during the semester.
Furthermore, in order to get a more complete
insight of students’ performance and their feelings
from their teachers’ perspectives another
questionnaire was formulated. During the semester
the role of the teacher was vital in managing the
educational activities and giving proper directions to
the students. The questionnaire was distributed at the
end of the semester to the eight teachers of the
classes that participated in the study and was asking
them to indicate their experiences of using social
media in their courses evaluate their efficiency and
also assess their students’ performance. The
teacher’s questionnaire consisted of ten Likert-scale
and two open-answer questions asking about the
strong and the weak aspects of the integration of
social tools into their courses. Their answers are
presented in Table 2.
The results indicate that teachers’ opinions and
feelings were very positive. Indeed, teachers stated
that social networks enhanced their relationships
Exploring the Educational Capabilities of Social Media in High Schools
245

with their students and their students’ engagement
and efforts in their course during the semester had
increased. Regarding the student-created content in
Wikispaces, teachers found it to be of high quality
and in line with the course’s topics and theory. This
was a very important aspect as it indicates that
students can transform from simple and passive
readers of theoretical concepts to active producers of
educational content. In most cases, teachers found
very encouraging that students spent much time to
find content and meticulously created pages on their
Wikispaces, something that assisted to learn outside
the strict borders of the in-classroom procedures.
Table 2: Results of the teachers’ questionnaire.
Q Questions
Answers (%)
1 2 3 4 5
1
The social networks assisted
in strengthening my
relationships with my
students.
0 0 0 2.5 37.5
2
The social networks assisted
in strengthening
relationships with my
students.
0 0 12.5 50 37.5
3
The students’ engagement in
the course has increased.
0 0 12.5 37.5 50
4
The students’ efforts in the
course have increased.
0 0 0 37.5 62.5
5
The Wikispaces facilitate
students’ cooperation.
0 0 12.5 37.5 50
6
How would you rate the
quality of the content
students created in
Wikispaces.
0 0 0 50 50
7
The social networks scaffold
and promote students active
learning
0 0 25 50 25
8
The problem posing
exercises approach seams
suitable to be used in
Twitter.
0 0 25 50 25
9
TodaysMeet facilitated the
instant communication with
my students.
0 0 12.5 37.5 50
10
Would you suggest the
utilization of social networks
to other teachers?
0 0 0 37.5 62.5
Moreover, the teachers found the problem posing
exercise approach to be suitable to be used by the
class in Twitter and also that the social networks can
promote the students active learning. Furthermore,
they indicated that they would suggest the utilization
of the social networks and the web 2.0 tools to other
teachers in order to integrate them into their courses.
Finally, the teachers’ main concern, as expressed in
the open-end questions, concerned the use of the
social networks by the students for their educational
activities and not for communication and leisure
chatting with other friends. However, teachers
indicated that the specific instructions given to the
students regarding how to use and what to do at each
social platform and the way to work on the platforms
as student or class-groups can diminish the students’
leisure activities.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The advert of the web has changed completely the
way that eLearning and educational procedures are
delivered to students and have brought new
innovative learning technologies and possibilities.
Social media and web 2.0 tools open up new
horizons in education and constitute important
technologies that can enhance the learning
capabilities of educational procedures both in
classroom and in distance education. In this paper,
we present a study of the educational capabilities of
social media and web 2.0 technologies. We explore
their educational potential and pedagogical
capabilities and also study their impact on students’
cooperation and learning. The work examines social
media like Twitter and the way they can be utilized
by tutors in their courses and be used in line with
web 2.0 tools such as TodaysMeet and Wikispaces
by the students in various learning scenarios and
educational activities designed by the tutor. The
evaluation study conducted in real classroom
conditions revealed very promising results regarding
the learning capabilities of the social networks and
the web 2.0 technologies studied and their impact on
students’ study, cooperation and learning.Most
students had a very positive attitude, indicating they
would like social media to be integrated in course
curriculum to support learning, their communication
and cooperation needs.
As a future work, a larger scale evaluation could
be designed and conducted with the aim to provide a
deeper understanding of the learning and the way
each social network or web 2.0 technologies affects
students’ needs, studying and learning. Finally, we
aim to perform a more complete analysis of the way
that each student used the social tools, mine all
students learning actions in the social networks with
the aim to shed light and extract knowledge
regarding their behaviour. Finally the analysis could
provide gender related information and also focus on
how in-class good or underperforming students
embraced, performed and behaved in the social
platforms. Exploring these directions constitutes a
key aspect of our future work.
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