The Third Wave of Informatization

Mobile Learning and Social Networks in the Modern School for Upgrading the

Educational Process

Diana O. Koroleva

Institute of Education of the National Research University Higher School of Economics,

Myasnickaya Street, Moscow, Russia

1 RESEARCH PROBLEM

Since the mid of 1980s Russia is going through

series of educational reforms related to a number of

initiatives on computerisation and informatization of

secondary schools. The first wave of informatization

of educational institutions started in the 1980s, when

as part of the federal reforms, and then at the

regional level, Russian schools were equipped with

computers and basic information technologies. In

addition, a new course - “Informatics” was

introduced and included into curriculum. It also

involved training for teachers and school

administrators. At the same time the reforms were

challenged by a number of problems due to a huge

gap between urban and rural schools.

The second wave of informatization started in

the 1990s and aimed to increase the accessibility to

computers through the provision of schools and their

administrative units with the modern IT computing

technologies, audio-visual equipment as well as

access to Internet. In order to advance and integrate

modern technologies into the learning process

teachers were provided with a series of trainings

courses. Despite the initial resistance from teachers,

the implementation of the initiative was successful

and had a significant impact on the educational

process (OECD, 2015). The federal program of

informatization of the Russian schools has been

completed in 2010, and from that moment all

responsibilities regarding informatization of schools

were transferred from federal to the regional level.

Meanwhile, computer and Internet technologies

are developing very dynamically in Russia. Between

2010 and 2015 there were major changes in Internet

access technologies, the speed of information

transmission, and the range of devices to interact

with the web. Currently 97 percent of Russian

adolescents have they own mobile devices

(D.Koroleva, 2016). Despite an official ban, K-12

students still use their cellular phones or tablets at

school. Social network sites are most popular

resource among adolescents; they use the service for

communication, information distribution and its

consumption. Thus, the observation shows that the

educational landscape changes rapidly because of

several reasons:

 Schools are filled with students’ mobile

devices;

 The access to high – speed Internet in

classrooms;

 The availability of information;

 The communication mediated by social

networks.

Despite of the extensive usage of the web in

Russian schools there are no concrete

recommendations for mobile learnings or social

networks for educational use. Moreover, education

legislative framework is full of contradictions: some

official documents envision Internet as a resource

which is full of risks and dangers, and it is necessary

to prohibit its usage in the schools. At the same time

other government paper gives a recommendation to

use E-learning at schools; however, it does not

specify how and why it should be used for

educational practices. Thus, this research will

attempt to investigate the peculiarities of schools’

reactions to these changes, which implied not by the

federal government, but brought by students

themselves as main users of the web and mobile

devices.

The following research questions will guide this

study:

 How do mobile technologies and social

networks change the educational space in

Russian schools?

 How the use of mobile phones and social

networks in schools is described in official

documents?

 How do instructors incorporate the Mobile

learning and social networks into their

instructional strategies within their

Koroleva, D.

The Third Wave of Informatization - Mobile Learning and Social Networks in the Modern School for Upgrading the Educational Process.

In Doctoral Consortium (DCCSEDU 2016), pages 9-15

courses?

 What kind of administrative and

psychological difficulties teachers

experience while using the modern

technology?

 What are the technical and psychological

readiness of students for using the modern

technologies in the learning process,

including the involvement of mobile

devices and social networks in the

educational process at school?

2 OUTLINE OF OBJECTIVES

This research project will attempt to investigate the

peculiarities of schools’ reactions to changes related

to the use of mobile technologies and social

networks, which implied not by the federal

government, but brought by students themselves as

main users of the web and mobile devices.

Objectives:

• To describe the existing and most promising

educational practices of mobile phones and social

networks usage in education for making learning

more active, increase students motivation, update

curricula without needing to change their nature, etc.

(Russian and international experience).

• To examine the actual stage of mobile phone

and social networks usage for educational purposes

among high and middle school Russian teachers.

• To analyze students attitudes and desire to use

they own mobile phone and social networks due to

the teacher instructions.

• To identify the administrative and technical

the modern Russian schools.

3 STATE OF THE ART

Many notions were created to describe the modern

adolescents generation and they high interest to

Internet and modern technologies: it is "net

generation" (Tapscott, 1998), "digital natives"

(Prensky 2001), "generation digital" (Montgomery,

2007), "generation Z" etc. Social media becomes

one of the most used types of websites by

adolescents. According to statistics on social

networks 90% of U.S. teenagers (Perrin, 2015), 63%

European students from 9 to 16 year olds (EU Kids

Online, 2013) and 97% of Russian adolescents

(Koroleva, 2016) use social networking sites as a

platform for interaction and communication. The

phenomenon of social media emerged in the 1990s

and received the mass distribution over the past 10

years. The interface of the majority of social media

has been adapted for touch screen displays and

social networks become available on mobile devices.

This proved to be an important factor in social media

diffusion among teenagers. Nowadays, aided by the

convenience and constant access provided by mobile

devices, especially smartphones, 92% of teens report

going online daily - including 24% who say they go

online “almost constantly,” according to Pew

Research Center study (Lenhart, 2015). This raises

the question of schools’ reactions to social situation

of child’s development change according Vygotsky's

social constructivism theory (Vygotsky, 1978).

The use of mobile technologies as a unique

element of education reform is discussed in Shuler’s

work (Shuler, 2009). This report draws on

interviews with a cross-section of research, policy,

and industry experts to illustrate how mobile

technologies such as smartphones, iPods, and

portable gaming platforms might be widely used for

learning. The idea of personal mobile systems for

life-long learning was given by Educational

Technology Research Group from UK (Sharples,

Corlett, Westmancott, 2002). According to the

authors, the re-conceptualisation of learning is that

the environments where contextual life-long learning

occurs cannot be pre-specified, but are created

through the activity of learning: how schools

designed curriculum for mobile technology

implementation, as well as how students and

teachers responded to this innovation afford a case

in point (Looi, Chee-Kit, et al., 2016). A

constructivist manner study realized by Bielaczyc

and Collins describes “Learning-communities”

approach to education (Bielaczyc & Collins, 1999).

According to authors, in a learning community the

main goal is to advance the collective knowledge

and in that way to support the growth of individual

knowledge. An opportunity to transform the rules

and processes relevant to face-to-face

communication in the context of web-based e-

learning described in Hung and Chen paper (Hung &

Chen, 2001). Hung and Yuen claim that a sense of

community appearing in a social network is an

essential element for successful e-learning (Hung &

Yuen, 2010). Social networks in schools as a barrier

or facilitator for educational reforms is a key issue

discussed in the book "Social Network Theory and

Educational Change" (Daly, 2010).

DCCSEDU 2016 - Doctoral Consortium on Computer Supported Education

4 METHODOLOGY

The mixed methods design was chosen to conduct

this research. According to Creswell, research

strategy consists of two stages. First stage includes

the process of quantitative data collection, and the

second step implies on qualitative data in order to

explain or elaborate on the quantitative results

(Creswell, 2005).

The following quantitative research tools are used

in this study:

 Document Analysis;

 Meta-analysis (Analytical review of

empirical studies);

 Survey among High school students

(Stratified random sampling);

 Survey among public schools principals

(Random sampling);

 Survey among public and private schools

teachers (Random sampling).

Qualitative Research Tools included:

 Middle and High school students interview;

 School teachers interview;

 Public schools principals interview;

 Workshops and focus group discussions for

teachers.

5 EXPECTED OUTCOME

In order to provide a general picture of the research

problem the initial data was obtained through meta-

analysis, state documents analysis and surveys.

On the second stage, qualitative data such as semi-

structured interviews with adolescents and teachers,

as well as focus group discussions for educators

were used to gain additional information that further

riches the research base.

Meta-analysis

First the meta-analysis of foreign studies

(publications in English) on the use of social

networks in teaching practice was prepared. Russian

articles have not been taken for analyses because

this problem is not articulated in Russian

publications (the lack of empirical data).

The review of the literature provided descriptions

of social media as a potential new resource, which

provides the organization of teacher-student

interaction, students’ group communication, and

increases student’s involvement in the learning

process. For meta-analysis I have selected

publications about social networking in education

over the past 3 years, which satisfies the criteria of

describing the details of empirical research.

Literature search was organised in the following

databases: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global,

ProQuest Education, Dissertation Abstracts Online,

Google Scholar. In total, 205 English language

publications was obtained, and 8 studies were

selected for compliance with the specified criteria.

The obtained literature had to provide with

information on which social networks are mostly

used for educational purposes and what kind of

services are involved, as well as what kind of social

media is used in education. The received data are

presented in Table 1.

Another step included finding data about positive

and negative aspects of social networks in education.

The analysis showed that social media is used in

two main ways: 1) as service for support and

operationalization of existing forms of learning, and

2) for uupgrading the educational process. It also

confirmed the presence of the «digital gap» between

students and teachers. Positive aspects of the use of

social networks for education are associated with a

variety of activities of students, and negative aspect

included low ICT literacy and higher workload of

teachers. These data are presented in Table 2.

High school student survey

The survey included 16–18-year-old students of

Moscow schools was conducted in order to assess

how the Russian schools use mobile technologies

and social media in the learning process. Stratified

random sampling was chosen for the study, the

sample covered 3,194 respondents with percentage

45.2% of males and 54.8% females. Data was

collected in 2014 and analyzed in 2015. The results

showed that 97 % of urban teenagers have their own

mobile devices. Social network sites are most

popular web-sites, and they use them for

communication, information distribution and its

consumption. Despite official school bans students

use their cell phones or tablets while at school both

for the entertainment (70%) and self- education

purposes (70%). While technologies such as BYOD

(Bring Your Own Device) are not welcomed by

teachers, analysis of intensity and scope of

unauthorized Internet usage during the learning

process among adolescent and their academic

performance did not give statistically significant

correlations. Speaking about school computer

equipment, more than half of respondents (56%)

noted that access to school computers or other

devices (laptop, tablet, etc.) is limited. Students can

visit computer class only in special hours and

The Third Wave of Informatization - Mobile Learning and Social Networks in the Modern School for Upgrading the Educational Process

usually during the “Informatics” course. At the same

time, even at home, teens prefer to use their personal

mobile devices than desktop computers.

Simultaneously, survey data shows the obvious

progress of the schooling system: present-day

teachers communicate with their students by email

and via social networks and occasionally give

homework assignments online or using internet

services. Thus, survey data shows that school

institution suddenly found itself in a situation when

the auditorium began to represent itself as a

community of advanced Internet users who are

constantly online and switch easily between

education, communication, and entertainment. On

one hand the school system is trying to control the

situation through bans on the use of mobile

telephones, and the limitation of Internet access. On

the other hand, teachers use innovative practices, but

it depends only from teacher’s willing and interests.

It was assumed that usage of modern technologies in

schools and availability of personal devices for

schoolchildren in Moscow and other big cities are

ahead with respect to small towns in the province.

For this reason in the parallel with the key study was

conducted the study with smaller sample to examine

the actual stage of modern technologies usage for

educational purposes in different contexts. The

survey included 16–18-year-old students who live

and study in Moscow (population 10 m),

Krasnoyarsk (population 1m), Achisk (population

0,1 m) and Bolshaya Murta (0,07 m). The study

covered 252 respondents. Collected data showed

small differences in availability of personal devices

for school children, at the same time according to

the responses the usage of modern technologies in

schools in the region and province is significantly

lower than in Moscow. This once again underlines

the existing deficit of existing educational practices

of mobile phones and social networks usage in

education against the background of social situation

of child’s development change.

Document Analysis

About 100 documents of the school’s and regional

and state level have been analyzed. Data obtained

through document analysis highlighted the

contradictions regarding usage of mobile technology

and social network in education. As mentioned

above, the analysis shows two waves of

informatization programs in Russian schools. The

first wave of informatization of educational

institutions started in the 1980s, when as part of the

federal reforms, and then at the regional level,

Russian schools were equipped with computers and

basic information technologies. During the second

wave, which started in the 1990s, the goal of the

federal government was to increase the accessibility

to school computers and to provide them with

modern IT computing technologies and audio-visual

equipment as well as to provide access to Internet.

Described waves were accompanied by teachers and

school principals training programs; however, initial

resistance was observed from teachers to incorporate

new practices into their work. The described

initiative of informatization of Russian schools has

been completed in 2010 and from that moment all

responsibilities regarding technologies was

transferred from the federal government to the

regional level. A number of policy documents

indicate some E-learning in education, but general

policy in this field is not observed. In addition,

policy documents contain many contradictions

regarding usage of mobile technology and social

networks in education. For example, in some

program documents indicate that in the

modernization of the education system educators

should use new forms of learning and

communication, including online network forms of

interaction with students; others speak about

responsibility of schools for the student network

activity and that schools should limit their access to

Internet and social media.

Middle and High school students interview

The aim of the interview was to find out how

modern teenagers use mobile phones and social

networks while at school, how they switch between

online and offline activities, and if there any

resources associated with education in the social

networks. In total, 15 semi-structured interviews

were conducted. The interviews confirmed the data

obtained in the previous survey. Students say that

they use mobile phones while at school almost all

the time, usually when they experience emotional or

psychological state as boredom (when the subject is

not interesting, when there is a lecture material, and

when they are not required to participate). At the

same time adolescents go online to find educational

information too; sometimes this kind of task is given

by teachers. Many students noted that they are glad

to add their teachers as “friends” in social networks

and often turn to them with questions or get a

feedback. Teens also claimed that usually there are

younger teachers in social networks. In social

networks teenagers find all needed learning

materials, even to prepare for state exams, but none

of these resources are established by representatives

of the education system. Social network sites also

contain opportunities for cheating and plagiarism,

obsolete forms of knowledge testing

DCCSEDU 2016 - Doctoral Consortium on Computer Supported Education

question-answer students solved quickly and easily.

Interview with school teachers

10 semi-structured interviews were taken between

2014 and 2015. The average age of participants is 35

years old; respondents are mostly teaching in public

schools (90%). The questionnaire included 30

questions about teacher attitudes regarding usage of

modern technology in education, such as BOYD

(bring your own devise); applying social networks in

educational practices for communication with

students; and organizing school projects on internet.

Responding to general interview questions, all

respondents have stated that modern technologies

are the indispensable part of the educational process.

At the same time, on specific questions about how

they personally use modern technologies and

whether they consider them as useful, majority of

respondents said that they do not know how to do it

and find it useless. One of the identified barriers to

the usage of mobile phones during the learning

process for educators is a lack of understanding on

what are the possible functions and services to use.

We assume that it is due to the fact that teachers

themselves do not use smart phones to access the

web. According to interview data teachers face

limitation of Internet access in schools and social

network sites usually are blocked there. So they

usually have to connect from home computers. In

this case it is not clear how this work should by

taken into account in their workload. The analysis of

interviews shows that teachers also experience

psychological difficulties in using of modern

technology. Students use unknown/unclear terms for

teachers – ‘emoticons’ (:), :(, ), ‘likes’, and different

tones for conversation (more informal). Teachers

said that they do not know how to react to ‘this

language’ used in the social network. There is a fear

of saying something ‘wrong’ or to be misunderstood

and recorded in the space of the social network.

Workshops and focus group discussions for

teachers

Workshops and focus group were organized for the

teachers team (collective) work for development of

new practices for modern technologies such as m-

learning and social network implementation into

educational practice. One day training included 35

teachers who mostly teach in public schools (94%).

The average age of participants is 37 years old.

Communication during focus group discussions with

teachers revealed that many of them do not have

smartphones and social networks account.

Teachers were divided into 4 groups of 7-9 people

and discussed where exactly there is a need for

communication with students in the educational

process, and how it can be organized with the use of

modern technologies. At the second stage, educators

developed concrete tasks such as the usage of

gadgets and social networks incorporation into the

learning process. During discussions, educators were

enthusiastic and showed interests in this subject;

however, at the final part of the seminar, the analysis

of answers on the question about their readiness to

use some of the tools developed in the workshop in

everyday practices shows their extra willingness to

communicate with students outside the classroom;

and unavailability to spend extra time on additional

preparation as well as their fear of doing something

“wrong” on social networks.

6 CONCLUSIONS

It is too early to make final conclusions. It is

necessary to complete the planned research, but the

preliminary data shows that usage of mobile

technology is the indistinguishable process for

adolescents due to face-to-face and online

communication, which happen simultaneously.

Penetration of the online communication in

everyday lives of school children is ignored by the

compulsory education, and the educational potential

of social networks is not considered. The study

identified a new — third wave of education

informatization, which is coming not from the state

as the previous two waves — the '80s and 1990s, but

provoked by users — students as owners of the

mobile devices.

7 STAGE OF THE RESEARCH

At this stage of the research quantitative and

qualitative data obtained. On the first stage of the

project the meta-analysis of foreign studies

(publications in English) on the use of social

networks in teaching practice was prepared, state

documents analysis was done and high school

student survey (Stratified random sampling, N=3194

respondents, men (45.2%) and women (54.8%), 16-

18 years old students) were completed. It is still

necessary to conduct principals’ survey in public

schools.

The series of semi structured interviews of

adolescents and teachers have been conducted (10

teachers and 15 adolescents), workshops and focus

group discussions for teachers were organized (35

The Third Wave of Informatization - Mobile Learning and Social Networks in the Modern School for Upgrading the Educational Process

respondents who are mostly teaching in public

schools). It is necessary to increase the number of

respondents for both groups as well as to conduct

public schools principals interview and schools

teachers survey in 2016.

REFERENCES

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in classrooms: A reconceptualization of educational

practice. In R. C. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional design

theories and models, A New paradigm of instructional

theory (pp. 269- 292). London, England: Erlbaum.

Creswell, J. W., 2005. Educational research: Planning,

conducting, and evaluating quantitative and

qualitative research. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Merrill.

Daly A. J., 2010. Social Network Theory and Educational

Change. – Harvard Education Press. 8 Story Street

First Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138.

EU Kids Online, 2014. EU Kids Online: findings,

methods, recommendations (deliverable D1.6). EU

Kids Online, LSE, London, UK.

Hargittai, E. 2010. Digital Na(t)ives? Variation in Internet

Skills and Uses among Members of the ‘‘Net

Generation.’’ Sociological Inquiry, 80(1), 92-113.

Hung, D. W., & Chen, D. T., 2001. Situated cognition,

Vygotskian thought and learning from the

communities of practice perspective: Implications for

the design of web-based e-learning. Educational

Media International, 38(1), 3-12.

Hung, H. T., & Yuen, S. C. Y. (2010). Educational use of

social networking technology in higher education.

Teaching in higher education, 15(6), 703-714.

Koroleva, D., 2016. Vsegda onlajn: ispol'zovanie

mobil'nyh tekhnologij i social'nyh setej sovremennymi

podrostkami doma i v shkole, Voprosy obrazovaniya

2016, V.1.

Lenhart, A., 2015. Teens, Social Media, and Technology

Overview 2015. Pew Research Center.

Looi, Chee-Kit, et al. 2016. "Bridging Formal and

Informal Learning with the Use of Mobile

Technology." Future Learning in Primary Schools.

Springer Singapore. 79-96.

Montgomery, K. C., 2007. Generation digital: Politics,

commerce, and childhood in the age of the Internet.

Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

OECD, 2015. Measuring Innovation in Education.

Available at: http://www.oecd.org/education.

Perrin A. 2015. Social Networking Usage: 2005-2015.

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http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/2015/Social-

Networking-Usage-2005-2015/

Prensky, M. 2001. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On

the Horizon 9:1–6.

Sharples, M., Corlett, D., & Westmancott, O., 2002. The

design and implementation of a mobile learning

resource. Personal and Ubiquitous computing, 6(3),

220-234.

Shuler, C. 2009. Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile

Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning, New

York: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame

Workshop.

Tapscott, D., 1998. Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the

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Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society

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Harvard University Press.

APPENDIX

Table 1: Ways to use social media in education.

Category Number of

observations

Social network

Facebook 9

StudiVZ 1

Twitter 3

Blog 1

Using service

Group 6

Newsline 2

User wall 2

Page 3

Forms of use of social networks

Aggregation data, images and

information (8)

Previous lessons materials

publishing

Additional learning materials

publishing (by teacher)

Additional learning materials

publishing (by students)

Classified ads (1)

Extracurricular activities

information publishing

The platform for the interaction (14)

Teacher-student interaction (the

opportunity to ask a question)

Peer interaction (student

discussion)

Peer interaction (Students'

Project activities)

Student – community interaction 2

Learning management space (4)

School assignments publication 1

Student research and class

assignment publication

DCCSEDU 2016 - Doctoral Consortium on Computer Supported Education

Table 2: Positive and negative aspects of using social

networks in education.

Category Number of

observations

Technical features of social network use for

education

The positive aspects 12

Free access 5

Technical simplicity of use (for

students)

Convenient aggregating of data

and information

A wide range of services 4

The negative aspects 3

Absence of access to social

networks from classroom

Pedagogical features of social network use for

education

The positive aspects 21

Lifelong learning (for students) 4

Completing school assignments

at any convenient time (for students)

Easy feedback (for teacher and

students)

New forms of work (for teacher

and students)

Involving Parents in the

Education

Creative thinking development 2

Self-education (using aggregate

resources for students)

Engagement increase (for

students)

The negative aspects

Teachers low ICT competence 4

Psychological features of social network use

for education

The positive aspects

Consolidation of the class 1

Destruction of hierarchical

forms of interaction (the appearance

of horizontal communication)

Social integration 1

The negative aspects

Distractions when studying (for

students)

Management features of social network use

for education

The positive aspects

Students high interest in sites 3

Absence of necessity for training

in the use of social network (for

students)

The negative aspects

Teacher time and resources

investment (higher workload of

teachers)

Figure 1: Possibility to use personal mobile device during

class (N = 3194)%.

Figure 2: Availability and types of student’s personal

mobile devices (N = 3194) %.

The Third Wave of Informatization - Mobile Learning and Social Networks in the Modern School for Upgrading the Educational Process