Social Media and the New Academic Environment: Pedagogical Challenges

Reviews and Testimonials

Bogdan Patrut (computer science, Vasile Alecsandri U. of Bacau, Romania), Monica Patrut, and Camelia Cmeciu draw together 20 chapters by researchers in educational technology, communication, marketing and business, information technology, education, and other areas from Europe, the US, Canada, and Malaysia, who consider the changes brought to higher education by social media, specifically the integration of social media into the existing academic environment and moving to a new social academic environment that would be originally integrated with social media. They discus pedagogical challenges, including collaboration between faculty and students on Facebook, mobile learning for vocational education, social design, and learning 2.0 in high school; the integration of social media, including its impact on the development of distance education communities, changes in corporate social responsibility focused on informal education when moving to Web 2.0, and the adaptation of social media-based courses to the changes in industry; case studies of educational institutions in Romania, Spain, Portugal, Malaysia, Ukraine, the US, and Singapore; and technologies such as microblogging, intensive data communication, and augmented reality, as well as social media dependency.

Provides a unique overview of the role social media plays in the creation and exchange of user-generated content and social interaction in the educational realm. [...] Focusing on the benefits and challenges that social media represents in the world of education, this work is valuable to educators, practitioners, and students of education who want to know more about this changing impact and influences.