Abstract
Social media sites have been recognised as important resources for education. They facilitate effective interaction between teachers and students and promote prompt and frequent interactions among students. Hence, this study was aimed at assessing the use of social media by students of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). To achieve this, the study attempted to determine the extent to which students of NOUN use social media, what the students use social media for, and the challenges and benefits of the use of social media by the students for academic purpose. Selected theories for this study are uses and gratification and diffusion of innovation theories. The study employed survey method of research. The study discovered that all the respondents had access to social media sites. The study also observed that majority of the respondents share academic materials through their social media sites. Some of the identified challenges in accessing social media include weak internet connection, inconsistent power supply, limited financial resources.
TopBackground
Social media is a phrase being tossed around these days, but it can sometimes be difficult to answer the question. If MYSPACE is a social media site and MAG.NOLIA is a social media site, and WIKIPEDIA is a social media site, then what is social media?
Social media according to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) refers to “group of internet-based applications” that builds on the ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0 and that allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content. It is a form of electronic communication which facilitates interaction based on certain interests and characteristics. Social media use web-based technologies to transform media monologues into social dialogues. They support the democratisation of knowledge and information and transform people from content consumers to content producers.
It comprises of activities that involve socialising and networking online through words, pictures and videos. Social media is redefining how we relate to each other and how we as individuals relate to the organizations that serve us. It is about dialogue (two way or multi-way) discussions that bring people together to discover and share information (Solis, 2008).
Social media technologies facilitate social interaction, make possible collaboration, and enable deliberation by stakeholders across boundaries, time and space. These technologies include; blogs, wikis, media (audio, photo, video, text) sharing tools, networking platforms (including Facebook), and virtual worlds (Bryer and Zavatarro, 2011).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Network: It is what connects several people together through social media. It is a group of two or more devices that can communicate. It comprises of a number of different computer systems connected by physical and/or wireless connections.
Social media: It is web and mobile based technologies used to turn communication into interactive dialogue between two or more people. Examples are Instagram, Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
E-Book: It is a like a web page providing the reader with additional features that enable fast navigation through hyper linking, annotation and keyword searches supporting multiple reader’s journey through the content.