The Role of Social Media Technologies in E-Learning: Promoting Interactivity in Online Learning Environments

Introduction

Information communication technologies (ICT) are increasingly changing formal education settings and offering unprecedented level of interactions to students and teachers (Parsons, 2016). Social media platforms, for instance, are influencing several dimensions of our lives including educational settings. Students and teachers are constantly engaged with portable devices such as iPhones, iPads, and smartphones. All these portable devices are equipped with social media applications such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and other Web 3.0 tools for content sharing and social connection (Manhas, 2012). The growth of social media among other Web 3.0 tools also provides opportunities for improved learning and teaching experiences (Benson & Morgan, 2014; Paul, 2013). Due to a tremendous growth in the use of social media, there is continued interest on finding ways to tap their educational benefits.

This chapter examines how evolution of social media is re-shaping the field of education. The chapter begins by looking at current trends in the use of social media, especially evolution from traditional, to blended, and to online learning environments, in in higher education. The chapter further offers a critical discussion and draws insights on how social media can be used to build productive interactivity towards enhancing collaborative learning in e-learning (blended and online) environments. The educational benefits and challenges for social media are also discussed.

A fundamental characteristic of social media is that it puts the learner as both content creator and consumer. In this way, it becomes emancipatory especially for the digital natives, giving voice and autonomy to the learners, thus considered a critical tool for achieving learner-centeredness in higher education. However, social media is also open to the possibility of uncoordinated discourse and this can be detrimental in formal educational setting. This chapter attempts to explicate congruent theoretical perspectives and desirable characteristics for use of social media towards promoting interactive collaborations and meaningful learning.

In the context of this chapter, online learning is defined as a form of e-learning that is enabled by Internet and mobile technologies, does not require the teacher and the learner to be available at the same time and place, and constitutes 80% or more learning/teaching activities conducted through web-based ICT (Gikandi, Morrow, & Davis, 2011). Further, blended learning is defined as e-learning environments where 30-80% of learning/teaching activities are conducted through web-based ICT. Some researchers and practitioners in the educational realm use the terms blended and online learning as a continuum mainly to refer to a set of approaches that draw heavily upon use of integrated ICT in educational settings including web-based learning management systems, Web 3.0 tools, mobile-enabled platforms among others as digital technologies continue to evolve.

There is substantial literature on how both students and faculty are attempting to build interactivity through use of social media technologies. Advocates of social media technologies contend that these tools upgrade and supplement the widely used conventional delivery modes, thus offering expanded opportunities to create virtual classroom for facilitating blended and online learning (Giannikas, 2020; Salloum, et al., 2019). For instance, referring to traditional learning approaches, Ololube (2014) argues that human beings learn best when there is some form of interaction via group work and collaborative learning. Social media students to work together within and beyond their face-to-face classroom. Also, important learning objectives that include interactions and collaboration can be enhanced virtually thereby overcoming time and space barriers.