University Faculty and Student Use of Social Media in Higher Education

Background

In developing this article, three of the most popular social media applications—Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter—and their utilization by higher education faculty and students were examined. This research did not distinguish between online, hybrid, and traditional classroom learning environments but examined the personal usage and integration of social media into an instructor’s course requirements. By now most higher education faculty realize that this generation of students, sometimes called “Millennial” or “Net” use the Internet differently and may even learn differently than previous generations (Willingham, 22010). Today’s students seem to have different styles of information processing. This is not to judge if this new style of learning is better or worse, just that it is different. It is evident from the results of this study that social media is widely used by college students and faculty, but the transfer of this usage to classroom learning and course implementation doesn’t appear to be at the same high levels. It is also evident that college students at all levels, freshmen through doctoral, are on a continuous search for newer and better social media formats to supplement and support their academic learning.