This chapter presents a study carried out to describe and determine the relevance of the Facebook network as a tool for development of the teaching-learning processes in the teacher-training classroom, and knowledge of the same for use in a research model. This study is based on an analysis of the latest research on the use of social networks in higher education to describe an experiment performed in a group of future primary teachers at a Spanish university in which Facebook was used as a resource to improve the teaching-learning processes. The outcomes point towards a positive evaluation of Facebook as a resource for the creation of collaborative learning communities, improving teaching-learning processes, knowledge construction and social learning, the classroom climate, tutoring among peers and with faculty, foreign-language practice, and digital competence. Among the initial conclusions, the authors highlight the need to demonstrate tools like Facebook to student teachers to ensure their appropriate professional and personal development.
TopIntroduction
The use of social networks is an increasingly common practice in university education. Nowadays, the application of social networks in the academic field of higher education is a reality (Mendiguren, Meso & Perez, 2012). Social networks are prompting a rethink of the traditional teaching model consisting of lectures as the only strategy, with the student treated as a mere spectator in the teaching-learning process. At present, Higher Education and European Higher Education mostly rely on a didactic researcher model where the student is the main actor in the teaching-learning process and the teacher is merely a guide to the use of different resources and strategies to access the knowledge (Pasadas, 2010). Within these resources nowadays, as we have seen, it is necessary to talk about the Internet and Web 2.0 as its constituents, and of social networking as a springboard to collaborative learning by students.
This fact exerts a powerful influence in the educational sphere. When talking about the incorporation of technologies in education and the didactic resource, it is a technological innovation, but only with these new integrated, alternative pedagogical models and search of pedagogical innovation (Mayorga & Madrid, 2010). With this contextual framework, in terms of use and familiarization with social networks, education is in the position of having to address a new dimension in the process of student training.
This chapter presents a study carried out to describe and determine the relevance of the Facebook network as a tool for development of the teaching-learning processes in the teacher-training classroom, and knowledge of the same for use in a research model.
After proposing a theoretical foundation for the use of Facebook in Higher Education, specifically in the training of primary teachers, we go on to describe an experiment performed with a group of 2nd year students on the primary education degree course at the University of Huelva, which was also carried out in subsequent courses. This experiment was analysed through a case study including interviews, discussion groups, observations and document analysis (Gómez & Coronel, 2014). Finally, we contrasted the results obtained in this experiment with the research works described in the theoretical grounding.
It also means the beginning of the training for teachers, who have had to learn to distinguish between the advantages and disadvantages of social networks in order to make them a suitable educational resource for the classroom.