The document summarizes two research studies conducted by Stefania Manca on the use of social media and Facebook for learning. The first study was a literature review that found Facebook has been used mainly as a learning management system rather than fully utilizing its affordances to blend information sources. Barriers included institutional policies and traditional pedagogies. The second study surveyed Italian academics and found they use social media more for personal and professional purposes rather than teaching. Use varied by discipline, and barriers included cultural, pedagogical, and institutional factors. Overall, the studies show potential but also limitations in social media integration in education due to various obstacles.

1. Social Media and Facebook for
learning: methodological aspects
and main results of two research
studies
Stefania Manca
Institute of Educational Technology
National Research Council of Italy
Genova, Italy
stefania.manca@itd.cnr.it
Tel Aviv University, 13 May 2015

2. ! ‫שלום‬‫לכולם‬

3. Institute of Educational Technology
National Research Council of Italy
ITD-CNR is the only public scientific institute in Italy entirely devoted to
studying how ICT-based tools and methods can innovate learning and
teaching processes.
The mission of ITD is to perform research studies and technology transfer
activities focusing on:
 ICT as a resource for teaching/learning processes;
 innovative approaches to the design, management and assessment of
learning environments;
 study of new educational needs and opportunities brought about by ICT.

4. Two studies: methodological issues and
main results
1. Potentials and critical issues of Facebook as a
technology-enhanced learning environment: a
literature review
2. Potentials and obstacles of Social Media use in
higher education

5. 1) Potentials and critical issues of
Facebook as a technology-
enhanced learning environment:
a literature review

6. Aim of the review
The review was carried out in 2012 with the aim to explore
the extent to which Facebook’s pedagogical potential – usually
mentioned in the literature – is actually translated into
practice, and to discuss the results from the literature in the
light of future research perspectives.
It was not intended to provide pedagogical recommendations
related to the efficacy of Facebook as a learning tool, but to
investigate to what extent the affordances provided by
Facebook as a cognitive and relational amplifier have been
exploited in the examined studies.

7. Research questions
1. Mixing information and learning resources: To what extent does the
combination of instructional material with information and knowledge
sources, produced elsewhere and available through several channels,
influence the design and the delivery of the learning experience?
2. Hybridization of expertise: To what extent are peripheral and
emergent interactions occurring on networks through the
contribution of current and past learners, practicing professionals,
other teachers, etc. exploited, thereby encouraging the development
of social capital?
3. Widening context of learning: To what extent do learners and
instructors share personal and professional interests and aspirations,
thus mixing different contexts of learning and social and personal
life?

8. Material
 Only empirical studies published in peer-reviewed academic
journals with a specific focus on Facebook as a learning
environment were considered.
 Extensive research using the keyword ‘Facebook’ and according to
criteria such as subject area (e.g., educational technology, Internet
in education) or categories (e.g., educational research), with English
as the language of the articles was conducted on a number of
sources:
 (1) a list of journals regarding educational research, educational technology
and technology-enhanced learning;
 (2) a number of electronic databases (Education Resources Information
Centre – ERIC, Education Research Complete – ERC (EBSCO), Web of Science,
Scopus).

9. Methods
 As of 19 June 2012, the searches had yielded a number of articles distributed as follows: (1) list of
journals: 67 papers; (2) ERIC: 268 papers; (3) ERC: 291 papers; (4) Web of Science: 266 papers; (5)
Scopus: 491 papers.
 Out of these, 23 relevant articles were found. They were subsequently analysed according to a
simplified list of guidelines. These articles were further analysed and recoded through a set of
emerging categories.
 Each paper was read independently by the two authors and analysed according to a simplified list of
guidelines taken from Newman and Elbourne (2004), to whom three further indicators (Facebook
usage; Facebook features and other tools; why Facebook?) were added. The final list adopted for
coding comprises the following items:
 (1) author(s) and year;
 (2) research purpose;
 (3) Facebook usage;
 (4) Facebook features and other tools;
 (5) why Facebook?;
 (6) research design and methods;
 (7) context;
 (8) findings.

10. Summary of results
The results show that pedagogical affordances of
Facebook have only been partially implemented.
There are still many obstacles that may prevent a
full adoption of Facebook as a learning
environment such as: declared and implicit
institutional policies, teacher and student
pedagogies, and cultural issues.

11. Mixing information and learning
resources
 Facebook was mainly used as a Learning Management System, relying on the familiarity
of students with SNS. When used as and/or when compared with a virtual learning
environment, Facebook seems to be conceived and designed as a ‘fenced’ space to
deliver content and support interactions rather than to combine different and
heterogeneous sources of instructional materials. As a consequence, this affordance of
blending filtered and non-filtered contents seems to be very often underestimated.
 However, in some experiences the information delivered in the course was not limited
to predefined contents but open to diverse sources exposing learners to a variety of
inputs. In this case, the authors seem to emphasize the need for a new role of the teacher
as ‘information moderator’ with an obvious impact on designing and delivering.
 In other terms, in so far as the exposure to many and different types of information can
enrich the learning experience but also cause an increase of cognitive load, the role of
teachers should be reshaped in terms of facilitators able to guide students to navigate in
the oceanic world of digital information.

12. Hybridization of expertise
 There is an awareness that an open environment such as Facebook allows access
to a plethora of resources usually inaccessible in closed learning systems.
However, most of the learning experiences reported try to reproduce existing
educational settings through the adoption of the metaphor of the classroom or
lecture hall, with special attention to issues of privacy and protection of
students’ identity.
 The choice of consolidated pedagogies that derive from an established tradition
of online and distance education that heavily relies on LMS and other virtual
learning environments (VLEs) also affects many of the educational practices that
are occurring on SNS. The bottom-up networked dynamics of social networks
can conflict with the hierarchical top-down organization of academic
institutions.

13. Widening context of learning
 Although some authors emphasize that teachers have to change their way of
teaching to accommodate their students’ social and digital practices, a number
of cases pointed out that although students tend to post more on Facebook
groups than in LMS environments, the majority of posts are usually related to
affective communication rather than to topics relating to the themes of the
course. Although appreciating the learning experience that occurred in the
Facebook environment, many students still resist its full usage as a formal tool
of learning, at least when it is the only tool provided.
 In a way, it seems that most students have a rather traditional vision of
schooling. Their implicit pedagogies still make precise distinctions between
spaces and time of learning and spaces and time for socialization and
entertainment. These traditional visions of schooling and formal education tend
to separate ‘life’ from ‘studying’ and ‘home’ from ‘lectures’, and students’ use of
Facebook consequently ‘appeared to be (un)consciously replicating and
reinforcing roles developed in their previous phases” of their education.

14. In progress
Is Facebook still a suitable technology-enhanced
learning environment? An updated critical review of
the literature from 2012 to 2015

15. 2) Potentials and obstacles of
Social Media use in higher
education

16. Preliminary remarks
 A study about the potentials and obstacles of Social Media for
teaching in higher education have been object of a recent research,
conducted through a survey addressed to the entire Italian
academic staff at the end of 2013, with the aim of identifying the
uses of Social Media in the field of university teaching practices.
 The respondents were asked to identify frequency of use,
motivations, teaching practices and obstacles related to the use of a
number of tools: generic social network sites (Twitter, Facebook),
professional and academic networking services (LinkedIn,
ResearchGate and Academia.edu), tools to write and comment
(blog, wiki) and to archive and retrieve content material for lectures
and group work (podcast, YouTube and Vimeo, SlideShare).

17. Aims of the study
This study aims at providing empirical evidence on how
higher education scholars are using Social Media for
personal, teaching and professional purposes, by taking
into account a number of socio-demographic variables
such as gender, age, numbers of years of teaching,
academic title, and academic discipline.

18. Material and methods
 The survey was adapted and translated from a questionnaire annually administered by
Pearson and the Babson Survey Research Group, with the aim of providing a framework of
the various uses related to the personal, teaching and professional areas of interest
among the higher education sector.
 The 2012 edition (Moran, Seaman, & Tinti-Kane, 2012) was translated and adapted for the
Italian context. A number of questions were modified in order to accommodate the tool
to the cultural and geographical context; new questions with the aim of providing more
detailed information about organizational aspects were also inserted. Moreover, some
specific items about detailed use of Social Media tools, in terms of personal, teaching and
professional development use, that were absent in the original version, were finalised.
 The result was a tool composed mostly of closed questions and a number of open fields
through which respondents could, at their own choice, motivate their responses.
 The response rate was 10.5%, corresponding to 6,139 responses.

19. Research questions
1. What are the socio-demographic variables that are most related to
frequency of personal, teaching and professional use of Social Media
tools?
2. Is there a relationship between the different kinds of use, so that
personal, teaching and professional use of Social Media tools are related
to each other?
3. Is there a relationship between frequency of use of Social Media tools
and online and/or blended teaching and use of institutional e-learning
systems?
4. What are the main motivations to use Social Media tools in teaching?
5. In what ways were Social Media tools used as part of a course?
6. What are the obstacles that prevent academic staff from using them in
their teaching practice?

20. Main results 1/2
 Scholars are more inclined to adopt Social Media for personal and professional uses rather than
for teaching practices: the frequency of personal and professional use is on average high, with
more than 70% of academics using at least one tool on a monthly basis for personal purposes
and almost 60% for professional interest, while less than 50% declaring they use Social Media
for teaching.
 The variable most associated with frequency of use is scientific discipline: for example,
Humanities and Arts plus Social Sciences are more inclined to use Twitter, Facebook, Podcast,
Blog-Wiki and YouTube-Vimeo for all the purposes under investigation, while Mathematics and
Computer Science plus Natural Sciences and Professions and Applied Sciences lean more
towards professional tools such as LinkedIn and/or ResearchGate-Academia.edu.
 Personal use is almost always associated with professional use, but much less with teaching
use, though some important exceptions including Podcast, Blog-Wiki, YouTube-Vimeo and
SlideShare must be noted, whereby the association between teaching and professional use is
more relevant than the association between personal and professional use.
 Prior experience with e-learning or blended learning is associated with Social Media use:
scholars who are using the institutional e-learning platforms or are delivering online or blended
learning are more inclined to use all types of Social Media for all the three types of uses, with
the exception of ResearchGate-Academia.edu.

21. Main results 2/2
 As far to the main motivations to use Social Media tools in teaching,
the scientific discipline plays a significant role also particularly
referring to Podcast, Blog-Wiki, YouTube-Vimeo and ResearchGate-
Academia.edu.
 Social Media are used to visualise resources, comment on them or
even create new content.
 The obstacles that prevent academic staff from using Social Media
for teaching are mainly cultural and social factors (the erosion of
teachers’ traditional roles, the management of relationships with
students or the issue of privacy threats; pedagogical (face-to-face
teaching is perceived as pedagogically more effective than online
teaching); and administrative and institutional.

22. Conclusions
 Social Media use is still rather limited and restricted and that
academics are not much inclined to integrate these devices into
their practices for several reasons, such as cultural resistance,
pedagogical issues or institutional constraints.
 However, there are differences among academics in the ways they
use Social Media or perceive them, mostly depending on the
scientific discipline of teaching and personal data such as age.
 Overall, the results emphasize ambivalent attitudes towards the
benefits and challenges of these tools in the context of higher
education with obstacles prevailing over advantages.

23. References
 Manca, S., & Ranieri, M. (2013). Is it a tool suitable for learning? A critical review of the
literature on Facebook as a technology-enhanced learning environment. Journal of
Computer Assisted Learning, 29 (6), 487-504.
 Manca, S., & Ranieri, M. (submitted). Facebook and the Others. Potentials and obstacles
of Social Media for teaching in higher education. Computers & Education.
 Manca, S., & Ranieri, M. (submitted). “Yes for Sharing, No for Teaching!”: Social Media in
Academic Practices. The Internet and Higher Education.
 Ranieri, M., & Manca, S. (2013). I social network nell’educazione. Basi teoriche, modelli
applicativi e linee guida. Erickson, Trento (in Italian).

24. ! ‫תודה‬‫רבה‬
Stefania Manca
ITD-CNR, Italy
stefania.manca@itd.cnr.it