1. CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
The rise of Web 2.0 in promoting two-way communication between the user and
the web content really change the way people communicate, learn and create new
knowledge. It is apparently enhances the social aspect of creating and sharing new
knowledge through community-based websites. According to Redecker, Ala-Mutka,
Bacigalupo, Ferrari and Punie (2009), the example of Web 2.0 applications that are
widely used nowadays are:
• Facebook and Myspace (social networking)
• Wikipedia (collaborative content)
• Flickr and YouTube (multimedia sharing)
• Deli.cio.us (social tagging)
• Second Life (social gaming)
• Blogspot and Wordpress (blogging)
Most of Web 2.0 applications are really focusing on the social aspect by
connecting user worldwide in a particular application. As Vassileva (2008) suggested that
Web 2.0 is also known as the ‘participative Web’ because it is fully depends on user’s
involvement in the web content creation. The characteristic of Web 2.0 somehow reflects
the notion of social learning whereby social learning suggests that people learn better
when interacting with others on a specific topic. The Web 2.0 features are truly caters for
the current generation’s way of communicating and sharing knowledge among each
others and the particular generation according to Prensky (2001) is called the ‘Digital
Native. Digital Native is the generation (who are born in the late 1970s) who lives and
surrounded with the 21st century technologies on the daily basis. As the Web 2.0

2. applications are no stranger to Digital Native, it somehow affects the learning pattern of
knowledge building among them.
This research will be focusing on social networking sites usage in performing
collaborative learning among students. Social networking is like an online community
that connects users with shared-common interests or activities within the network.
Hartshon (2010) added that social networking is an act of engagement because of its
user’s active involvement in the environment itself. Users are allowed to create, share and
give reflections on the particular interest or activities. Boyd and Ellison (2007) defined
social networking as “web based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public
or semipublic profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with
whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and
those made by others within the system.”
Since social networking highly focuses on the social interaction and hence,
learning and knowledge building are obviously occur within the social context. This
phenomenon reflects to the Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory which is the social
constructivism theory. The theory suggested that knowledge building and construction
occurs in a social context (McMahon, 1997). Learner constructs new knowledge by an
active interaction process among peers and teacher. Social constructivism is depending
on the interaction between learners including the conversation, discussion and negotiation
(Confrey, 1995; Ernest, 1995). Social constructivism is complementing the knowledge
acquisition using Web 2.0 applications whereby “learning is culturally and socially
influenced; simply put, the community around us affects the way we see the world”
(Chen, 2001; Lightner, 2007; Consulting & Harmelen, 2007).
In this research, the researcher will be focusing on Facebook as the social
networking sites and it will be studied profoundly in term of its usage for collaborative
learning among students in higher education. Facebook itself is a social application and it
provides room for students to conduct online discussion, sharing digital repositories,
mentor and advising group as well as creating collaborative projects among others

3. (Addison & Peters, 2007). Promoting to incorporate Web 2.0 applications or Learning 2.0
into educational context seems a promising initiative because learning experience that
occurs are more informal, personalized, ubiquitous, collaborative, active participatory
and the most important thing is it offers student-oriented learning process (McLoughlin &
Lee, 2007). Moreover, incorporating this informal learning experience into formal
education settings for instance, using it in higher education would offers big opportunities
in increasing the student’s engagement throughout the learning experience (Bull,
Thompson, Searson, Garofalo, Park & Young, 2008).
Yazid and Wang (2009) indicated that Facebook has great potentials to be used
for teaching and learning. Although Facebook is not initially built as an education tool or
an online learning environment, its unique features expand its usage to be implemented in
educational settings. Moreover, research have proven that higher education students are
very engage in using Facebook on daily basis as a tool to communicate and shares digital
documents among friends (Ellison, 2010). This situation creates opportunities among
educators to explore the pedagogy approach in implementing learning and teaching by
using Web 2.0 since students are much more engaged with the 21st century digital life
outside school. As Prensky mentioned in 2001, students nowadays are lack of
engagement and motivation of learning in school. However, students are really engaged
outside school by the 21st century digital lifestyle compared to when in school.
1.2 Research Problem
Although Facebook has great potentials to be implemented in educational
settings, there is still requires lots of in-depth research in utilizing social networking for
academic purposes (Sturgeon & Walker, 2009). Since Facebook is relatively new, most
of the research made by scholars were discussing about its usage in educational context in
general. In-depth research is needed in finding the educational values in social
networking sites particularly using Facebook.

4. Bull et al. (2008) indicated that students are less engage in classroom settings. It is
because outside school, students are used to 21st century skills on the daily basis through
the usage of Web 2.0 technologies and it somehow had changed the way students live,
learn and communicating among each other. When in school, the applied pedagogy
sometimes is not aligned with the student’s learning preference. Hence, students feel lack
of engagement in the learning experience in school compared to the level of engagement
outside school.
Research shown that social networking supports today’s learner characteristics
and educators can utilize social networking to help extend the learner’s learning skills.
University of Minnesota (2008) reported that “Students using social networking to sites
are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be
successful today” (University of Minnesota, 2008).
Dyes (2010) mentioned the use of technology in enhancing learning experience is
capable to increase the student engagement towards learning and allows student to
control the learning pace. McLoughlin and Lee (2008) suggested that digital tools and
social networking sites would improve learning experience to be meaningful by
enhancing the level of engagement towards the knowledge creation among multiple users
within the network.
Researchers have seen this phenomenon as the potential to expand the
pedagogical advantages which offers huge benefits in enhancing student’s learning
experience as well as exposing the educators the current way of teaching tool to fit
student’s learning preference (Selwyn, 2009; Munoz et al., 2009; Yazid et al., 2009).
Munoz et al., (2009) assumed that implementing Facebook as online learning
environment would increase communications among students and teachers, learners can
have control on the learning and provides alternative learning environment for students.

5. 1.3 Research Question
The purpose of the study is to study the student engagement in conducting
collaborative learning using Facebook. The social aspect in learning that underlying in
collaborative learning and social networking are the elements that interrelate with the
purpose of the study. Both social elements affect the student engagement in knowledge
building process using Facebook. The research question of the research is:
1. What are the student’s preferences of Facebook features that could enhance
student engagement in collaborative learning?
(i) What are the reasons that influence student engagement in conducting
collaborative learning using Facebook?
Social networking sites offer the potential of learning and teaching affordance that
could engage student in the learning experience. It is vital for the researcher to identify
the features available in social networking sites that foster collaborative learning
experience among students and educators. In this question, the researcher may possibly
prove which features that the students find to be useful for knowledge creation process in
a social context in the future.
Research had shown that current generations are so engaged in using
Facebook as the place to perform social task such as socializing and communicating
among friends within its social network. Furthermore, there are numbers of Facebook
applications created to make full use of Facebook as the online learning environment for
students and conducting online learning activities within Facebook (College Degree.com,
2008). The sub questions of the research question would seek the user’s perception (both
students and subject matter experts) towards learning affordance that Facebook offers
that could foster students engagement in collaborative learning.

6. 1.4 Objective of the Study
• To identify the student’s preferences of Facebook features that could enhance
student engagement in performing collaborative learning through Facebook
• To investigate the reasons that influence student engagement in conducting
collaborative learning using Facebook
1.5 Urgency of the Research
The vast usage of Web 2.0 somehow offers teaching and learning benefits for
educators. Practicing and applying current technologies and innovation into both teaching
and learning is vital since the way today’s learning method is totally different compared
to ages ago. Redecker et al. (2009) described the new pedagogy as Learning 2.0 or
Pedagogy 2.0 where all learning and teaching method is using the Web 2.0 applications
and features. As the feature’s is enhancing the social aspect in its function and structure,
it indicates that implementing learning in social context using Web 2.0 is anticipating in
encouraging new way of learning where it is more suitable for the current generation
preference in education context (Gibson, Reynolds-Alpert, Doering & Searson, 2009).
Woo and Reeves (2007) mentioned that applying social constructivism theory in
web-based learning could increase student engagement towards knowledge building
process provide a meaningful learning outcome. Since social constructivism is enhancing
the social interactions in knowledge building, students and educators could have an active
online discussion, instant messaging and collaborating in a group project in web-based
environment. It is possible for such interactions to occurs in Facebook environment and it
is capable to enhance student engagement in term of becoming the place for sharing
educational experiences and for student advising” (Addison et al., 2007). Greenhow,
Searson and Strudler (2009) reported that most of the teens in United States of America
(USA) are furthering the usage of networked social media as a tool to support not only in
socializing virtually but also for creative and academic purposes as well.

7. It is vital for educators to provide learning approach that meets today’s learner
preference. Since student nowadays are so engaged with the social media in everyday
life, there is an opportunity to explore the learning possibilities that might occur in the
context of social media (Gibson et al., 2009). It is because if student feels engaged in the
learning process and are familiar with it, it would lead to a better learning outcome.
According to Greenhow et al. (2009), research on studying the impact of social
networking site on student’s daily life can provide educators some insight about delivery
learning method that suits today’s learner preference.
The researcher is keen to study on collaborative learning through Facebook since
it has the potential to enhance student engagement. Moreover, there are few research
conducted about the effectiveness and appropriateness of social networking usage in
academic field since social networking is quite a new technology (McCarthy, 2009;
Sturgeon et al., 2009). On top of that, Ellison (2010) stressed that there are few studies
conducted about the implication of Facebook’s usage in education setting especially the
relation of student engagement in collaborative activities through Facebook. The result of
this study would help the body of knowledge in finding educational values of Web 2.0
applications especially using Facebook.
Furthermore, Facebook offers informal learning style to the learners and its
educational potential could be applied in formal educational setting as the alternative
learning environment for students (Selwyn, No date). Learning informally with formal
education context will engage student more throughout the learning process since
learning would be ubiquitous and self-paced (Sturgeon et al., 2009). As Munoz et al.
(2009) mentioned, “Scholars should continue their investigations into these alternative
teaching tools to determine if the benefit of creating cyber learning communities to
complement the traditional classroom experience is worth the cost of retooling and
restructuring” (Munoz et al., 2009, p. 9).

8. 1.6 Significance of the Research
Sturgeon et al. (2009) had conducted a study on Facebook’s usage in higher
education for both students and faculty members. The research by Sturgeon et al. (2009)
concluded that Facebook has indirect impact to the academic performance. The study
revealed that the relationship and the environment in Facebook had connected both
students and faculty members provide effective communication between both parties.
This phenomenon created a better learning atmosphere and enhances the student
enhancement in the classroom. It is because the familiarity with Facebook and the
communication built among students and faculty members in Facebook make students
feel relaxed and the academic environment and hence, student will experience a better
learning outcome.
McCarthy (2009) conducted a research on utilizing Facebook in first year
university’s student regarding its impact on educational experience. The result of the
research showed that Facebook successfully engaged students through online discussions
and reflections. It helped the students to increase the engagement between peers through
developing sense of belonging in the online learning community. This virtual connection
created via Facebook resulted to engage student and lead to increase in-class participation
because students were already comfortable with other students in the particular academic
networks.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The scope of the study would be higher education students as the sample group
and several subject matter experts in the area of social learning and educational
technology to validate the data findings.

9. A Study of Using Social Networking to
Support Collaborative Learning
Chapter 1
Introduction
(draft)
Zaihasriah Zahidi
1092300032
Master of Multimedia (e-Learning Technologies)