1. Social media in education
Advantages and disadvantages
EDA – 590 Workshop: Teaching and learning at a distance
Don Quick. Ph.D.
• Brandon Alconcel
• Ernesto Luna
• William Wiess
July, 2012

2. Advantages
Many have pointed to the educational benefits of these media (also called
Web 2.0). And all agree that with the right guidance, the advantages
outweigh the disadvantages (Connolly, 2011).
1. Social media tools and networking sites encourage students to interact
with each other, share ideas and to express their creativity.
2. Social media helps to establish enduring relationships with real people.
A few examples are:
• Facebook can help students overcome isolation that otherwise might
lead them to leave school.
• Twitter can provide shy students with information about events that
facilitates face-to-face encounters with other students. Such personal
interactions can create and sustain a sense of belonging.

3. Advantages
3. These relationships created over social media can be fostered on the
community level too.
4. The Internet and social media train our brains to skim and scan (Connelly,
2011). Due too the large amount of information available on social media
sites, students learn to discern easily between what is useful for them
and what is not.
5. Because it is easy to use, and accessible from virtually everywhere and at
any time, social media improves communication among students and
teachers.
6. Social media helps prepare students for successful employment.
Students entering the workforce can use social networking sites like
LinkedIn to network and find employment.

4. Disadvantages
1. Being connected and searching for information on Facebook, Google, and
other web services simultaneously, seizes and fragments our attention.
Although students can develop “scanning and skimming” skills, they could
also get used to not paying enough attention to what is important.
2. They can subvert higher-order reasoning processes, “including the kind of
focus, concentration, and persistence necessary for critical thinking and
intellectual development” (Lederer, 2012).
3. Some researchers have correlated heavy Internet use with greater
impulsivity, less patience, less tenacity, and weaker critical thinking skills
(Connelly, 2011).

5. Disadvantages
4. Prolonged Internet use exposes students to interactive, repetitive, and
addictive stimuli that produce permanent changes in brain structure and
function damaging their learning skills (Connelly, 2011).
5. While it is true that the more one uses the Internet and social media, the
better the brain can skim and scan, research suggests that these gains
degrade the capacity for concentration.

6. References
Connolly, M. (2011). Benefits and drawbacks of social media in education.
Retrieved from
http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/news/coverstories/2011/benefits_and_drawba
cks.php
Lederer, K. (2012). Pros and cons of social media in the classroom.
Retrieved from
http://campustechnology.com/articles/2012/01/19/pros-and-cons-of-
social-media-in-the-classroom.aspx