Exploring Pre-service Teachers’ Awareness on Using Social Networking Sites: Are they ready for digital citizenship?
Undergraduate students have been widely-adopted Social Networking Sites (SNSs) such as Facebook. Some issues were discussed among users concerning the users’ netiquette. For users like pre-service teachers who may or may not use SNSs for their communication tools in near future, however, there is a need for teacher education institutes to prepare their digital citizenship. This study examined three hundred and seventy seven pre-service teachers of the awareness of SNSs communication behaviors. Quantitative data indicated that the number of network friends was the most significant factors effects to SNSs communication behaviors and awareness. Qualitative data from the open-ended question revealed the need to revise the ED-TECH course for pre-service teachers to have more deep understanding on digital citizenship.
How Facebook Connects Students’ Group Work Collaboration: A Relationship between Personal Facebook Usage and Group Engagement
This study examined the relationship between the personal value of social networking technology, the frequency of Facebook use, the frequency of Facebook activities, and group engagement. The samples were 205 pre-service teachers who participated in the six-week online group project. Questionnaires were collected after the pre-service teachers submitted the project. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis to identify relations among variables. The results showed that 98% of pre-service teachers expanded their network by adding group members to their Facebook friends during the project assignment. The study found no relationship between personal purposive values of social networking technology and group engagement. Although 58.4% of the students used Facebook many times a day, the frequency of usage was largely related to personal interests rather than being relevant to group communication and engagement with the project assignment. However, there were significant but slight correlations between the Facebook activity “view others’ status to update social events” and group engagement; between “private messages” and group engagement; between “set up and share events” and group engagement; between “commenting” and group engagement; and between “clicking like” and group engagement. Therefore, educators should integrate their instructional strategy with the virtual learning environment to promote students’ group engagement via social networking sites.
Historias de mi barrio: contemporary art in a community at high risk of social exclusion
Abstract Historias de mi barrio is a piece of pedagogic research aimed at highlighting the way art can articulate the relationship between the educational context and a neighbourhood at high risk of social exclusion. The starting point for this study was to ask whether this type of research, centred around the arts, was suitable in complex contexts and whether it might eventually lead to pedagogic improvement. The results gathered, and indeed the work carried out by the artists and university lecturers involved, together with pupils 6–12 years old and their instructors in a state school, provide evidence of a positive answer – and notably of the necessity of knowing about the socio-economic reality of the student cohort when planning learning projects and of the importance of the arts as a crucial element in education.