Era of Globalization Essay
This century is an era of globalization and with high technology and transformation.
As of 2011, one-third of the 2.26 billion of the world's population are having internet access and this will be risen up to 40% by this year 2016 as projected by the Broadband Commission (Dron, J.; Anderson, T., 2014:3). The development of technology today and the integration of this modern technology into the learning process lead to educational evaluation and enhancement (Ataie F. et.al, 2015:47).
The impact of technology in the education of today is not new in the education process. The internet and other related technologies bring information, research, and literature directly to the classroom (Fewkes A. M.; McCabe M., 2012:93).
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Technology gives the students free access to information and resources twenty-four hours in seven days (24/7), that enables them to create multimedia content and share it with the world, and that allows them to participate in online social networks and communities where people from all over the world share ideas, collaborate and learn new things (U.S. Department of Education, 2010).
Most of the students today are defined by their reliance on social media, their technological multitasking capabilities, and their propensity toward all things new (Mills N., 2011:345). The social media has become an integral part of modern society (Web Designer Depot staff, 2009) and also known as Web 2.0 (Dewing M., 2010; Cann A., Dimitriou K.; Hooley T., 2011).).
Social media are computer-mediated technologies that allow individuals, companies, NGOs, government, and other organizations to view, create, and share information, ideas, career interests, and another form of expression via virtual communities and networks (Wikipedia contributor, 2016).
There are many kinds of social media, social networking (Facebook), microblogging (Twitter), video sharing (YouTube), news aggregation (Google reader), social search (Google), and instant messaging (Yahoo! Messenger, Skype) (Zafarani, R., Abbasi, M. A., Liu, H., 2014).
These social media tools produce information every day (Cann A., Dimitriou K.; Hooley T., 2011; Al-Brahmi, W. M., Othman, M. S., Yusof, L. M., Musa, M. A., 2015:267) and provide a collaborative learning process by looking at the contributions of other students in the collaborative working space and by reflecting on their own contributions as well (Hopkins B., 2016, Balakrishnan, V., 2016:36).
Through social media the students are able to interact with one another, build a sense of community, develop content, as well as require students to be active in their own learning through participating, thinking, and contributing (Casey and Evans, 2011; Al-Brahmi, W. M., Othman, M. S., Yusof, L. M., Musa, M. A., 2015:265).
The students are able to upload their ideas on social media sites and receive feedback from others (Balakrishnan V., 2016:35). Social media become both media of formal and informal learning processes (Balakrishnan V., 2016:35). Collaboration becomes easy because social media makes connections and interaction of one another easily anytime, anywhere and it provides the chance to understand individuals and human behavioral patterns (Zafarani R. et.al, 2014).
Learning through social media with others, therefore, is an opportunity, Dron J.; Anderson T., 2014:9). Facebook specifically can be considered as a way of communication for learners to exchange information (Al-Brahmi, W. M., Othman, M. S., Yusof, L. M., Musa, M. A. 2015:266).
Facebook is a social networking service launched on February 4, 2004, and was founded by Mark Zuckerberg. He founded Facebook while studying psychology at Harvard University (Phillips, S., 2005). Facebook has gained extreme popularity among internet users over the past few years. This social network was intended for personal communication among individuals yet today many other organizations use it for their advantage (Alhomod, S. M., Shafi, M. M., 2012:52).
In the first quarter of 2015 Facebook revealed that it had more than 1.44 billion monthly active users (up 13 percent year-over-year). Of those, 1.25 billion were mobile users; an increase of 24 percent year over year (Protalinski, E., 2015). Facebook was the first social network to surpass 1 billion registered accounts and currently sits at 1.59 billion monthly active users (Statista site, 2016).
As of the fourth quarter of 2015, Facebook had 1.59 billion monthly active users. In the third quarter of 2012, the number of active Facebook users had surpassed 1 billion (Statista site, 2016). Mostly, people use Facebook for chatting, for sharing photos, for posting videos, for staying in touch and sharing personal news, plan meetings and get-together, do homework and business to gethers, find and contact long-lost friends and relatives (Collier, A., ; Magid, L., 2010:2).
For the young users, they use Facebook for day-to-day news about their friends, acquaintances, relatives, and peer groups, collaborating on schoolwork, validation or emotional support, self-expression and the identity exploration and formation that occurs in adolescent development (Collier, A., ; Magid, L., 2010:2).
There are a lot of studies already conducted to know the connection between Facebook and the educational process and these studies have established that Facebook can act as a tool of communication in the modern educational system (Alhomod, S. M., Shafi, M. M., 2012:52). Facebook, like a social network, provides positive impacts in the educational sector.
It creates a group or network, builds educational, integrates into current educational tools, and develops an educational application, shares topic information with other users of Facebook (Alhomod, S. M., ; Shafi, M. M., 2012:53). A recent study of the attitudes of 107 students toward Facebook provides some insights and this study found out that Facebook was preferred over eLearning Commons as a classroom supplement.
Many of the students were already familiar with Facebook, used it frequently, and found it easy to navigate (Barczyk, C.C.; Duncan, D.G., 2013:2). This means that one contribution of Facebook in the educational system is it serves as the source of knowledge and information outside the classroom where the formal education process is done. Furthermore, the study provided that if used appropriately, Facebook may help to increase student engagement by cultivating classroom community and stimulating intellectual discourse, (Barczyk, C.C.; Duncan, D.G., 2013:2).
This means that Facebook can be used effectively for academic discussions (Barczyk, C.C.; Duncan, D.G., 2013:2). Facebook enhances the learning process. This is the reason why most Facebook widely used by college students and colleges.
As we mentioned already, the students can upload videos, pictures, post to bulletin boards, and participate in communication via e-mail and instant messaging (Toland, R., 2013:41). Then Facebook is a social network that connects students with other students and creating an indirectly learning community which is vital components of the educational process (Toland, R., 2013:41).
Finally, Facebook can be used as a learning tool to develop the cognitive learning skills of the students (Toland, R., 2013:41).
How does collaboration happen in social media, on Facebook to be specific?
According to Cann A., Dimitriou K.; Hooley T. (2011) collaboration in social media involves an academic research cycle, namely:
- Identification of knowledge,
- Creation of knowledge,
- Quality assurance of knowledge, and
- Dissemination of knowledge.
Cann A., Dimitriou K.; Hooley T. (2011) defined collaboration as the work of all the people who might be involved in research including researchers, librarians, funders and the general public. Identification of information in social media is possible because of the connection with other people.
Information also can be obtained through comments coming from the people you are connected through social media. The creation of knowledge is possible in social media through share ideas and/or advice coming from learned individuals.
Quality assurance of knowledge in social media is possible because of peer scrutiny and/or peer review. Dissemination of knowledge involves communication and/or engaging with the public and discussing related controversial issues.
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