APPLICATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN EDUCATION AND DISTANCE LEARNING
Keywords:
Social Media, Distance Learning, student interaction, collaborative platformsAbstract
In last decade, a decade characterized by intense scientific development and technological triumph, Social Media has played an important role in human life, and has influenced all the social and professional processes that take part in people‘s daily life. The education sector could not be unaffected by the above fact. In particular, distance education seems to strongly encourage social media use and application in distance learning. Therefore, the research interest of the scientific and educational community has turned in recent years to the use of Social Media and its application in educational programs of primary, secondary and tertiary education. On the one hand, there is the view that Social Media offers a number of benefits for pupils and students, but also for teachers. Social networking media promote interaction between students and student-teacher interaction in order to resolve various educational problems in the classroom faster and to gain knowledge more easily. On the other hand, there are some who point out some important disadvantages such as the distraction of many students' attention by inappropriate publications, videos or images. This article studies the use of Social Media in education as well as in distance education. In particular, the findings are presented from an extensive review of the bibliography, as well as the empirical studies of researchers and educational institutions, which have applied Social Media in the traditional way of teaching but also in distance education. Initially the article examines some key concepts, such as Social Media, distance education. Next, views and researches are being presented by the scientific and educational community regarding the use of Social Media in education but also in distance education. Then, through the grouping of empirical research on the use of Social Media in education and distance education, an attempt is being made to extract the advantages as well as the disadvantages from the integration and implementation of Social Media. Finally, the judicious use of social networking media by students and teachers and the safe application of electronic programs always as an aid to the teacher's work contributes to the upgrading of the educational process and studies.Τhat is why teachers must adapt to technology and be trained in special educational platforms and electronic programs, in order to integrate it into their teaching using the necessary electronic tools , since these media are undoubtedly an integral part of our daily life.
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