Social Network Sites as Community Building Tools in Educational Networking

Abstract

This paper discusses the educational context of social network sites (SNSs) and the manner in which they are adopted as Europeanization tools to develop the main EU education priorities. The Erasmus + (E+) context, articulated on networks of education bodies, denotes a promising ground to investigate social and digital trends emerging within institutionalized education communities. The research approach counts on a sample of 518 organizations aligned to a set of standards regulated within the institutionalized networking frame of the E+ program. Due to the compliance requirements of E+ guidelines, this work proposes a theoretical juxtaposition of the Community of Inquiry framework and the E+ framework. Final results show an EU educational trend verging to informal affordances and non-formal education features.