“Visit to a Small Planet”

Abstract

The current chapter deals with the use of Facebook as a social network for learning. Collaborative learning, metacognition and reflectivity are theoretically discussed and assessed in the current Facebook learning environment, as essential skills of the 21st century. The case study presented examines the relationship between attitudes and achievements of high school students learning an English play in the Facebook closed-group environment. Its findings reveal a significant improvement in students' attitudes at the end of the sessions. However, these were not found to correlate with students' final achievements. In addition, low achieving students preferred to study collaboratively, as they did in the Facebook closed group, more than higher achieving students. These findings may indicate the contribution of other factors to achievement in addition to positive attitudes and satisfaction in the Facebook learning environment. A metacognitive analysis of the students' written responses supports and expands the findings of this study.