Social Media in Education

Abstract

Although social media is prevalent among individual use, instructors and students have not fully embraced social media as tool for the classroom. The focus of the chapter is to identify and identify ways in which social media, as a complementary pedagogical tool to traditional techniques, contributes to create an innovative, collaborative educational environment for students. Different categories and themes, as well as best practices have been identified as the ways of improving students' learning as a result of utilizing social media. Social media helps students in their learning through facilitating active learning, promoting affective learning outcomes, inspiring creativity and innovation, supporting team-based work, and creating a community of learners. Social media enhances professional development and increases performance and grades. Finally, the authors identify best practices for implementing social media in educational setting during the different phases of instructional design process.