Classifying Facebook Usage in the Classroom or Around It

Abstract

Social Networking Services (SNS) focus on social relation cultivation among people who share interests. This chapter focuses on the educational uses of SNS, Facebook in particular. Examining the educational research area, one can see that it closely monitors the social changes, adapting to the current trends, and in the process can be updated and modernized. Consequently, an increasing number of studies and approaches that try to integrate Facebook into the classroom or the educational process, at any stage, are more or less to be expected. The core aim of this chapter is to operate as a collective source of information for the reader who wishes to become acquainted with the educational exploitations of Facebook at a glance, while understanding why and how the existing approaches are implemented. Furthermore, a qualitative case study is presented, as a demonstration of the design and implementation process of Facebook-related research.