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UPSI Digital Repository (UDRep)
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| Abstract : Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris |
| Social media has gained m popularity as a social communication tool and become increasingly
important in our daily lives. Social media are primarily application tools for discussing and
sharing information. Social media applications, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Second Life,
and Flickr, have become a global phenomenon attracting millions of users. Thus, social media
popularity and its unique features contribute to potential e-learning, especially in online
distance learning. It increases interest among educators to make use of social media
technologies in education. It is also attracting the attention of many researchers to examine the
usage and implications of social media applications, implemented in education.
This project attempts to review the functions and uniqueness of social media applications. It also
focuses on current research findings and their impact in education. A "Documentation and
Application Review" method is used to explore social media functions, uniqueness, current research
findings, and their impact in education. Several popular applications and related articles have
been chosen as the object of this review. A total of eight social applications were selected. based
on the most popular applications, as listed in TopTen Reviews
(http://www.toptenreviews.com) and Ebizma (http://www.ebizmba.com). Meanwhile, articles were
chosen from conference proceeding papers and journal articles, from academic databases, such as
AACE, ACM, IEEE. EBSCO. and ProQuest, through the Multimedia University's Siti Hasmah Digital
Library. A total of 12 papers were selected for this review project.
The findings show that social media supports social interaction. Users interact with people through
constructing, contributing, and sharing, their content. Different social media applications
serve different functions and uniqueness. Social networking allows the connection of people,
where they can maintain their updates
with other people. The blog application allows users to publish. post, and share their
content, with other bloggers. In addition, wiki allows the user to read about news topics and
comment on articles. Social bookmarking allows the user save bookmarks online and share them with
others, while the virtual world allows social interaction through an immersive and engaging
environment. This review shows that social media have both positive and negative implications on
education. However, it promises a conducive and effective learning environment. Social media allows
instructors to connect with learners to discuss assignments, upcoming events, useful links, and
other work, out of the classroom. Some of the regularly discussed issues include privacy, security,
identity, and motivation. Most of these issues are internet issues. Most studies report that the
implementing of social media in learning is still at the nascent stage, and thus, requires more
research and exploration to accommodate an effective learning.
Hence, these findings provide an overview of information about social media applications in an
educational setting. This may assist further research on social media, which promises better
learning and strategic implementation. Future project recommendations into web based social media,
may extend its focus to mobile media, and augmented reality. The benefits of mobile computing
devices and ubiquitous technologies, as powerful access devices, may offer tremendous
opportunities to implement social media within m-learning.
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