Social Networks as a Learning and Teaching Environment and Security in Social Networks

Abstract

Technology is in a constantly evolving and changing structure since the existence of mankind. Because of this dynamic structure, technology fulfills a number of functions such as facilitating people's lives, time, profit from work, profit from cost, making life more enjoyable. At the same time, technology is used in all areas of life, and it also causes changes and transformations in these areas. Education is one of these areas, perhaps the most important, that technology affects. The hunter society, written with nails, made an important step with the paper's invention, and the written documents were moved from the stones to the books. The invention of computers and the internet has also opened an important milestone in human history and education. In the beginning, the course contents loaded on storage units such as floppy disks, CDs, DVDs were used by the students and teachers, computers were included in the education systems. During periods when we have not yet met with the internet, computer-assisted education has found a large place in many educational institutions and in the curriculum of education level. The development of information Technologies led to widespread use of the internet over time, and shortly thereafter examples of use in education began to increase. Computer-assisted education has also led to the rapid transition of education through internet-supported education, along with the different demands of the network society's individuals. Users are not satisfied with the internet environments where only reading authority is available, and more and more active and interacting requests have come to the agenda. Beyond reading, social networks that make it possible to comment, create content, upload/share/view images, upload video/audio files, and make video, text and voice calls have become popular for users. Social networking platforms where users interact with the environment or with other users in the environment have been attracted by the diversity of user profiles, the usage rates and durations, and the easy and versatility of accessibility. Because of these features, studies on the use of social networks in the field of education to support learning and teaching have also been accelerated and diversified. Social networks can also contain some security issues because they are huge platforms where billions of users are together. Having information about security issues as little as possible, what to do when they are encountered is important for the continuity of learning and teaching. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the importance of social networks, education, learning and teaching influences, possible security threats to be encountered in social networks, and measures to be taken. It is hoped that working in this context will shed light on the work of learners, teachers and decision makers on the subject.

The Teacher-Student Relationship in the Use of Social Network Sites for Educational Purposes: A Systematic Review

“…Following the assumptions of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), justified in some works such as in the one of Fernández-Díaz et al (2017) or Yakın and Tınmaz (2015), the nature of SNSs promotes interaction, reflection, exchange of information, and collaborative knowledge construction among stakeholders. In this context, these characteristics are likely to generate spaces for the collaborative construction of learning (Al-Rahmi & Zeki, 2017;Asterhan & Bouton, 2017;Cabero & Marín, 2014;Charles, 2012;Chugh & Ruhi, 2018;Dewick & Miozzo, 2004;Esquivel & Rojas, 2014;Jang, 2015;Jiang, Tang, Peng, & Liu, 2018;Junco, Elavsky, & Heiberger, 2013;Keng & Ching, 2015;Liccardi et al, 2007;Ling, 2014;López-Bonilla & López-Bonilla, 2013;Manca & Ranieri, 2017;Maroulis & Gomez, 2008;Mccarthy, 2010;Morón, López, & Cobos, 2017;Phungsuk, Viriyavejakul, & Ratanaolarn, 2017;Ricoy & Feliz, 2016;R. B. Wang & Du, 2014).…”

“…Likewise, some other functions such as planner, organiser, or moderator were also considered in the study. At the same time, a considerable number of authors have specified some of the responsibilities with regard to the teacher functions: a) being available to help students to be integrated into the digital culture; b) establishing significant links between physical and virtual spaces; c) defining the criteria and rules of participation in the educational scenarios; d) selecting the most appropriate SNS; e) producing and organising pedagogical content, materials and activities; h) promoting dialogue and interaction among the learning community; f) participating and collaborating with their students as an equal member; g) fostering students' motivation; h) offering different sources of information; and i) evaluating the teaching and learning process (Ling, 2014;Palacios, 2012;Pérez, Tur, Negre, & Lizana, 2017;Phungsuk et al, 2017;Rama & Chiecher, 2012;Seifert, 2016;Túñez & Sixto, 2012;Vázquez-Martínez & Cabero-Almenara, 2015).…”

“…This may suggest some limitationswhen leading students to develop their total activity exclusively across digital spaces. On the one hand, some limitations are related to the promotion of learners' passive attitudes towards participation, lower commitment of teachers when students use digital environments, or the lack of physical teacher-student' interaction (Alvarez-Flores & Gómez, 2013;Ling, 2014;Martínez, 2014;Norman et al, 2015;Rama & Chiecher, 2012;Túñez & Sixto, 2012). On the other hand, other studies have found a relationship between the frequency in the use of SNSs and academic achievement, so that the latter increases when the student displays a moderate use of SNSs (Abu-Shanab & Al-Tarawneh, 2015;Al-Yafi, El-Masri, & Tsai, 2018;Paul, Baker, & Cochran, 2012) and avoids passive or addictive uses (Arquero & Romero-Frías, 2013;Buck, 2012;Gafni & Deri, 2012;Huang, 2018).…”

“…As 21 st century learners, some findings in the literature remind us that students not only have to be literate in a variety of digital technologies of communication but also in the critical use of SNSs (Ling, 2014;Nagle, 2018;Vázquez-Martínez & Cabero-Almenara, 2015). On the one hand, despite the fact that they are natural users of digital environments (Hershkovizt & Forkosh-Baruch, 2017), they also need to develop digital competencies and skills for their proper instrumental usage (Rama & Chiecher, 2012).…”

“…The increasing interest in exploring the educational possibilities of using SNSs can be noticed when observing the academic literature of the last 10 years (Akçayır & Akçayır, 2016;Fernández-Díaz, Rodríguez-Hoyos, & Haya, 2017;Rodríguez-Hoyos, Salmón, & Fernández-Díaz, 2015;, 2020. Although most studies focus on the analysis of the educational use of SNSs as a medium, space, or tool that facilitates learning (Ling, 2014;Rama & Chiecher, 2012;Sadowski, Pediaditis, & Townsend, 2016;Túñez & Sixto, 2012), there are few works that explore SNSs implications for the teacher-student relationship. Following the approach of some authors like Hershkovizt and Forkosh-Baruch (2017) and Jones, Gaffney-Rhys, and Jones (2011), the introduction of SNSs as educational settings has broken the hierarchical structures of traditional relationships.…”