Social networks in education: from innovation to educational research

• Published in: Revista iberoamericana de educación a distancia Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 25 - 33
• Main Authors: Verónica Marín-Díaz, Julio Cabero-Almenara
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Spanish
• Published: Asociación Iberoamericana de Educación Superior y a Distancia (AIESAD) 01-07-2019
• Subjects: adicción; alumno; aprendizaje; redes sociales; trabajo colaborativo
• ISSN: 1138-2783; 1390-3306
• DOI: 10.5944/ried.22.2.24248

Social networks are some of the basic tools utilized by the Knowledge society, especially by the youngest population, such that some people have begun to label the new generations as the “mute generation”, as their personal connections are made mainly through the written text in social networks. Such presence in society has also resulted in the exponential growth in training environments, where centres have included it not only in administrative and information tasks and information for the family, but the teachers have also utilized them as tools and instruments for broadcasting information and for creating collaborative work environments. This use has been promoted by the spread of mobile devices among students and the presence of wireless networks in education centres. However, when dealing with this presence, their addition to education has suffered from the problem of counting with research studies that provide us with models and “Good practices” for their use. At the same time, some handicaps have also been found, such as the negative view given to them or to their use by the students as well as the teachers, as well as the social view that in a given moment they could have outside of the education sphere, the null or scarce security given to users if privacy is not configured properly, some addiction risks or problematic use of the networks, or the lack of control about what has been written or uploaded. These are some of the aspects that are analysed in this monograph.