The Use of Social Media Technologies in Collaborative Learning in Higher Education

Abstract

The advent of new information communication technologies (ICT), particularly driven by the Internet technologies of the 21st century, has created opportunities for new ways of teaching, learning, and assessing, which can help learners develop 21st century skills. Effective pedagogical practice in the 21st century digital economy can no longer be based on the traditional 3Rs and paper modes or individualistic, competitive learning models (Johnson & Johnson, 1978) but on the New Learning Paradigm which includes developing skills in the 21st century "Super 4Cs of critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, creativity and innovation, and communication" (Kivunja, 2015a, p. 225). These Super 4Cs can be enhanced with the use of Internet driven collaborative learning structures if properly designed to allow students to learn together in digitally connected peer learning networks (PLNs). This paper describes a quasi-experimental design of the use of cutting-edge social media technologies called Google Circles Learning Communities (GCLCs) in the education of preservice teachers at a teacher training university in Australia in an attempt to harness the power of social media technologies to support students' development of skills in the Super 4Cs. The research commenced with informal observations of a small cohort of five doctoral students in 2012, and the encouraging results led to a study of a much larger cohort of second year BEd students in 2013 and formal research projects with a cohort of 145 students in 2014, and then one of 30 students in the first trimester of 2015 and with 110 students in the second trimester of 2015. Students were asked to form PLNs of ten and then use these as the nucleus for a digitally connected collaborative classroom into which they were free to invite their peers and academic friends using GCLC technologies. Their participation in the GCLCs was voluntary. Participants were given a new topic each week, following the lecture schedule for the trimester. The results described here are drawn from the latest study which involved the cohorts of students in trimester 1 and 2 in 2015. The research found that when students were given the opportunity to learn collaboratively using these social media technologies, the majority took advantage of the power of digital connectedness to develop greater communication skills, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity, and liked the learning activities. This occurred as a result of increased participation rates, greater interaction, engagement, exploration, evaluation, interest, motivation, peer mentoring, and richer posts in the GCLC streams. The evidence encourages universities and other higher education providers to explore opportunities for utilizing carefully selected selected social media technologies in pedagogy.