Text A

Title : Role of Social Media in Teaching-Learning Process

Source : Kuruva Devi, Gouthami Eragamreddy & Vijaya Lakshmi (2019). Role of Social Media in
Teaching-Learning Process. JETIR, 6, 96-103.

Social media are becoming the most important tools for interaction among people, where everybody
can share, exchange, comment, discuss and create information and knowledge in a collaborative
way. Social media tools are rapidly changing the communications landscape, their emergence has
impacted significantly how students learn and the way instructors teach. In today higher education
settings, instructors, students and others collaborate on the tasks of knowledge construction. The
definition of social media is “the relationships that exist between network of people” The influence of
social media on teaching and learning environment is growing every year and its applications can
reinforce class materials, positively influenced discussions, collaborative work, etc. The educators
and researchers experimenting the social media technologies to stimulate collaboration, knowledge
constructions and thinking skills. The increasingly widespread use of social network sites to expand
and deepen one’s social connections is a relatively new but potentially important phenomenon that
has implications for teaching and learning and in the 21st century.

The emergence of social network sites has revolutionized communication tools for facilitating
teaching and learning activities. In recent years, social networking has become one of the most
significant communication tools among people; in which exist through the Internet that provides
accessibility for tremendous amount of people. Applying Social Networking Sites (SNSs) in teaching
and learning offer a positive impact on the adoption of SNSs and open the door to the new days of
learning and teaching. Social network mainly focused on identity, network infrastructure, privacy
concern, technological issues, and necessitation of its use as a tool for teaching and learning.

The social media has become one of the most important communication means in recent times.
However, social networking exists so as to provide communication among people regardless of the
distance, making it open to people easily share information, files and pictures and videos, create
blogs and send messages, and conduct real-time conversations. These systems are referred to as
social, simply because they allow communication with buddies and co-workers so easily and
effectively. In today’s higher education settings, instructors, students and others collaborate on the
task of knowledge construction. The favourites in the realm of internet sites are Facebook, Twitter,
blogs, YouTube, Instagram, google doc and others. These websites and social forums are way of
communication directly with other people socially and in the media. They are playing a large and
influential role decision making in the occasions from the global world economically, politically,
socially and educationally.
Text B

Title : Understanding students' perceptions of the benefits of online social networking use for
teaching and learning

Source : Suraya H., Waycott, J., Sherah K. & Chang, S., (2015). Understanding students' perceptions
of the benefits of online social networking use for teaching and learning. Internet and Higher
Education, 26 (2015), 1–9.

The use of Online Social Network (OSN), such as Facebook and blogging, provided the students with
a more enjoyable learning environment compared to the conventional classroom-based teaching
and learning. Students said that they were more relaxed and willing to give their opinion through
online environments such as Facebook. During the focus group discussions, some students described
their personality traits and these appeared to influence students' use of OSN. Although not asked
about their personalities per se, it emerged that students clearly identified themselves as either
extroverts or introverts. These extraversion–introversion traits influenced students' use of OSN and
how they benefited from or were challenged by OSN use. Students who considered themselves to be
introverts (i.e., asking few questions, not preferring to speak up during class, and generally very
quiet) thrived in the OSN learning environment:

“I seldom ask questions. I just read selectively and respond to the lecturer's questions only.
When we use Facebook, I am more open and I ask more questions. This is maybe because I
don't have to bear the embarrassment if I ask silly questions; I don't have to face it like in a
lecture theatre. In Facebook, I feel less shy.” - Student A

“I'm one of them (introvert). I think this social technology is really good for students like me.
I find myself to have better confidence when I express myself through writing? If you ask me
to express myself verbally, I have some difficulties. Using blog for example, I feel liberated as
I can think and then write whatever I want as long as it is within the context of the course.
So, I think definitely the blog has helped me a lot.” – Student B

One student described the feeling of being more relaxed in the environment where OSN was
used in her university. This was in comparison with how she felt in her home country in the Middle
East. In her country, the culture and the religion of the people does not allow males and females to
mix or socialise.

“I really feel more relaxed using Facebook as we are able to freely interact with each
other. Normally, male and female students we are not so freely communicating due to
cultural and religious reasons. But when using Facebook especially in this university, now
I am able to interact with my friends. I mean, as long as we are doing it for educational
purpose and don't go overboard with it, that should be fine.”– Student C

The use of social technologies appeared to bring fun to the learning and provided a comfortable
form of interaction for students who do not like to speak up in class. On a personal basis, the
students used the technologies to interact with their friends and family members. By extending the
use of social technologies familiar with the students for OSN educational activities, the “fun” factor is
arguably maintained. This is an opportunity which educators can leverage to make learning
enjoyable for the students, via harnessing familiar and fun social technologies for OSN educational
activities.
Text C

Title : The Impact of Social Media on Learning Behavior for Sustainable Education: Evidence of
Students from Selected Universities in Pakistan.

Source : Abbas, J., Aman, J., Nurunnabi, M. & Bano, S (2019). The Impact of Social Media on
Learning Behavior for Sustainable Education: Evidence of Students from Selected Universities in
Pakistan. Sustainability, 11, 1683; doi:10.3390/su1106168

Recently, there has arisen a debate on the adverse impact of social media usage on people,
particularly adolescents and student communities across the world. In this respect, digital media and
social networking sites have received criticism, and there are many perspectives regarding the effect
of social media in the context of Pakistani students. The popularity of social media applications and
social networking sites have increased precipitously during the last decade. Typically, the reason for
this rapid increase is that teenagers and college and university students are using social media
applications to gain global access. These social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are
becoming the craze in our society for everyone these days. Today, students are relying increasingly
on information and data that is easily accessible on social networking sites and the internet. This is
the reason why students’ learning skills and research capabilities are decreasing in certain situations,
as their engagement with these sites reduces their focus, which causes them to dedicate less time to
their studies and results in a decline in their academic performance. Typically, as students spend
more time on social media, they spend less time socializing face to face or in person with other
people, and these habits reduce their communication skills. The wasting of students’ time on social
media may also cause them to miss deadlines on occasion. As a result, students might not be able to
communicate and socialize effectively in person, and it is well known that strong communication
skills are a key to success.

Moreover, excessive social media use affects students’ mental and physical health. Students
delay their meals and fail to rest properly; instead, they consume excessive amounts of tea or coffee
to remain alert and active. This lifestyle has adverse effects on students’ mental and physical health.
Additionally, the daily overuse of social media is unhealthy, because it enables students to avoid
creating face-to-face bonds with people. Parents are responsible for monitoring their children’s use
of social media, and they should be vigilant about whether their children use the internet for an
appropriate amount of time. Ultimately, educators and peers are also responsible for helping
students understand the adverse effects of social media on health, and they should make students
aware of what they can lose in the real world when they spend excessive amounts of time on social
media sites.

The adverse effects of these social networking sites outweigh the positive ones. Thus, these
sites have caused potential harm to society. Students become victims of social networks more often
than anyone else. This may be because social media is an attractive way for students to avoid
boredom while they are studying or searching their course material online, diverting their attention
from their work. Social media platforms have also been criticized for revealing and fuelling
negativity, which has a net-negative effect on students. For instance, the following social media
platforms have been ranked from the most to the least negative based on user evaluations: Twitter,
Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. Users have described Instagram, in particular, as having a
negative effect on people by causing stress and tension on individuals’ bodies. According to Steven
Strogatz of Cornell University, online networking can make it more difficult for people to identify
meaningful communication from other diverse interactions or connections created via web-based
social networks. Such a reduction in the number of significant connections may intimidate
individuals, making them fear the development of important interactions and communication.
Online networks also affect adolescents’ and individuals’ health when they excessive use of social
media.

Another undesirable effect of social networks is that people can became dependent on it, and
when people spend a lot of time on social media, it can diminish their focus and attention on a
specific job. Social networks can also directly influence children when people share photos and
videos on that depict violence and shocking images that can disturb the behaviour of children or
adolescents. Social networks may even cause larger societal harm by attacking people’s privacy.
Social ties also affect family life, and such ties are weakened when people spend more time on social
networking sites interacting with online friends. Furthermore, people who share their photos,
videos, and other information on social networks may have a difficult time preventing others from
reusing such content in an undesirable way.
TEXT D

Title : The Role of Social Media in Education

Source : Maine, L. (2019). The Role of Social Media in Education. Retrieved from
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/246291/20191129/the-role-of-social-media-in-education.htm

There's no doubt that the majority of students would like to use websites like YouTube, Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter for learning new things. These platforms can be used for uploading online
textbooks that let users communicate with each other. To put in simple words, this is a good way to
share knowledge and resolve issues while they are working on a project for example. Some social
media solutions allow the use of collaboration tools which makes the learning process much simpler
and more effective(social media is suitable for collaborative/cooperatively learn/ing. When teachers
have profiles on these networks, they can become available to their students at any time. It's easier
for students to communicate with teachers in an electronic way. For this purpose, teachers can
create separate pages on Facebook for example. This will allow them to keep their personal profile
private. In addition, they can build a stronger portfolio in this way and look for other employment
opportunities in the future.

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are excellent sources of information. Students often visit these
platforms to get news related to current events and politics. They can also join or at least visit groups
and pages where they can find information about any topic. Of course, this could be a double-edged
sword because not all of the information found on these networks is useful and accurate. As you are
probably aware, there is fake news involved and people have to be careful when they are reading
the news on social media. It turns out that you have to go beyond the title (which is usually a
clickbait title) to find out what an article is really about.

A potentially harmful role of social media in education

Social media are a phenomenon that can't be compared to anything else. In addition to the positive
potential, they can also lead to certain negative effects when it comes to education. But, by
identifying these problems in a timely manner and using the best actions, these effects can be
prevented. For example, a student that has applied to a college should not be judged only by their
profile on networks like Instagram, Twitter or YouTube. There are many other things that define
good students. We should also mention that many people use social media just to have fun.

Without any doubt, social media and mobile devices, in general, can be a distraction. Instead of
focusing on things that they should learn, students can spend hours in mindless browsing of their
news feeds. Online harassment is another potential problem when we talk about social media. It's
the anonymity that lets cyber bullies harass other students by ridiculing their appearance, revealing
secrets, sharing fake photos and texts and more. Finally, social media can be used for cheating
during exams.
Advantages of using social media in education.

For starters, social media can help students looking for better collaboration and interactive
education. The essence of social media is socialization of users and interaction, and this is exactly
what students need. These networks are home to numerous communities (pages, groups, etc.)
where students can find other individuals with the same needs and requirements. Of course, the
people that are part of those communities are usually willing to help newbies.

The teachers can get help in the same way. Namely, there are specialized communities in which
teachers share their experience, look for support and share new job opportunities. Needless to say,
these platforms are good for communication between students and teachers. Since most parents
have social media profiles, this could lead to their involvement in the process too. Numerous studies
have confirmed that introverted students and young people that have problems expressing
themselves due to social anxiety were able to overcome this problem by using social media.

Social media platforms, especially platforms like YouTube for example, have proven to be excellent
places for resources used in the process of education. If you visit a website like this, you will
probably notice dozens of tutorials and guides that can help you with school projects. There are
other useful videos and written documents there too. Remember that the majority of these
resources are completely free and you can access them from any place you want.

Finally, social media provide international exposure. You can communicate with students, teachers
and other participants in the educational process from all over the world. In this way, they can adjust
their activities to the latest trends in the world of education.