Abigail Morris

English 7701
Research Methods in TPC
Project 3
Annotated Bibliography
Social Media in Higher Education
Brief Scenario: As an instructor of First Year Composition and Writing courses at East Carolina
University and a champion of the benefits of incorporating social media in course pedagogy, I
need to develop a sound understanding of what has been done, what is being done, and what can
be done to bring popular social media platforms into my basic curriculum as tools of
communication, collaboration, collection and reflection.
Question I seek to solve: What must I consider and be aware of while developing a curriculum
that incorporates social media as a tool for students in English 1100?

Bartow, S. M. (2014, February 10). Teaching with social media: Disrupting present day public
education. Educational Studies, 50(1), 36-64.

In this article the author considers the implication of technology driven discourse in
student lives, highlighting the pedagogical shifts that are necessitated by student
emersions into ever expanding participatory culture, and socio-cultural demands of the
public fueled by an American economic system that allows those outside the confines
of academia to dictate what and how students learn. According to Bartow, social
technologies present critical educational, ethical, and revolutionary challenges to the
organization and structure of schools. They catalyze a fundamental examination of what
public education should look like and be like in a democracy. In light of the level of
engagement in participatory spaces online today, the disparity between what happens
inside and outside the classroom seems especially disconcerting (38) . . . . . Members of
participatory cultures feel connected and that their contributions matter. Inherent in these
cultures are shared and interactive learning, allowing endless subsets of a worldwide
community to learn from each other in historic ways (40). This idea seems lofty based
on studies of how students actually use social media, and seems to fit the mold of what
teachers, administrators, and the funding public want to believe students are doing with

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social media, despite the reality that all of these groups acknowledge never teaching
students how to use social media in such ways.

Cao, Y., Ajjan, H. and Hong, P. (2013), Using social media applications for educational
outcomes in college teaching: A structural equation analysis. British Journal of
Educational Technology, 44: 581593. doi: 10.1111/bjet.12066

This study examines the actual perceived effectiveness of using social media in college
classrooms as well as both how it is used and by who. The results revealed some very
intriguing and, in some ways, startling realities of social media use in academic
environments. Students who are taught using various forms of social media report feeling
more successful in their courses, and their performance rankings seem to corroborate the
students perceptions. Many students felt both better connected to their peers and teachers
in such courses, and satisfaction levels increased with teachers level of comfort with the
new technologies used. The most common form of media utilized was video, followed by
inter-communicative platforms, such as Twitter, Blogs, and Facebook. The shocking and
disturbing aspect of the study rests with who is using new media most in their
curriculums: non-tenure track, and adjunct faculty. Of the 637 instructors emailed, only
249 responded. Of the 249 respondents, 66% who used social media in their curriculum
were non-tenure track, with 50% serving as adjuncts, compared to 34% of users from
tenured and tenure track faculty combined. Also only 11% was tenure track versus 22%
tenured, so one must at least question whether fear of decreased respect among peers
contributes to the lower numbers. After all, non-tenure tract faculty may feel they have
less to lose by embracing new media and emerging technologies.

Crowther, K. (2011, September 17). Blogging as Process in the Composition Classroom.

Retrieved November 19, 2014, from http://techstyle.lmc.gatech.edu/blogging-as-processin-the-composition-classroom/
Crowther believes that incorporation of blogs into composition curriculums can create a
particularly dynamic space for writing. Not only does a blog feel personal . . . it also

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opens up for interactive writing via the comments and through external linking. It is an
excellent way to have students think about audience when they know that other people,
possibly even outside of our class, will be reading their posts. The author then continues
by pointing out the vast number of benefits that students can, and in her experience do,
receive from composing all low stakes writing via blog. As she explains, because the
formatting is more familiar to them and far more dynamic than what would be offered
through a discussion board format, students feel less pressure as the write compared to
facing a blank white page on Microsoft word. This could also make blogs ideal spaces for
drafting even the more rigid essays and other standardized writing assignments from
which the bulk of students grades are weighted. The author also includes a rather handy
link to a particular assignment that is scaffolded in a way that teaches writing as a
process.

Deng, L., & Yuen, A. Towards a framework for educational affordances of blogs. Computers
and Education, 56(2), 441-451. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.09.005
This study sets out to develop an empirically grounded framework for educational
blogging in the context of teacher education. A working framework was first proposed
that highlights four areas: self-expression, self-reflection, social interaction, and reflective
dialogue. An exploratory study was then conducted to examine the framework by
involving two groups of student teachers during their teaching practice. This study
revealed that the salient values of blogs centered on emotionally charged and socialoriented individual expressions as well as self-reflection. . . A new dimensionblogreadinghas emerged through the investigation and been added to the original framework.
The findings can contribute to a better understanding of the educational values of blogs
and their meaningful applications as educational media (441). Overall, the study
revealed that students are not as reflective in blog comments as they are in initial blog
posts, showing support rather than criticism of peers, but this may be an area that would
improve with more specific instruction and assignment scaffolding or modeling
techniques. The value of this particular article, however, lay in the benefits noted as

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generally present and the notations of ease of use for beginners and reluctant writers, or
even writers who struggle with finding a voice.
Gardner, T., & Jill (2014, September 30). Ten Pinterest assignments. In Bedford Bits: Ideas for
teaching composition. Retrieved November 18, 2014.

This introduction to a brief series of articles from the Bedford St. Martins blog is
predominately a list of the authors ideas of creative ways to use the popular social
collecting site, Pinterest, in a course designed around media and composition. The benefit
of this particular blog post lies not only in its ideas for potential assignments, but also for
the responses left as a discussion by a person identifying only as Jill. Which also brings
forth a question that often pervaded the flaws instructors and researchers discovered
when working with other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, privacy issues. The
solution in this case is to mandate all boards be created with a separate account to remove
any obvious connection to the students personal Pinterest account. With a student
centered account, students would be able to utilize that non-personal use account for any
school related activities without fearing any violation of privacy.

Griffin, J., & Minter, D. (2013). The rise of the online writing classroom: Reflecting on the
material conditions of college composition teaching. College Composition and
Communication, 65(1), 140-161. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/1444162508?accountid=10639

This article discusses the many potential benefits of embracing a digital pedagogy, which
is becoming increasingly necessary as the years slip by and students and teachers find
themselves engaging, even living to some extent, in digital spaces. The authors explain
where the move toward embracing technology began, and also detail the impending shift
that they, as well as many others, believe it will soon force on the education system in the
Unites States. They consider the many tools available that may be said to walk the line
between reading and writing: Diigo, VoiceThread, thinglink, Pinterest, Popcorn Maker
(to name but a few). These tools allow users to gather, share, and comment on resources

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for group or individual projects and can enable (although wont necessarily produce)
deep interactive engagement with an assigned text (143). And then discuss what these
new dimensions mean in terms of literacy and literacy practices, especially as evidenced
by the methods in which students collaborate, and write together.

Hrastinski, S., & Aghaee, N. M. (2012). How are campus students using social media to support
their studies? an explorative interview study. Education and Information Technologies,
17(4), 451-464. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10639-011-9169-5
This study questioned how students currently use social media in their courses, and then
how students believed that social media has impacted their course work. The researchers,
having concluded the interview process and analyzed collected data argue that teaching
strategy plays a key role in supporting students in moving from using social media to
support coordination and information retrieval to also using such media for collaborative
learning, when appropriate (456). The most revealing, and therefore important,
information gleaned from the research may be the flaws that students noticed in terms of
connectivity during collaborative practices. Some suggest that there might be less
creativity when students do not work together face-to-face at the campus. They also
mention that doing different parts of an assignment and sending the work to others by
social media has negative impacts on student collaboration, as compared with meeting
face-to-face. Many of the students argue that traditional lectures or seminars are more
effective than using social media. Several students bring up that guidelines or similar
from teachers can help students to use social media to support their studies in productive
ways (458). It is these limitations that teachers who wish to explore the benefits of social
media in a standard curriculum must be wary of and develop strategies to counter
balance.

Johnson, D. (2010, November). Teaching with authors' blogs: Connections, collaboration,

creativity. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(3), 172-180.

In this article the author suggests that students who use social media to connect rarely use
it to intentionally expand upon their own existing knowledge base, or to explore the

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world they have no physical access to such as news, customs, cultural differences, and
histories, etc. It is also rare for student to use new tech as a means of collaboration. It all
comes back to what students must be taught to use social media academically, because
what they know of social media they have likely learned in an almost purely social
context that has proven relevant to their own community and personal interests. Thus, she
claims, this lack of engagement with online networks as a learning resource suggests
new ways of thinking about the role of classroom teachers (173).Though the authors
primary focus is for this article is on literature based courses, the points she makes about
using authors blogs to develop deep-reading and analytical skills could easily be carried
over to composition and writing courses. In such courses, students could access authors
blogs as a way of developing as analytical readers, and of learning about meta-reflection,
a key element of East Carolina Universitys English 1100 course.

Kimmons, R. (2014). Social networking sites, literacy, and the authentic identity problem.
TechTrends, 58(2), 93-98. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11528-014-0740-y

This article treats the realities of community rules within online spaces, and how
identities are shaped based on that community and the requirements attached to attaining
social capital within that community, which means that there can be no such thing as an
authentic identity because individuals shift selves based on learned strategies to adhere to
community decorum. Kimmons suggests that for this reason, emergent social
technologies necessitate educators and educational researchers to understand the
literacies necessary for their effective use if they intend to incorporate required
membership into digital communities as a supplement to their classroom communities
(93). The author also notes many other academics who have considered the implications
of such identity dilemmas, pointing out that as we write in different spaces, for instance,
we are perpetually reconstructing our identity to gain membership in communities and
that people develop diverse identities out of the richness and dilemmas of such social
interaction (94). She further posits that we must help to develop and advocate for more
complex understandings of identity, which take into consideration the nuanced social
contexts surrounding peoples behaviors in a variety of media and allow these

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complexities to influence our institutional and policy decisions (97). She recommends
that before ever adopting any form of social networking sites instructors consider how
they understand concepts of identity in such spaces as reflections of the students they see
every day, as well as how to help students negotiate those concepts and whether all of the
students that will be using it are capable of developing such understandings quickly
enough to avoid potential hazards associated with identity in digital spaces.

Lamb, A., & Johnson, L. (2011). Stop PowerPoint paranoia: Thinking differently about
presentation projects. Teacher Librarian, 38(5), 59-64. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/875201224?accountid=10639

In this short piece, the author reviews several of the flaws that generally accompany class
presentations, many of which are born from poor modeling and prep exercises. Though
not specifically about using social media in the classroom, this article does provide a
framework that can be coupled with the collaborative capabilities and
dissemination/presentation qualities that can lead students to creating dynamic
presentations that are required of them at various stages in their college and university
educations. The authors suggests having students spend more time than usually allotted
with specific instructions to think about the purpose of the presentation, and consider
the design techniques that can best involve their audience in the inquiry process
including questioning, thinking, inferring, and reflecting? (59). They then include very
detailed general and specific examples of how students can explore their options as they
create using whatever form of media best suits their purposes and individual/group styles.

Lin, M. G., Hoffman, E. S., & Borengasser, C. (2013). Is social media too social for class? A
case study of twitter use. TechTrends, 57(2), 39-45. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11528013-0644-2

This study suggests that the greatest use of Twitter by students is in information sharing
rather than communication or collaboration. Those students who were still using Twitter
as part of class were in the great minority, and many were already familiar with Twitter

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beforehand, whereas those students who disengaged from the assignments that used
Twitter did not see the platform as being particularly useful for course content or
discussions. It is also worth noting that the Twitter assignments were optional extra credit
assignments, and that too often the students who are most likely to do extra credit are
those who are already most dedicated to the course work to begin with. Thus, it could be
that the results of the study may have been different if the Twitter aspect had been
required for credit as part of regular assignments and class assessments. Overall, students
who participated did not find Twitter to be an appropriately collaborative platform for
learning.

Loving, M. & Ochoa, M. (2011) "Facebook as a classroom management solution", New Library
World, Vol. 112 Iss: 3/4, pp.121 130

For this study, the authors reviewed course work completed in a class that utilized
Facebook as an alternative to more traditional CMS systems, such as Blackboard or
Moodle, and found that Facebook allows instructors to distribute documents (via posting
and messaging), administer discussion lists, conduct live chat and handle some
assignment posting as long as it is alright to cut and paste and share between students.
Areas where Facebook cannot compete with other CMS is in grading, assignment
uploading and online testing (Conclusion). This suggest that a combined approach could
prove beneficial if all students were to agree upon delivery method of course materials,
especially if the course did not routinely utilize tests and gradebook features of
Traditional CMS systems. The possibilities unearthed by this study suggests, as in other
studies, that use of SNS such as Facebook may prove ideal for collaboration outside of a
traditional classroom space, and it would be worth considering how this could work in a
flipped classroom approach.

Mendez, J. P., Le, K., & Cruz, D. L. (2014). Integrating facebook in the classroom: Pedagogical
dilemmas. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies, 13, 1-10. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/1515636682?accountid=10639

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In this brief article, the authors suggest that Social Network Sites (SNS) such as
Facebook be left out of academic course mandates because of the need to separate
academia from the personal. They highlight the increase of SNS being used in higher
education curriculums, and note both the numerous benefits being linked to incorporation
of SNS, as well as the potential pitfalls associated with it. To illustrate the potential
negatives, the authors attempt to use two cases against a university professor in which the
student used the lack of Facebook (FB) being university sanctioned to appeal their low
grades for the course. In one case the issue revolved around privacy concerns and the
complainant insisted that she may not have received the same quantity or quality of
information regarding the course because so much of it was communicated through the
group FB page. The other student, despite numerous lower scores on test and the like,
insisted that his low grade for the course was given in reaction to several negative and
inappropriate comments left on the group board and on his personal feed after the
professor accepted a friend request from the student.

Nathan, L. P., MacGougan, A., & Shaffer, E. (2014). If not us, who? social media policy and the
iSchool classroom. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 55(2),
112-132. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/1539530272?accountid=10639

In this study, the researchers seek to understand how issues such as student rights to
privacy may be violated by incorporating social media in curriculums, and whether the
benefits of altering any policy that may impede use of social media is worth potentially
negative consequences. The researchers note previous research in the field which shows
that findings from investigations reported in the last six years link social media use in
education with: increased student engagement in the learning process; bridging the gap
between formal and informal learning environments; preparing students for workplaces
that require competence in Web 2.0 technologies; providing students with opportunities
for personalizing and contextualizing their learning; allowing students a sense of control
over their learning; improving students research skills in online environments; and
increasing collaboration between instructors and students as well as among students

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(115). Of the university policies the researchers were able to access and examine, very
few had concrete policies regarding student privacy in digital spaces, most were
concerned with intellectual property issues and marketing concerns for brand
representation almost exclusively by faculty.

zgven, N., & Mucan, B. (2013). THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY

TRAITS AND SOCIAL MEDIA USE. Social Behavior and Personality, 41(3), 517-528.
Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/1504174048?accountid=10639
This study was determined that some key factors of The Big Five personality traits
correlated to social media use of students in higher education. Life satisfaction yielded a
high positive, as did education and income levels. Gender, extraversion and neuroticism
were seemed to pose no significant correlation, positive or negative, to use levels. In this
study the researchers used a homogenous group of students within a small age range,
drawn from one university in Turkey, which the researchers concede, may limit the
generalizability of the results (526). This could be valuable information when trying to
determine methods of incorporating social media platforms in higher education
curriculums, predominantly because it reveals links between both satisfaction and social
media use, as well as openness to new experiences and education levels. This all suggests
that college and university settings may be ideal territory to explore the possibilities of
social media as part of the educational experience based on the qualities possessed by
students in such environments and stages of their lives.

Robertson, J. The educational affordances of blogs for self-directed learning. Computers and
Education, 57(2), 1628-1644. Retrieved from Science Direct.

In this study the researcher discusses the myriad benefits of incorporating blogs into
higher education curriculums To be successful university learners, students need to
develop skills in self-directed learning. This encompasses a range of cognitive and metacognitive skills including generating ones own learning goals, planning how to tackle a

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problem, evaluating whether learning goals have been met, and re-planning based on this
evaluation (1628). The only problem the author notes in class bogging is that students
are not taught to use the blog commenting feature for peer-coaching and meta-reflection
purposes rather than using it solely for corroboration, commiseration, and varying other
forms of both conceptual and emotional support. Part of the focus of the groups used in
the study is based on small group assessment, collaboration, and learning processes and
the affordances offered in such scenarios. To best replicate the most successful aspects of
this pedagogy and develop it one would need to utilize blogs a group learning and
processing activity with small groups whose progress could be more easily monitored
than larger groups or individual bloggers.

Schwartz, H. L. (2010). FACEBOOK: The new classroom commons? The Education Digest,
75(5), 39-42. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/89064576?accountid=10639
In this article, Schwartz quotes fellow scholars assessments that new technologies
create alternative points of connection, as she considers the possible benefits of using
Facebook in pedagogy (39). She continues by attempting to resolve personal questions of
are my students my friends, and are Facebook posts public or private, and then she
offers a glimpse into how her conclusions have been altered by interaction with her
students via Facebook and text messaging (40). In her experience, though four years ago,
Facebook was something she opened to her students as an extension of academic
communication with their instructor. She never elicited friend requests from her students,
but accepted when they did. Not all students utilized digital forms of communication, but
many did, and the benefits the author realized through this unintentional study seem to
have outweighed any drawbacks. However, based on Schwartzs experiences, it can lead
to other questions and potential privacy and moral dilemmas which would necessarily
have to be negotiated.

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Scott, S. M. (2012). Go ahead ... be social: Using social media to enhance the twenty-first
century classroom. Distance Learning, 9(2), 54-59. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/1034600860?accountid=10639

The author of this article claims the challenge faced by modern educators is figuring out
how to draw a stronger correlation between the digital literacy skills that the students
already possess and the traditional classroom environment in which face-to-face and
distance educators and students must thrive (54). She argues, that there is an entire
generation of mankind that exists in a hypertext reality born of the digital experiences
that have shaped the bulk of their lives. These students, Scott contends, see the world
from a social perspective. This social perspective does not discriminate between purely
social activity for entertainment purposes and social activity for learning (55). This
article, written in 2012, will only continue to prove ever truer as our digital lives evolve
on an increasingly global scale. In a world where students thrive on the amount of time
they spend connected each day, a profound shift must occur in the traditional classroom
environment (59). If learning is a socio-collaborative experience, and if students have
indeed developed a since of necessary connection via digital spaces, then it is time to
begin reevaluating both our pedagogies and the possibilities of social media platforms.

Tryon, C. (2006, Winter). Writing and Citizenship: Using blogs to teach first-year composition.
Pedagogy, 6(1), 128-132.
This text explores the authors experiences with designing a course based on the belief
that a composition class that nourishes citizenship should convey the connections
between the classroom and the so-called real world, which seems to exist everywhere
else. In order to foster this notion of citizenship, I have incorporated into my first-year
composition courses the requirement that students write, and sometimes read, Web logs
(128). It details her methods and the results, both immediate, and over time. The results
rooted the students in the reality of blogs that translates and transfers the perceived value
of writing across the void between digital spaces and real world impact. Tryon finishes
by adding that he has had much success with blogging as a tool for making the basic

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concepts of rhetoric more tangible and for helping students discover that writing for a
larger audience is a valuable activity, one connected to issues of citizenship and
democracy, showing the value of assigning class blogs in an English 1100 style course,
such as the one taught to all non-transfer students at East Carolina University (132).

Wang, R., Scown, P., Urquhart, C., & Hardman, J. (2012, July 18). Tapping the educational
potential of Facebook: Guidelines for use in higher education. Education and Information
Technologies, 19(1), 21-39.

The authors of this article explore Facebook as a Computer Mediated Environment

(CME), using the theory of social capital as a framework to elucidate the numerous
benefits and potential uses of Facebook in higher education. Whether a social
networking site can be used for educational objectives remains largely unexplored as a
research question. This paper discusses a study conducted at the University of Auckland
and at Manchester Metropolitan University on how their students use Facebook, and its
impact on their social and academic lives (21). It considers, also, the implications and
realities of digital communities and the relationship between learning and community.
The researchers also remind teachers that Social Networks, such as Facebook, are only
part of the learning experience. It should be understood by students how work done in the
virtual world will link to face-to-face learning and teaching, otherwise students may
experience a disconnect in pedagogy (34). It is also suggested that the approaches
recommended by the authors of the article can be applied to new tech as it emerges with
similar features to produce similar outcomes.