Exploring the Potential Benefits of Using Social Media in Education.

The objective of this work is to investigate the potential benefits of using social media in education. A thorough examination of a large set of these online tools has revealed that social media have many educational advantages. In fact, it has been found out that these web-based applications can improve communication among students and between teachers and students. Thanks to these technologies, both teachers and students can interact with each other in a matter of seconds. Social media can also be used to promote students' engagement. Students who often complain of being intimidated or bored in the classroom may feel comfortable to express their creativity and voice their opinion on a social network website. Another finding of this study is that social media applications foster collaboration as they allow students to work together to achieve a common goal. Given these educational benefits, we recommend that these online social tools should be used in learning environments. [ABSTRACT