Reaching out to the young: A case study on teachers’ initiatives in using social media in the classroom

Ana Katrina T Marcial
University of the Philippines Open University
Los Baños, the Philippines

Considering the wide accessibility of the Internet and the new breed of learners viewed as ‘digital natives’, teachers in higher education are learning to explore the use of technology, taking advantage particularly of social media tools to make the teaching and learning relevant and readily available — be it inside or outside the residential (face-to-face) setting. However, one issue that needs to be examined is how these social media tools are actually selected, integrated and used in the classroom. Using Puentedura’s Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition (SAMR) model, this paper describes and analyses the practices of selected faculty members at a residential university in the Philippines in terms of using social media in education. The findings from semi-structured interviews with the faculty members are presented to reflect how social media tools can be used to reinforce how they teach. The conclusions and recommendations made for General Education courses — such as Academic Writing, Speech Communication, and College English — may serve as a guide for developing professional training and development programmes for teachers in residential settings to help them develop the appropriate knowledge and skills for teaching successfully with technology.