Educational Use of Social Media in Primary and Childhood Education Degrees at a Virtual University

The use of social networks is part of people's daily lives, and university students, in their academic life, make particularly intense use of them on a daily basis for different purposes. This research analyses the nature, intensity, and type of educational use of these social media by childhood and primary pre-teachers who are pursuing their studies online in Spain. To this end, we designed and validated an ad hoc questionnaire, obtaining 268 valid responses to research the specific characteristics of students studying for degrees in early childhood education and primary education and a double degree in early childhood and primary education at a university that is exclusively online. The results show that participants habitually use a variety of social media, but they only use some of them for educational purposes. General social networks offer future teachers versatility, the possibility to develop and leverage social capital, and opportunities to connect formal, non-formal and informal settings. The most used networks were WhatsApp, YouTube and above all Facebook, a reasonably large percentage use Instagram or Pinterest, and, to a lesser extent, Skype, and a lightly under half have Twitter. With regards to how they are used for educational purposes, a majority of respondents reported using them to find classroom activities, new ideas and material that might be of use in their academic work. It was also found that students consumed more information than what they produced, such that social capital is not used in an optimal way. It is concluded that in a university that operates exclusively online, the use of social networks fulfils the function of covering affective and social needs in an optimal way

Educational Use of Social Media in Primary and Childhood Education Degrees at a Virtual University

The use of social networks is part of people's daily lives, and university students, in their academic life, make particularly intense use of them on a daily basis for different purposes. This research analyses the nature, intensity, and type of educational use of these social media by childhood and primary pre-teachers who are pursuing their studies online in Spain. To this end, we designed and validated an ad hoc questionnaire, obtaining 268 valid responses to research the specific characteristics of students studying for degrees in early childhood education and primary education and a double degree in early childhood and primary education at a university that is exclusively online. The results show that participants habitually use a variety of social media, but they only use some of them for educational purposes. General social networks offer future teachers versatility, the possibility to develop and leverage social capital, and opportunities to connect formal, non -formal and informal settings. The most used networks were WhatsApp, YouTube and above all Facebook, a reasonably large percentage use Instagram or Pinterest, and, to a lesser extent, Skype, and a lightly under half have Twitter. With regards to how they are used for educational purposes, a majority of respondents reported using them to find classroom activities, new ideas and material that might be of use in their academic work. It was also found that students consumed more information than what they produced, such that social capital is not used in an optimal way. It is concluded that in a university that operates exclusively online, the use of social networks fulfils the function of covering affective and social needs in an optimal way

Pre-service Teachers' Use of General Social Networking Sites Linked to Current Scenarios: Nature and Characteristics

Social networking sites form part of everyday life in classrooms at all educational levels. Within these, general social networking sites (GSNSs) offer pre-service teachers flexibility, versatility and the possibility of forming educational communities by connecting formal, non-formal and informal settings. This research analyses the nature, intensity, and type of pre-service teachers’ use of such for educational purposes in their initial training in order to detect the most important aspects for improvement. Possible factors shaping behaviour were gender, whether individuals belonged to universities operating online or in person, differences in the types of studies they were undertaking, and the time at which the questionnaire was administered, before or after the COVID-19 health crisis. To this end, we studied how much and with what aims these students use the most widely used GSNSs for educational purposes. To do so, we administered a questionnaire to a total of 812 students from 6 Spanish universities. The results show a preference for WhatsApp, YouTube, and Instagram. In addition, it was found that undergraduate students used them more intensively than postgraduate students. In the case of online universities, there was a greater need to cover affective and emotional aspects than in in-person universities. As in almost all areas, the situation caused by COVID-19 changed the way social networks were used. The findings also show that pre-service teachers consumed more information on social media than what they produced, which leads to a failure to fully exploit social capital and potential job or academic opportunities that could be generated through their own creations

Desafíos de las redes sociales en educación. Revisión y análisis bibliométrico de la producción científica para mapear tendencias y perspectivas

This paper aims to analyse the trends in the articles included in the Journal Citation Report on the implications of social networks in the educational sphere during the period 2011-2020 and, in this way, to synthesise the knowledge base on their use in formal, non-formal and informal educational environments. Regarding methodology, various variables were analysed in the 157 selected articles, and exploratory and descriptive bibliometric research was carried out. The PRISMA protocol's indications have been followed for the whole process. The results show a considerable increase in production in the first quartiles of impact journals. Most of the papers were written by occasional authors from the USA. The most common theme was using social networks as a vehicle for creating virtual environments, with qualitative methodology standing out. It has been revealed that challenges remain to be addressed from an educational science perspective, such as non-formal learning, ethical dilemmas, and addictions. Collaboration and the establishment of peer-to-peer publication networks show areas for improvement.El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar las tendencias de los artículos recogidos en la base Journal Citation Report sobre las implicaciones de las redes sociales en el ámbito educativo durante el periodo 2011-2020 y, de este modo, sintetizar la base de conocimiento sobre su uso en entornos educativos formales, no formales e informales. En cuanto a la metodología, se han analizado diversas variables en los 157 artículos seleccionados y se ha realizado una investigación exploratoria y descriptiva con carácter bibliométrico. Para todo el proceso, se han seguido las indicaciones del protocolo PRISMA. Los resultados muestran un aumento considerable en la producción en los primeros cuartiles de las revistas de impacto. La mayoría de los trabajos fueron realizados por autores ocasionales, procedentes de EE. UU. La temática más habitual fue el uso de las redes sociales como elemento vehicular para la creación de entornos virtuales, destacando la metodología cualitativa. Se ha revelado que quedan desafíos por abordar desde la perspectiva de las Ciencias de la Educación, como el aprendizaje no formal, o dilemas éticos y adicciones. La colaboración y el establecimiento de redes de publicación entre pares evidencian aspectos de mejora

Estudio de un grupo de monedas hallado en el yacimiento romano de la Isla de la Moza, Monturque (Córdoba).

En el presente artículo presentamos el análisis de un grupo de 394 monedas recogidas superficialmente en el yacimiento monturquefto de la Isla de la Moza. Asimismo se muestran los resultados de la prospección arqueológica superficial que se efectuó en dicho yacimiento, así como el análisis de las muestras cerámicas obtenidas en ésta y la datación que de ellas se deriva. Realizada toda esta recopilación material, presentamos aquí un intento de aproximación a la circulación monetaria del yacimiento de la Isla de la Moza por períodos cronológicos.In this article we show the analysis of a group of 393 coins superficially recolected in the site of the "Isla de la Moza", Monturque, (Córdoba). Likewise, the results of the surface archeological prospection, carried on in that site, are shown, in the same way as the analisys of the potteries found there and their dates. Once all the material's compilation has been done, we shown now a chronological approximate attempt to the monetary circulation in the site of the "Isla de la Moza"

Estudio de un grupo de monedas procedentes de los yacimientos romanos de Los Paseíllos, La Herradora, Las Campiñuelas y Los Torilejos

En el presente artículo procedemos a analizar un grupo de 67 monedas recogidas superficialmente en los yacimientos monturqueños de La Herradora, Las Campiñuelas, Los Torilejos y Los Paseíllos-Monturque y que forman parte de una Colección Particular. Para contextualizar histórica y arqueológicamente estos yacimientos, recurrimos en primer lugar a la búsqueda de noticias previas, bien escritas o bien referencias orales recogidas de gentes del lugar. Las encontramos, en el caso del yacimiento de Los Paseíllos, a través de la información derivada de las diferentes intervenciones arqueológicas que se han llevado a cabo en él; igualmente, en el de Los Torilejos, se constata su riqueza arqueológica por la abundancia de vestigios materiales, entre otros, como veremos infra, varios mosaicos. Asimismo contábamos con la referencia de una serie de materiales arqueológicos de época romana y de muy diversa índole, pertenecientes a la misma colección que el grupo de monedas objeto del presente trabajo

Influence of COVID on the Educational Use of Social Media by Students of Teaching Degrees

The situation caused by SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in the intensive use of technology in all fields, including education and interactions between students. This research seeks to identify changes in the way social media have been used for educational purposes by students of teaching degrees both before and after lockdown. Based on an online survey administered to a sample of 524 students from different Spanish universities in which it has been observed how their use has generally been very similar, although significant differences have been detected according to the kind of university. In this capacity, the use of social media for academic purposes has increased in universities offering traditional classroom based courses, while it has remained the same in virtual universities which, due to their particular idiosyncrasies, have not been directly affected

Virtual Learning Communities Mediated through Instagram: Pre-Teachers as Creators of Environments through Visual Narratives

Scientific literature shows that from an educational perspective, one of the constraints of using social media is that trainee teachers tend to refrain from assuming an active role in any educational context, despite themselves being significant consumers of non-professional content on social media This study aims to analyse the perception of students of the Master's Degree in Teacher Training for Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Language Teaching at a University in Spain on an experience mediated by Instagram in order to determine factors related to motivation, creativity and intention to use it in the future. The methodology employed implemented an experience based on a four-phase sequence. A questionnaire was administered as a pre-test, and post-test and correlations were carried out using Spearman's statistic, the statistical difference with Mann-Whitney and multiple linear regression with the input method. This allowed for the influence of their role as creators of visual narratives on their future practice as teachers to be analysed. In terms of the results, the most notable were the marks for awareness of the process carried out, views on the usefulness of the activity and opinions on motivation. The use of Instagram and other social networks for future activities was significantly valued, considering the methodology used allowed creativity to flourish. This is a relevant indicator and demonstrates a significant gap in educational studies regarding future secondary education teachers' trends and social media profiles. Although they are familiar with these networks, the results show that they have yet to be incorporated into their professional world

Exploring the effect of social media in Personal Learning Environments in the university settings: analysing experiences and detecting future challenges

The concept of PLEs as connected learning and the shaping of them as a socio-material framework in which people learn, overlaps with the intrinsic characteristics of social media. Consequently, it is important to analyse how academic literature has treated the direct relationship between the two realities in the university sector. Accordingly, the objective of this work is to determine how this relationship has been treated with regards to contexts, authorship and positions, types of social media, objectives pursued, methodologies and results. Regarding methodology, we used the PICOC strategy to design the research questions and the PRISMA protocol to document the systematic review of academic production in SCOPUS and Web of Science between 2012 and 2021. We ultimately obtained a sample of 35 works. The findings show that use of media to build PLEs that meet users’ needs should be explored in greater depth and analysed by using particular methodologies to reach conclusions that help to drive them. Academic and professional promotion stand out among the major challenges in the use of social media in PLEs, as does the possibility of bringing together non-formal, formal, and informal areas to create learning

El uso de las redes sociales en educación: una revisión sistemática de la literatura científica

Las estrategias de enseñanza-aprendizaje han experimentado cambios en los últimos años debido a la irrupción de la tecnología digital y a la aparición de las redes sociales como mediadoras y facilitadoras de nuevos contextos. En este trabajo, se realiza una revisión de la literatura científica que ha tratado el uso de las redes sociales genéricas diferentes ámbitos educativos durante los últimos diez años. Para ello se ha realizado un análisis documental de los artículos indexados en la Journal Citation Reports de la Web of Science que, tras proceder a su curación, han dado como resultado 160 trabajos. Para analizarlos se han divido en cinco ámbitos: competencia digital y competencia digital docente; redes sociales como elemento vehicular para la creación de entornos virtuales y comunidades educativas; el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje mediado por redes sociales como recurso didáctico; problemas y adicciones derivados del uso de las redes sociales y finalmente, movimientos y reivindicaciones sociales en el ámbito de la educación a través de redes sociales. Los resultados revelan que, si bien se están estableciendo nuevos entornos y contextos en este sentido y que se intensifica la investigación sobre los mismos, en todos los ámbitos de análisis existe un amplio margen de implementación