YOUTUBE & FACEBOOK AS EDUCATIONAL TOOLS IN THE TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS. EXPERIENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

A few years ago it was not necessary to be a clairvoyant to predict that Internet, the social networks and the free software were going to produce a revolution on the traditional aspects of the university teaching. Nowadays already we can find academic forums in Facebook, Tuenti or Twitter, virtual campus and teaching, incorporation in classroom simulations and YouTube video, support platforms for Teaching Moodle/Blackboard, Chat, Blog... Every time there is a major number of resources and devices destined for his utilization in education. This series of computing tools constitute an applications group of the Web-2.0 improving in a significantly way the communication between the student and the professor. Thus communication among students is more fluid, facilitating the formation of workgroups, their interaction and the creation of discussion forums. One of the advantages of Information Technology and Communication (ICT), it’s that they facilitate qualitatively and quantitatively the possibility of raising the active-collaborative work and involvement of the students a synchronous or asynchronous manner during the didactic strategy. In general learning is easier due to the use of simulators, videos and other multimedia applications that enhance the study of the matter (e-learning). On the one hand the utilization of these applications it allows to the professor to apply diverse educational innovative methodologies; on the other hand the students are clearly motivated for developing ability and competence related to this knowledge discipline.

Facebook and YouTube offer us tools not only of recreational and hobby but rather resources that can be adapted and used in educational contexts in order to raise discussions, video analysis together with information and knowledge exchange… Thus it allows a major interaction between the binomials teacher-student and student-student. Moreover as logical, implementation of these tools on teaching has allowed to increase the degree of student motivation to improve the skill sets, competences and abilities acquired during the academic course.

Implementation of applications Web-2.0 in university teaching involves incorporating new activities, communication styles, roles and scenarios; so one of the challenges of education today should be to develop a new educational space adapted to a society submitted to continuous changes. The fact of using free and open software has enabled the implementation of this experience will be quick, because the great majority of students are accustomed to using this technologies. The appearance of new versions destined for smartphones has caused widespread among young people, which makes possible that it is a future option (m-learning). The project is economically sustainable, efficient and transferable to other disciplines of knowledge and degrees, as the means for implementation are in widespread use within the educational community. It is necessary to indicate also that the use of this type of communication tools has expanded in the educational sector since it software programs are easily accessible, they allow his utilization and download without additional cost.