Abstract:

Since 2002, The New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative have collaborated in generating an annual report that examines the emergent technology trends being adopted by institutions of higher education. The Horizon Report, as it is known, is comprised of a panel of experts who examine and report on the near, mid, and long term technology trends from conceptualization to implementation at universities over the next five years. Specifically, key technology developments, significant challenges to adopting developing trends, and important changes in technology use are considered by the expert panel. In the 2015 report, one of the noted key trends is the redesigning of traditional learning spaces to include both formal and informal learning platforms, personalized learning, and adaptive learning technologies (Horizon Report, 2015). These new educational teaching models include the increased use of social media platforms frequently used by students to enhance their learning experience external to the university setting. Referred to by Kim (2013) as “secret groups”, students form such communities to customize their learning experience to include such factors not necessarily taken into consideration by instructional faculty. These factors may include such things as cultural differences, learning style preference, personal interests, and native language. While there has been considerable consensus among educational policy makers and higher education administrators that such changes need to occur, the time to implementation has been slowed by such things as concerns over face-to-face enrollment, low digital literacy among faculty, and student evaluation. Such emergent changes are of particular concern to colleges of education tasked with preparing 21st century teacher candidates as such changes not only implicate their professional development experience, but also implicate how they will implement said technologies as future educators. The purpose of this paper is to explore, in particular, the current use and implications of using social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, for pre-service teacher candidate professional development and proffer a model to personalize the learning experience using said venues.