Abstract:

The aim of this study was to examine opportunities and risks related to implementation of various social media, such as Twitter, Instagram, Google Analytics, and Skype into the educational process with regard to social and value-based aspects. The article provides a review of the current level of media education and identifies its specific features. Quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis covered college students, students, master’s students and postgraduate students of two universities. In the course of study, the team of tutors developed modular problem-based cases, identification markers for each student, and individual check-lists. The analysis demonstrated that the use of capacities offered by modern social media allows for development of quick-search skills with the use of information indexation forms accepted on social platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Wordpress, Pinterest, and Instagram. This process also allows for financial modeling and business plan development for production and services provision in various economic sectors for the purposes of investment decision-making. The applied analytic systems simplify the process of financial statements preparation for potential investors and creditors. Training promotes formation of the skills and technical competencies involving modern software application for qualitative and quantitative research. During training we applied such kinds of software as statistical analysis software, geoinformation systems, software for content analysis of qualitative and mixed texts, and tools for research result visualization. The access to the social media in the course of academia training is becoming one of manifestations of the digital culture. The study allowed us to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of practical application in the educational process of social information services providing the population with various categories of services including information, legal and business planning ones. The authors also discuss the results of practical application of the acquired data with due consideration of generation aspect, values and motivation of the contemporary youth.

Keywords:

Teaching/learning strategies, problem-based learning, social media, e-learning, online education, net-generation.