Abstract:

The wide academic and research interest in the use of social networking for educational purposes in higher education is the natural result of the constantly growing popularity of social networking. The study presented in this paper aims to investigate the extent to which teachers from different countries from all over the world use social networking sites in their teaching practice for different purposes and what their attitude is towards the use of social networking in higher education in general. The study is intended to seek clarity on the issues whether the results obtained from the survey vary according to the country. The paper presents the method (an exploratory survey using questionnaire for data collection), organization of the study and thorough analyses of the results in accordance with the study objectives. The analysis of the survey results is presented on the basis of valid responses of 19 987 teachers from 75 countries around the world who participated in the survey. Some general conclusions about the latest trends in the use of social networking in education are derived.

Keywords:

Social media, higher education, worldwide survey, teacher.