Abstract:

Social media have been widely adopted. In education, the hype surrounding social media has created speculation about how it might be used in education. The goal of our research is to successfully implement social media in higher education.

Research by Wodzicki, Schwämmlein and Moskaliuk (2012) showed that students exchanged study-related information, stating that ‘they actually wanted to learn’. Top (2012) reported positive learning and collaboration experiences. Laru, Näykki and Järvelä (2012) revealed that social media tools increased individual knowledge acquisition.

Main challenge of introducing social media in higher education is the gap between the structured experience that a university offers on one hand and the user driven character of social media on the other hand. NHL university bridges the gap using the living lab-method. At EUNIS 2012 in Vila Real, we presented findings in NHL university as a living lab: NHL21. At INTED 2013 in Valencia, we presented the results of our research at the Piter Jelles secondary school, using the living lab method.

NHL University acts as a living lab. According to Mitchel (2010), a living lab aims for innovative education and organization on design, implementation, use, and effects. Our research consists of three elements:

1. to conduct research:
We did research on the use of social media in general and the use of social media in education, by performing the Student21 monitor. This research was performed in 2012 (n=323) and repeated in 2013 (n=236). Results of 2012 and 2013 differed slightly. The Lecturer21 monitor (n=222) was performed in 2012.

Our research showed that the use of social media by students at NHL university is widespread. Facebook and Twitter dominate the social media landscape: in 2013, 82% of the students check Facebook daily, 31% check their Twitter-account daily. Students use social media in order to share information and to stay in touch with family and friends. Topics they discuss are movies, television programs and events. Lecturer21 monitor showed that the 80% of the lecturers use social media. A small survey was conducted among students and lecturers of the department of Communication: they are the heavy users of social media.

The use of social media in education is limited. There is a gap between the personal use of social media and the professional use in education by students and lecturers.

2. appoint early adopters:
Using the diffusion of innovations according to Rogers, we searched for lecturers at NHL University who already use social media in their classes. We interviewed ten innovators, lecturers willing to take risks. The innovators experiment with social media in education e.g.:
• Using WhatsApp to communicate with students,
• Using Facebook to support student projects,
• Using LinkedIn to connect students to their future field of work,

3. share information:
We put together a digital book, in which the early adopters wrote their findings. The book was presented to the chairman of the Board of Directors of NHL University. This book will be sent to all lecturers at NHL University. Finally, we plan to organize a Day of Digital Dilemma’s.

Using the diffusion of innovations, we hope to find the early adopters and early majority at NHL university in order to use social media as a learning tool.

Keywords:

Innovation, social media, higher education, living labs.