Abstract:

In this explorative case study we planned, tested and verified an assessment tool for evaluating Social Media (SOME) skills among vocational teachers. We also planned and trained vocational teachers in the use of social media tools. The case study was automotive and transport engineering upper secondary vocational teacher training. According Huhtala [1], based on a large national inquiry of the automotive sector, there has arisen the need to develop the skills of the student in many ways. They require paying attention to coming trends of the teaching methods and the technology [2].

With the help of this training we wanted to provide teachers a better understanding of ideology of SOME and realize its pedagogical possibilities and benefits. In the case study training we introduced theories and examples about SOME and its potential to solve future challenges in the automotive sector. But there are multiple barriers in utilizing social software [3].

We explored an answer to the research question: How to assess utilization of social media tools in teaching among vocational Teachers? We discovered that utilizing an assessment survey questionnaire before a training course was very beneficial.

In this case study we found out that the ability to utilize SOME tools among automotive vocational teachers was poor. Our earlier studies among adult SOME users support these findings [4],[5],[6],[7]. Our notion was that the automotive and transport engineering genre was very traditional and surprisingly conservative towards new technology like SOME for example. Limitations in the research process were typical for the case study [8],[9].

References:
[1] Huhtala M. (2013) Auto-, kuljetus- ja ilmailualan laadullinen ennakointi. (Qualitative anticipating of a car field, transportation and aviation field). Finnish National Board of Education, publications 2013:10.
[2] Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., Freeman, A., Kampylis, P., Vuorikari, R., Punie, Y. (2014) Horizon Report Europe: 2014 Schools Edition. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, & Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.
[3] Pirkkalainen H. and Pawlowski J. M.(2014). Global social knowledge management – Understanding barriers for global workers utilizing social software. Comput. Human Behav., vol. 30, pp. 637–647.
[4] Aramo-Immonen, H., Jussila, J. J., Huhtamäki, J. (2015) Exploring Co-Learning Behavior of Conference Participants with Visual Network Analysis of Twitter Data Computers in Human Behavior. Forthcoming. Computers in Human Behavior.
[5] Aramo-Immonen, H., Jaakkola, H. and Linna P. (2011). Trust building in Global Software Engineering – Cultural perspective. Journal of Global Information Technology Management, Vol 14, No 4
[6] Jussila, J. J., Kärkkäinen, H. and Aramo-Immonen, H. (2014). Social media utilization in business-to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 30, 606–613.
[7] Jaakkola, H., Linna, P., Henno, J., & Mäkelä, J. (2011). (Social) networking is coming Are we ready? Proceedings of the 34th International Convention MIPRO pp.1133–1139.
[8] Yin, Robert K. (2009). Case study research. Design and methods. Fourth edition. Sage.
[9] Eisenhardt, K. & Graebner, M. (2007). Theory building from cases: opportunities and challenges. Academy of management Journal, Vol. 50, No.1, pp. 25-32.

Keywords:

Social media, vocational teaching, SOME, SOME assessment, automotive, case study.