Abstract:

Social networking affects our students’ lives nowadays. This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of the integration of a social networking site in education, particularly in the context of the subject Practicum II in the Degree in Primary Education at the University of Burgos (Spain). The use of this tool promises to be very useful and effective to promote mutual shared learning among the pre-service students who are doing their school placements.

We use a questionnaire for data collection of the perceptions of pre-service teachers who are doing their school placements simultaneously. A total of 15 fourth-year student teachers participated in the study. The main findings emphasized that the perceptions of pre-service teachers towards the effects of the use of a social networking site imply the development of collaboration, teacher reflection and mutual learning among them during their school placements. Social networkings in the organization of the school placements also improve the quality of University mentoring. Our results could also be valid for students in other university degrees.

Keywords:

Social networking, pre-service students, school placements.