Abstract:

Web 2.0 technologies have been developing rapidly within the last 30 years. They are represented as social networking platforms such as Facebook with millions of users. Social networking platforms can be described as a virtual space where people from all over the world who have access to the Internet and have similar interests engage in sharing photos, videos, ideas, and knowledge.

The rapid expansion of social networking platforms highlights the need for further investigation into the advantages, disadvantages, enhancements, and pitfalls of using Web 2.0 technologies regarding academic learning. Facebook has paramount importance among all platforms with its growing familiarity and rapid pace to becoming ubiquitous. As the most popular social media platform, some scholars recommend it as the social networking platform, which has considerable potential to be used as an educational tool to support, encourage, and enable teaching and learning.

Facebook enables the process of education to occur by allowing users to receive and give systematic instruction over a virtual network. As a social networking site, Facebook has the capabilities to facilitate social learning both through observation and direct interactions. Learning through observation on Facebook can occur when a learner observes the content on the “walls” of their peers, thus acquiring knowledge or through direct interaction with their instructor and/or peers through the use of messages, chats and videoconferencing to share ideas, knowledge and ask questions.

Moreover, Facebook could be used as a platform for collaborations through the formation of Facebook groups. These group formations can be created on Facebook as:
1) public, which allows anyone to join, be added or invited by another member,
2) closed, which allows anyone to ask to join the group or be added or invited by a group member
3) secret, which allows anyone to join but they have to be added or invited by a group member. Students can use this virtual space to share information, class notes, course content, ask questions, share ideas, and engage in knowledge-building activities.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influences of Facebook group communication on the writing skills of post-secondary students. The study has used a hybrid methodology for data collection and data analysis. A total number of 56 post-secondary students, were asked to answer 58 survey questions throughout the 12-week course term period. For this purpose, the survey used a Likert scale and open-ended questions. Questions were further grouped into five main categories of Facebook’s effectiveness as a learning tool, Facebook’s effectiveness as a tool for writing skills, Facebook’s effectiveness as a communication tool, accessibility of Facebook as a learning tool, and open-ended questions. According to the findings, while many of the participants were active Facebook users and were involved in many study groups to complete their coursework, opinions varied about the role Facebook plays in education. Among the participants, above 1/5th indicated that Facebook should be included as a part of schools’ academic curriculum and found Facebook an effective tool for school as it enhanced participants’ learning experiences.

Keywords:

Social Media, Facebook, Web 2.0.