Alanbat-Shatha Hatamleh
Translated by: Rahaf Abdullah
We are currently witnessing the spread of social media platforms and the ease with which they are used by people of all ages as a result of huge technological development, and it has become urgently necessary to integrate social media into education and use these platforms for the benefit of teachers and students in the educational process, especially since some schools have become an unappealing environment for many students, and they have resorted to these platforms to take advantage as they have eliminated all spatial and time limits.
Educational expert Mahmoud Darwish clarifies that the social media platforms have become available to everyone and are indispensable in the educational process; in addition, he points out that the school has become an unattractive learning environment, especially for Tawjihi students, so that the social media platforms become the only resort for the students.
He also mentions social media platforms as competing to reach students through these platforms; as they compete to reach students through these platforms, students are also looking for an effective teacher through these platforms.
He stated that social media platforms have negative effects, the most notable being an increase in cases of dropout in public schools due to their recourse to social media platforms or teacher pages, citing the lack of oversight on social media platforms and the fact that we did not know the extent of communication between the teacher and the student, the extent of the teacher's effect on the student, and the style in which the teacher presents the educational material, in addition to teachers are not specialized in the fields they teach via social media platforms.
In the same context, the educational expert Ahmad Wahdan observed that it has become possible to benefit from social media platforms such as "Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube" and other social media platforms in the educational process, particularly during the Corona period, in which thousands of educational institutions from universities, institutes, colleges, and schools are participating all over the world in what is known as "blended learning," and the number of students participating has increased in these platforms for learning.
He continues that the awareness of faculty members, students, and every person who has a role in this educational process with social media networks in education led to the necessity of research in this field, indicating that the aim for this is for the exit from the educational process to be effective and influential in society and thus contribute positively to the process of developing the educational process, indicating that the teacher can create a page on any of the communication platforms in which everyone participates to share their opinions, which helps him to identify the content and formulate the established goals.
As he expanded, he stated that the positive impact of social media platforms on the educational process resides in their contribution to individual education and as a tool to keep information, in addition to developing information capabilities and scientific thinking skills and developing students' creative thinking, he stated that many educational goals can be achieved and help in finding strategies and plans to solve some educational problems and facilitate learning among the world's distant countries.
Wahdan added that social media apps allowed teachers and students to travel around the world, gather information, and make friends. In addition to holding teleconferences to save time and effort, strengthen communication channels, develop students’ self-confidence, and increase technical skills, they are also a source of urgent and important news and increase awareness of societal values, culture, and politics. It also helps to follow children’s news in educational institutions and improve the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process.
