INVESTIGATING BEHAVIOURS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A LEARNING TECHNOLOGY AMONG HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS IN SAUDI ARABIA

摘要

Much has been said about the technological, cultural and economic changes brought about by the proliferation of social media into the daily lives of people. Researchers argue that the lives of millennial today are dependent on technology and social media to the extent that their social and cultural practices might be completely different should their digital access be revoked, and that learning today is 'an intensely social activity'. It is now widely acknowledged that today's students are no longer mere consumers of information but also producers and active participants in the knowledge generation process. All this has led to ample research on the ways in which social media sites and apps have led to a culture of digital connectivity among the neomillenial generation and changed their communication and learning styles. There has also been plenty of research on the ways in which educational institutions can reconsider, reimagine and redesign their pedagogies to encourage more active learning among students by using social media. Far less has been said however, about the academic impact of social media in conservative societies like Saudi Arabia where the rules of communication and social interactions are completely different from those of Western countries. In such countries where the teacher is viewed as an authority figure who must always be obeyed, and gender segregation is the norm, the extent to which the informal and interactive style of social media sites would work remains to be seen, particularly given that there is very little research that has been conducted on this student segment so far. It is little wonder then that teachers and Universities in Saudi Arabia seem to offer very limited support in terms of social media based learning to students. This research aims to fill some gaps in this area by investigating the current and potential uses, and implications of integrating social media into higher education in Saudi Arabia. The current paper presents the initial results of the work in progress.