Social media in education: an exploration of tensions between everyday practice and school practice

This paper discusses the tensions related to social media sites (SNS) and education, thereby aiming to contribute to educators’ thought-out use of SNS in formal education. Because of students’ intensive SNS use outside school hours (Van den Beemt, et al, 2010), efforts to apply SNS to classroom learning can result in tensions between everyday practice and school practice. We investigate the ethical and pedagogical aspects of young peoples’ SNS use by applying contemporary learning theory as a lens,
substantiated by empirical data describing diversity in interactive media use among students. In this paper we explore the following aspects: tensions between educators’ and students’ use of SNS; contemporary learning theories that can address such tensions by relating learning to the network
aspect of SNS; research describing diversity in digital media use among students. Because learners often use SNS as a means for identity development, using these sites as a direct learning tool can be problematic. Teachers have to themselves experience social media use for learning before they can follow the use of SNS among their students, and to address the attitudes, preferences and skills as possible connections between social media use and learning.