Facebook a social platform used as an educational tool

Abstract

This thesis was set out to examine the use of a social network as an educational tool. Rs general objective was to explore the learners' perception of the use of Facebook as an educational tool and support the learning of English as a second language through b-learning. As teachers of English as a foreign language we aknowlegde the fact that our students have fewer opportunities of being exposed and using English, therefore we sought the possibility of presenting them with activities developed on Facebook, a social network which they know how to use. The activities were developed by two groups of students at different schools. Before, during and after they finished performing the tasks assigned to them, they were given three questionnaires to survey their perception and opinions about the tasks they underwent. The results were analyzed and discussed and we discovered that the general percpetion of our students was that the project had been an interesting opportunity to successfully incorporate a seemingly unlikely element to their learning process. This project is a clear example that teachers should think out of the box in order to engage their students in their learning process. In a globalized and hyper technological world teachers should lead the way instead of waiking behind everybody else. This thesis presents an experience that is an example of what has been stated aboye.

Esta tesis fue pensada para revisar el uso de una red social como herramienta de aprendizaje. Su objetivo general fue explorar la percepción de los alumnos sobre el uso de Facebook como una herramienta educativa y apoyar el aprendizaje de inglés como segundo idioma a través de b-learning. Como profesoras de inglés como idioma extranjero reconocemos el hecho que nuestros alumnos tienen pocas oportunidades de estar expuestos a usar el inglés, por lo que buscamos la posibilidad de presentarles actividades desarrolladas en Facebook, una red social que ellos saben como utilizar. Las actividades fueron desarrolladas por dos grupos de alumnos de colegios distintos. Antes, durante y después de desarrollar las tareas asignadas a ellos, se es entregaron a los alumnos tres cuestionarios para explorar su percepción y opinión de las tareas desarrolladas. Los resultados fueron analizados y discutidos y descubrimos que la percepción general de nuestros alumnos era que el proyecto había sido una interesante oportunidad para incorporar exitosamente en su proceso de aprendizaje un elemento novedoso y aparentemente improbable. Este proyecto es un claro ejemplo de que los profesores deben ser creativos con el fin de involucrar a sus alumnos en sus propios procesos de aprendizaje.