INTEGRATION OF SOCIAL TOOLS IN PUERTO RICO HIGHER EDUCATION CURRICULUM: FACULTY

PERCEPTIONLiz M. Pagán, Ed.D.

University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus

Liz M. PagánEnero de 2010 July 3, 2012

Barcelona, España

Outline

• Introduction• Research purpose• Methodology• Research questions and results • Conclusion and recommendations• Questions

• García (2009) ComScore World Metrix confirms that Puerto Rico Internet users use the social network more than other Hispanic American countries. The average time using the social network is 5.3 hours per day with a use of 70.5 percent, reaching the seventh position in comparison with other countries.

Introduction

Research purpose

Identify the skills, knowledge and attitudes of the

faculty in the use of social tools

Understand the current reality of

the participants in the usage of Web 2.0 technologies

Identify most common barriers in integration of

social tools in education

Look for strategies that facilitate the

integration of social software into the curriculum and

basic principles

Professor Social tools Students

Theoretical approach

Constructivist Approach

Method: Qualitative

Descriptive approach

Design: Case Study

Instrument: Interview

Methodology

• Ten educators of public and private institutions of higher education in Puerto Rico. The professors are experts in the use of Web 2.0 at five different institutions.

Participants

23 guided questions

Validation Sheet IRB

Instrument

Research questions and results

Q1. What is the professor’s perception of the required skills and knowledge necessary to integrate social tools in the curriculum of higher education in Puerto Rico?

1) technological skills2) critical thinking3) effective communication4) high productivity5) information literacy6) teaching

openess Positive Innovation

Humility Flexible Leader

Patient

Research questions and resultsQ2. What is the professor’s perception of the required

attitude necessary to reach the integration of social tools in the curriculum of higher education in Puerto Rico?

Q3. What is the professor’s perception of the necessary strategies to facilitate the integration of social tools in the curriculum of higher education in Puerto Rico?

• The professor’s perceptions are based on the constructivist approach.

Research questions and results

Q4. How does the professor develop educational experiences based on Web 2.0 tools increase the student commitment in the course and in the future?

Encourage the students to share information, thus motivating them to think, analyze, reflect, and create content in a collaborative way.

Research questions and results

Research questions and results

Q5. How is the professor’s perception about the contribution of the social tools to expand the student knowledge and enhance the student’s performance?

The participants agree that the use of social software in education increases the knowledge and improves the student’s performance. The fundamental contribution is that the social software tools provide the opportunity to students to be creators and actors in the educational process. The students, not the professors, are the center of education. This truth provides the opportunity to work with writing, critical thinking, and essential tools required in the student’s development.

Blogs

Vodcast

Social network

Wikis

Podcastforus

CMS

Skype

Google App.

Results

1) Sharing information

Results:

2) Student motivation in thinking and analyzing information.

Blogs

wikis

forus

Social tools

Google Site

CMS

YouTube

Slideshare

Results

3) Create and develop content in a collaborative way

Blogs wikis

vodcast

Social bookmarks

and networks

Develop a space that provides the opportunity to encourage students to promote the use of social software

in courses.

Promote the use of social tools in class and make them a part of the professor’s daily work.

Promote creativity and critical thinking in the development of open spaces to create and share information.

Create spaces that include students’ experiences of daily life.

Present at the beginning of the course that will the use of social tools will be included in class.

Design assessment tools to assign punctuation mostly in content and not in technology use. The students can

autoevaluate participation and product.

Basic principles for integration

– In PR is frequent the use of blogs to share information, content development, thinking, analyzing, and reflecting about a subject.

– The professor develops educational experiences based on Web 2.0 tools to increase the learning process in students by subjects and prepares them for the future. Another strategy is to introduce the term social software at the beginning of each course.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The best practices using social tools in education are:1) be part of the student active learning process; 2) acquire the required competencies;3) use the tools to develops academic activities.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The students have more access to information and this brings the opportunity of increasing the possibility to enhance their academic performance. But, social tools must be used correctly because the wrong use can provide a negative result. Also it is important to consider that students can be more active in the learning process and can create content.

Conclusions and recommendations

The professor has to facilitate student the opportunity to develop knowledge schemes by providing the materials to encourage deep reflection. In this way, the student can discriminate and deepen the course content.

Conclusion

Quote

“The limit of learning is you! El único límite para el aprendizaje es uno

mismo” (LMP, 2010)

Questions