REPORT WRITING OF RESEARCH METHODS IN EDUCATION(AUTHOR: HANIA ASIF).Article #1. Bulletin of Education and Research December 2012, Vol. 34, No. 2 pp.19-28Pattern of Facebook usage and its Impact on Academic Performance of University Students: A Gender Based ComparisonAuthors: Ahsan ul Haq & Sohail Chand.Introduction:The use of the Internet has become a central part of the developed and developing societies around the world. Approximately 78.1 percent of the United States population use Internet on a regular basis (Internet World Stats, 2012).This research focuses on finding the influence of the Internet usage, Facebook usage, online media usage for education and non-education, and students interest in university on students academic performance and their face to- face communication. Prior research (Anderson, 2001; Brignall& Van Valey, 2005; Coyne et al., 2013; Hargittai, 2007; Jones & Fox, 2009; Neu, 2009; Pierce, 2009)has extensively focused on the influence of the Internet and social networks on either student academic performance or face-to-face communication (social engagement). Factors such as, student interest in university, and use of online media for education and non-education have not been studied earlier together in the current context.Review of Literature:Pempek et al., (2009) found that students spend approximately 30 minutes on Facebook throughout the day as part of their daily routine. Facebook was used most often for social communication, mostly with friends with whom the students had a pre-established offline relationship. They discussed suggestions through the use of social networking sites for the development of identity and peer relationships.Aghazamani (2010) studied the students motivations for Facebook usage. The results of his research suggest that male spend more time on Facebook than females. The appraisal showed that undergraduate students login their Facebook account more times per day than graduate students. Friendship was named the most favorite activity among male undergraduate students.In the study of Kirschner and Karpinski (2010), they found a significant negative relationship between Facebook use and academic performance. Facebook users reported lower mean GPAs and reported spending fewer hours per week studying on average than Facebook nonusers. A majority of students claimed to use Facebook accounts at least once day. Junco (2011) studied the relationship between Facebook usage and student engagement, a construct related to positive college outcomes. Facebook was found negatively correlated with engagement scale score and positively correlated with time spent in co-curricular activities.Junco (2012) examined the relationship among numerous measures of frequency of Facebook use with time spent preparing for class and overall GPAs. Hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that time spent on Facebook was strongly and significantly negatively correlated with overall GPA.Roblyer et al.,(2010) reported that Facebook have the potential to become an appreciated source to support students educational communications and associations with faculty. A comparison between faculty and student responses indicates that students are more open to the possibility of using Facebook and similar technologies to support classroom work while Faculty members are more likely to use more traditional technologies such as email.Hargittai (2008) studied a sample of 1,060 students and found that overall 88% students use social network site, 74% report using at least one social network site frequently and only one student have not heard any of the six social network sites included on the survey. Over 12% respondents do not use any of them. Facebook is the most popular service among these students, with almost four in five using it, and over half of the overall sample doing so repeatedly.Lenhart and Madden (2007) found that youngsters use social networks for the creation and the maintenance of friendships. 7% of the teens were using the Facebook, 22% use social network sites several times a day, 26% once a day, 49% use social network sites to make new friends, 91% using to stay in touch with existing friends. Youngsters from middle and lower income families were more likely to say that they use the sites to make new friends than higher income teens.Khan (2009) found that 65 percent of Facebook users accessed their account daily in several times to see if they had received new messages. The amount of time spent varied from just a few minutes to more than an hour on Facebook at each login. The Ohio report shows significant lower GPAs among students who use Facebook than those who didnt use the site. 79 percent students using Facebook believed that the time spent on site had no impact on their academic performance. According to the study, teens spend an average of 31 hours a week online.Ellison et al., (2007) conducted research to examine the relationship between use of Facebook, and the establishment and maintenance of social capital and ones ability to stay linked with members of a previously settled community.Conclusion:In order to conclude we can say, majority of the students use Facebook and it is equally popular among male and females. Male students though spend more time on internet browsing as compared to female students but female students spend more time on the Facebook. Moreover, Facebook usage more adversely affects the academic performance of male students as compared to female students.

Article# 2:Of Farah.The effects of Facebook on students academic performances.By:Anas Farah.Introduction: A new set of research deals with the topic of social media networks effects on performance and productivity. Indeed, much research done by universities highlight a potential distraction created by social media, which affects students performances.Writers on the topic are split into two groups. The conservatives defend the case that social media indeed affects performances and decreases the productivity of its users. On the other hand, the modernists argue that social media do not have any effect on performance and productivity and could potentially be used in order to increase users productivity and performance. While the surveys are indeed a very common way to get information on some of the practices on social media, in the case the distractions created by social media, the users tend to overestimate or underestimate the time spend on social media and how it could potentially has an effect on them. Facebook encourages users to multitask and therefore decrease their cognitive resources and attention span. And finally, that Facebook represents a real distraction from potential productive activity and it is an enabler of procrastination. This is important because we can understand better how students could increase their productivity.Review Of literature:Much of the research on social media focused on the effects of social media on identity. Scholars argued that people are getting addicted to social media networks. Marche Is Facebook making us Lonely? (2012), argues that social media provide us with a platform where we can control how we want our social life. This control is what makes the users addictive. The literature on the topic of students performances and its relation to social media use compromises two groups. On one hand the modern optimists argue that social media doesnt impact students performances. Syarif Husin Lubis and all argue that the time spent on Facebook did not have correlation with CGPA(p.2). In other words, Facebook use doesnt impact students performances. Syarifs research group findings imply that addiction to Facebook has no impact on students productivity and academic performances. On the other hand, the conservative skeptics think that social media networks like Facebook negatively impact students academic performances. Reynol Junco claims that time spent on Facebook was strongly and significantly negatively related to overall GPA (p.1). For Junco, the time spent on social media networks like Facebook has a negative impact on students performances. Thus, the addiction to social media networks like Facebook negatively impacts the productivity of students. On the same line, Kirschner and Karpinski claim that Results show that Facebook users reported having lower GPAs and spend fewer hours per week studying than nonusers(p.1), this means that Facebook is indeed responsible for the decrease of students performances. Junco, Kirschner and Karpinskis findings all tend to imply that social media addiction is negatively impacting students productivity.Conclusion:Hence, to conclude we can say that there are two different groups related to impact of Facebook on students performance. On these basis, the two different groups i.e. the modernists and conservatives have different opinions related to impact of face book on students academic performance.Article # 3:JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH AND INNOVATION. http://seminar.utmspace.edu.my/jisri/The Impact of Social Media use on Academic Performance among university students.http://seminar.spaceutm.edu.my/jisri/download/G_FinalPublished/Pub12_SocialMediaAcademicPerformance.pdfIntroduction:The social media has become one of the most important communication means in recent times. However, social networking exists so as to provide communication among people regardless of the distance, making it open to people easily share information. The favorite in the realm of internet sites are Facebook, Twitter and others. These websites and social forums are way of communication directly with other people socially and in media. An additional benefit of social technologies provided on the internet is that they are frequently free or require marginal investment, eliminating a potential barrier to adoption. There has been various overview and opinions which recognized four major advantages of social media use in higher education. These include, enhancing relationship, improving learning motivation, offering personalized course material, and developing collaborative abilities. This means that social networking activities have the possibility of enhancing student contact and is used to improve their participation in class, particularly where introverted students are involved. Students can function in online group learning, with less or no anxiety of needing to raise questions before peers at school. Review of Literature:Earlier studies, such as examined the general usability of social media among young students in higher level of education. Similarly, examined the use of social media and maintain that, the appropriation of social technologies is not an easy and straightforward process. At higher level of education more complex academic tasks are handled and the new generation of students is perceived to understand that social media and social technologies are influential to learning. A number of earlier studies have shown evidence that efforts are required in order to start using social media in order to influence educational activities. According to students ought to be given careful scrutiny to check their use of the tools they feel at ease and acquainted with which they feel are viable in accomplishing academic tasks. In connection with this, the social affordances of utilizing social networking may not be provided in a single particular social technology but instead within the mixture of several social technologies. Effects of social media on the Academic Performance of Students: The social media engages students and have to be examined as entrepreneurs of understanding. According to Khan U (2009), Facebook users often time experience poor performance academically. Similarly, posit that social media is negatively associated with academic performance of student and is a lot more momentous than its advantages. Internet addiction consequently gave rise in internet usage within the last couple of decades recommended that addicted users prefer using internet setting back their personal and professional responsibilities which ultimately leads to poor academic performance. According to Karpinski A (2009), pointed out that Facebook users devoted lesser time to their studies in comparison to nonusers did and subsequently had lower GPAs. Also mentioned that among various unique distractions of every single generation, Facebook remains a major distraction of current generation. According to Kubey, Lavin, and Barrows (2001), Impairment of educational performance and internet dependency are correlated by utilizing synchronous communication programs including internet sites and forums. There are benefits and risks associated with using any social network. There have been reports regarding its effect on students academic performance. Some researchers investigated the end result of social networking usability among College students and with their academic performance. They found a poor effect and influence when the media is overuse in such a way that do not academically improve learning or its process. Other researchers examined this same problem but found either no significant relationship between using social networking and student academic performance, or really a factor in students academic performance.Conclusion:In this article the benefits of using social networks has been discussed but the other aspect of using social networks has also been discussed on students academic performance that Facebook users often time experience poor performance academically. Also, Internet addiction has negative effects on students performance that addicted users prefer using internet setting back their personal and professional responsibility which ultimately leads to poor academic performance. According to some researchers the negative impact of Facebook and other social networks on students performance is due to when the media is overuse in such a way that do not academically improve learning or its process.

References1. Ahsan-ul-Haq & Sohail Chand. (2012). Pattern of Facebook usage and its Impact on Academic Performance of University Students: A Gender Based Comparison. Bulletin of Education and Research, 34, 19-28.