The Challenge Of Social Networks In Teaching And Learning

Social networking is becoming increasingly widespread. There are many networks that gather users to publish, share, comment and collaborate as individuals and/or in groups. In an attempt to support networking and teaching, social networks are also being introduced into the pedagogical process to bridge the gap between it and the young population. YouTube has become particularly popular with teachers, providing open resource video content that can be used during lectures to efficiently introduce new topics or as background for various assignments (discussion, essay etc.). In recent years, research has provided impressive results – Klobas et al. (2018) researched compulsive YouTube usage and how it influences academic motivation. Newport (2019) reflects on our relationship with social media and other technologies that impact how we live and do things; impacts which are clearly visible in students who are continuously connected to social media. At the beginning of the Business Informatics course, an obligatory course at undergraduate study programe, an e-survey was carried out to collect data about how students (n=110; 86.4% of the firstyear undergraduate students participated) use technologies and social networks. We collected data about students’ behavior on the web too. Smartphones are the main devices used among students, not only to access social networks but also for school work. Among social networks YouTube is the most frequently used social network (M=4.8 on 5-degree scale; 5=regularly, 1=never), followed by Instagram (M=4.6) and Facebook (M=4.5). YouTube is used for different reasons. Students most frequently use YouTube for entertainment (M=4.5) and, a welcoming finding, for learning (M=4.2). In the survey some questions about possible addiction to YouTube were included and compared to the students’ achievements on the study programe. We found that students’ achievements correlated significantly with a variable compounded from five questions about YouTube addiction (rs = –0.249; p