Diversity of uses of Facebook in higher education. Analysis from a case study

Abstract

The use of the social networks has marked an exceptional moment in communications between humans. The possibility to connect with people from every continent, quickly and efficiently, is just one of the achievements that have these networks, whose main exponent has been Facebook, created in 2004 for by a group of university students, and that in 2015 reached a record of 1.490 million active users, representing just over 20% of the world population. In order to know the different uses that are given to Facebook in higher level education, an investigation was conducted at the Centro Universitario del Sur (CUSur), University of Guadalajara, between October 2012 and November 2013. Several stages with different actors work: teachers, students and educational administrators, thereby seeking to have representation that integrates the areas of teaching, learning and administration. Stages of the study were these: starts with a focus group with nine teachers; subsequently, 10 interviews were conducted with educational administrators. From some of the data, a survey of closed reagents directed to teachers was designed, and applied to 90.5% of teachers reported that in 2013 have a Facebook account to academic work (143 teachers). As a final phase focus group work with students from different university careers. In the triangulation of the results, it is observed that the uses in agreeing actors of this research are: communication with teachers and students; counseling and mentoring; circulation of materials and various documents, and training and upgrading. We conclude that Facebook can have a significant potential to enrich the educational process, as long as teachers, students and administrative make conscious and aimed use of this network.