Tendency to use social networks for fun and entertainment rather than for learning: is there any problem with platform

A major portion of online student users continue to use their time for fun and entertainment.Continuation of this situation will not benefit education system. In search of the reason and before adopting any strategy, the current study decided to get an insight on nature of these environments considering pedagogical use of these social networking websites including but not limited to Facebook, twitter, telegram, whatsapp. Fifteen bachelor’s students from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) interacted on the completion of a sentence combining task. The rationale for this selection was if users can apply online platforms to discuss grammatical task, they will easily utilize it for addressing content and other areas. The students were involved in written interaction via text-chat over sentence combining activities for five 45 minute sessions in three five member groups. Results of the discourse analysis of their interactions demonstrated that interactions through online platforms can indeed be an effective pedagogical tool for teachers to improve students’ language skills

Keywords:

online platforms , social network , task-based exercise , discourse analysis , digital natives