Educational Edifices Need a Mobile Strategy to Fully Engage in Learning Activities

Research in mobile learning (m-learning) about technology and software and mobile learning's application to educationally related undertakings and a long-term sustainability remain unclear. This chapter untwines the tangled information surrounding m-learning strategy through examining the drivers and perceptions for m-learning in the 21st century. The data will unearth the value of employing diverse modalities of m-learning. Administrators will gain knowledge to develop and implement mobile strategy. Faculty will enhance their familiarity on the diverse types of m-learning tools and the value of employing m-learning in the classroom. Administrators and faculty members will gather knowledge that guides efforts to diminish barriers in support of a successful m-learning implementation. In addition, administrators will garner developed knowledge to analyze, gather requirements, develop, and then implement a strategic m-learning plan for long-term sustainability. Academics and practitioners will gain insight into understanding the balance of a mobile strategy amid economic value and the required controls.

New Social Media Agendas for Teaching and Learning in Libraries

This chapter reviews the current literature on the types of social media practices in college and university libraries, and suggests some new strategic agendas for utilizing these tools for teaching and learning about the research process, as well as other means to connect libraries to their users. Library educators continually hope to “meet students where they are” and use social media to “push” library content toward interested or potential university patrons. One new way to improve engagement and “pull” patrons toward an understanding of the usefulness of licensed resources and expert research help is through the channels of social media. By enhancing awareness of library resources at the point of need, and through existing social relationships between library users and their friends, libraries can encourage peer interaction around new research methods and tools as they emerge, while increasing the use of library materials (both online and within the library facility) in new and different ways.

The Role of Social Media in Creating and Maintaining Social Networks Including its Impact on Enhancing Competitive Positioning within the Education Sector

Social media is being increasingly utilised within society as an interactive communication platform. It has revolutionised the manner in which organisations communicate with their stakeholders, from the old way of simply designing messages and transmitting them across a desired medium, described as a static, one-way communication channel. Communications are the means by which organisations achieve their strategic goals through influencing their stakeholders. Social media allows stakeholders to connect to one another in relational, interactional networks. This means that stakeholders can now interact with organisations and each other and have a greater influence on the outcomes of communication strategies, which was impossible with traditional media. Organisations have less power dictating communications to stakeholders who in turn have more power in co-creating communication with each other. Social media is likely to have a major competitive impact on higher education institutions and these institutions should be accounting for these changes in their future strategy development. This chapter explores how social media is being utilized in organisations.

Measuring the Social Impact

Effective social media usage has particular challenges for HE institutions. The many opportunities afforded by social media, increasingly demanded by students, have negative potential. Social technology requires substantial investment to do well, and in particular, it can be very hard to measure its performance. In this chapter, the authors focus on how aligning with strategic objectives can reduce the risk and enhance the effectiveness of social media use throughout the student lifecycle. They also consider the risks which social media investment entails in HE. Using a case study of a UK university, the authors identify common themes for social media adoption in educational settings. They offer practical recommendations and key areas to consider before launching or enhancing a social media strategy in the field of HE.

Reflections on the Impact of Social Technologies on Lecturers in a Pathway Institution

Education has evolved over time from face-to-face teaching to computer-supported learning, and now to even more sophisticated electronic tools. In particular, social technologies are being used to supplement the classroom experience and to ensure that students are becoming increasingly engaged in ways that appeal to them. No matter how educationally beneficial, however, new technology is affected by its users. To investigate this, lecturers at the Eynesbury Institute of Business and Technology (EIBT)—a Higher Education pathway provider—were surveyed to determine their perception and application of social technolog(ies) in their personal, but predominantly ‘professional' lives. Utilising a qualitative and autoethnographic approach, one author provides an insight into their own attitude toward social technologies, coupled with responses to three open-ended questions. Thereafter, the same questions were posed to EIBT academic staff to understand their willingness or reluctance to use social technologies in their practice as part of their first-year pathway course(s).

Social Networking

As the social technology matured in recent years, so did the threat landscape of the online medium. Fears about breaches of privacy and personal information security seem to dominate the list of concerns of social media users described in literature. Popular press continually reports cases of inadvertent and malicious information disclosure and breaches, cyberbullying, and stalking. Yet, social networking sites proliferated into all areas of human activity. The factor causing this phenomenon lies in the trusted nature of networks and the sense of trustworthiness of this easy-to-use technology. The formation of trust into social technology has attracted much attention, and this chapter offers an overview of the trust predictors in social settings. It continues with a retrospective into the threat landscape and the use of personalisation by social networking services to counter some of these threats. Further research directions are discussed.

Business Networks and Public Procurement in Turkey

In this chapter, we quantitatively analyze the role of network membership in the performance of firms within the public procurement market in Turkey. We use a unique public procurement dataset of all high-value public procurement contracts—those with a contract value worth over TL 1,000,000—awarded between 2005 and 2010. We consider two types of networks: (1) Internet-based procurement-specific networks and (2) business networks established through business associations. Internet-based procurement-specific business networks provide their members with a wide range of procurement related services, access to critical resources, and timely information. Business associations help member firms establish a strong and unified presence, effectively protect their shared interests, and thus collectively influence governmental economic policies. The findings suggest that both types of network memberships are effective in winning public procurement contracts. There is also an overlap among network memberships, with 8.4% of contracts awarded to the firms that have membership in both networks.

The Prevalence, Effects, and Reactions to Use of Short Message Services in University Settings in South West Nigeria

This chapter focuses on the extent of the usage of Short Message Services (SMS) in three universities in Southwest Nigeria, with 243 participants drawn from Covenant University, Bells University, and Lagos State University, who responded to a questionnaire on SMS. Data generated from the study confirmed the high usage of SMS among subjects in general and males in particular, within the age range of 31 to 40 years; a large number of subjects, especially those in administrative positions, were affected by the usage of SMS; most of the subjects are more tolerant when the messages are related to religion, are work-related, or are from family members. Subjects expressed concern when the contents of the SMS are related to adverts, when SMS are used when there are network problems, and the possible exploitation of recipients. Steps to minimize the disadvantages of the use of SMS are discussed.

Face to Face(book)

This chapter discusses personality traits of Facebook users, how personality traits and motivations explain Facebook use, and the potential beneficial and detrimental effects of Internet usage, in general, and online social networking sites usage, in particular, on social and psychological well-being. First, the author provides short definitions of concepts such as social media and Social Network Sites (SNS). Next, the author describes Nadkarni and Hofmann's (2012) two-factor model of motives associated with Facebook use, including the need to belong and the need for self-presentation. Afterwards, a literature review of the most cited studies on the association between Facebook use and personality traits, as conceptualized by the Big Five Model (Costa & McCrae, 1992), is provided, followed by research on the relationships between Facebook use and psychological dimensions, such as self-esteem, loneliness, narcissism, self-worth, and depression and suicide. Finally, conclusions are drawn and final remarks are made.

Facebook and Moodle as Classroom Extensions

This chapter analyses how autonomy, collaboration, and cooperation are built in a class designed to use digital technologies for a teacher development syllabus. For the purpose of this chapter, data was collected using an empirical-qualitative approach through active observation in participative action, using a questionnaire and Moodle e-portfolio that addressed learning in several virtual tools including Facebook. The final analysis demonstrates that it is possible to understand the autonomous and collaborative teaching and learning process when online tools such as social networks are used, and it is also possible to determine students' participation through authorship. However, such acknowledgment requires that participants be prepared in terms of methodology, including teachers, and have the means to consider accepting new ways of teaching through the cooperation enabled by social networks and virtual learning environments.