Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(4), 91-94, October-December 2015 91
Book Review
Social Media in Higher
education Teaching in web 2.0
Reviewed by Chia-Wen Tsai, Department of Information Management, Ming Chuan
University, Taipei, Taiwan
Reviewed by Pei-Di Shen, Teacher Education Center, Ming Chuan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Reviewed by Yi-Chun Chiang, Teacher Education Center, Ming Chuan University, Taipei,
Taiwan
Over the last few years, social media (such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Instagram) has become widespread as a ubiquitous means for users to share their daily activities include check-ins,
taking photos and expressing their personal feelings on these platforms (Cao, Wang, Hwang,
Padmanabhan, Zhang & Soltani, 2015). These kinds of online applications have attracted hundreds of millions of users who routinely employ social media as their primary source of news
and entertainment (Li & Tsai, 2015). Due to its ease of use, speed, and convenience, social media
has fast changed the public discourse in society (Asur & Huberman, 2010). Social media no
longer plays a passive role of just delivering messages; users can create, renew, modify, share,
and discuss content individually or collectively (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011). Interestingly, social media have also become scholar media and been adopted in the
educational field; students can interact with their teachers, classmates and build learning groups
via social media, which may evolve into innovative educational environments. In view of this,
it is necessary to rethink how to use Web 2.0 technologies, social media, and their applications
in higher education as effective and efficient educational tools.
After reviewing the book, Social Media in Higher Education Teaching in Web 2.0, readers
may comprehend how the new types of social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and
other social media have been adopted in teaching, and start to be concerned with issues such as
cyberbullying and what challenges we may face in the educational context. The book is based on
extensive studies that have been carried out by the authors. In addition to the preface, there are
19 chapters divided into four sections, which cover seven main topics, including: 1. academic
events through social media, 2. Blogs, 3. mobile social media, 4. Podcasting, 5. social media
education and training, 6. social media tools, and 7. social networking. All chapters present a
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92 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(4), 91-94, October-December 2015
broad analysis of social media that focuses on developments worldwide, which typically fit
logically into the topic of the chapter.
The first section, “Teaching 2.0” is composed of five chapters. Chapter 1 covers the different models of e-learning and Web 2.0 tools that have been analyzed by the author. Chapter 2
reveals the benefits of Web 2.0 in the support of teaching or pedagogical process and suggests
that social media can be applied in a Marketing Information System course. In Chapter 3, the
authors focus on the use of new web-based technologies in strategies of teaching gender studies. Chapter 4 mainly highlights the perspectives on learning and teaching between students
and teachers, compares the use of traditional media and new media in classes and integrating
them within the academic environment. Chapter 5 points out that Facebook could be a studentcentered approach in teaching and learning but there some limitations still remain for educators
to overcome, such as low socioeconomic status students may face Internet connection failure
problems at home, and to what extent teachers should impose the use of Facebook for educational
purposes upon their students.
The second section, “Student 2.0”, comprises Chapter 6 to Chapter 9. A historicist approach
is used in Chapter 6 to present the trends of the educational process and learning environment
in post-industrial society. Chapter 7 discusses the use of the Personal Knowledge Management
model, explores the influential factors, and outlines what students need to learn to be prepared
for Enterprise 2.0. In Chapter 8, the results of EU Kids Online II project about children’s and
adolescent’s use of social networking sites is presented. Chapter 9 emphasizes how information
literacy can support students’ learning, such as academic reading and writing skills. Therein,
the authors introduce examples of the positive effects of students’ participation in publishing
projects on the development of media literacies.
The third section, “Tools and Technological Issues in Web 2.0” points out some technological and philosophical issues of Web 2.0, and introduces the use of social media tools in the
education field. The focus of Chapter 10 is the adoption of pedagogical frameworks such as Lev
Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development to support the implementation of cloud software
in public schools, and also gives some suggestions for the use of free software in the secondary curriculum. In Chapter 11, the major question of “What are the main ideas that should be
considered when elaborating software systems for communication streamlining and diversification (CSD) between the actors of a learning system” is proposed. Furthermore, the authors also
express concern about how social media impacts the information systems of the near future.
Twitter, which is a social networking platform, could also be used for educational purposes in
higher education. Chapter 12 provides a model of how to meaningfully engage with Twitter in
higher education. Chapter 13 reveals the use of Facebook as the most effective communication
tool between Australian Aboriginal academics and their Australian Aboriginal tertiary students.
The final section, “Educational and Ethical Issues in Web 2.0 Age” is composed of six
chapters. Herein, the authors present that even though social media brings benefits to humanity,
there are always two sides to everything. Therefore, Chapter 14 aims to critically examine the
incorporation of innovative technologies and social media in the classroom. The authors note
some core ideas that users should consider when using technologies in teaching, such as different
technologies have their sensory biases, social biases, or content biases. Chapter 15 highlights the
problems of anxiety about the online environment, which can be viewed as an important part of
the educational process. Thus, educators should prepare alternate strategies to overcome users’
anxiety. Recently, some users’ online behavior has changed to include bullying. The use of Internet or communication technologies for the intention of harming another person is now called
cyberbullying (Li, 2007). Chapter 16 introduces the definition of cyberbullying, compares the
difference between school bullying and cyberbullying, explores the negative effects of cyberbul-
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Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(4), 91-94, October-December 2015 93
lying on children, and then provides common cyberbullying behaviors and coping strategies. In
Chapter 17, the authors analyze three case studies which cover the use of innovative technologies
in higher education research and teaching and policy, and also highlight the difficulties when
promoting tools and platforms not supported by either the IT infrastructure of universities or the
policies in place. The use of mobile technologies in education is convenient and offer potentiality
for the exploitation of contextual learning. In Chapter 18, the authors first introduce the unique
mobile culture in the 21st century, the convenience that mobile and contextual learning offer in
informal situations, and the potential conflict between mobile informal learning and traditional
classroom education. Chapter 19 covers a complex of important topics, theories and methods
applied in media and communication studies. Besides, the specific activities in social media
such as engagement, participation, bookmarking, and aggregation, are analyzed from the media
effects perspective to explain or predict them. In this chapter, the authors specifically illustrate
that the studies, theories and methods of social media must be transformed or applied more appropriately in further research.
The beauty of Social Media in Higher Education Teaching in Web 2.0 is that it collates
numerous studies focus on social media, and illustrates the advantage of using social media in
higher education. This book is well organized and lends itself successfully to the study of different social media. In addition, the authors offer extraordinary viewpoints to rethink the academic
work environments based on social media tools and applications, such as Twitter and Facebook,
in accordance with the needs of students. Overall, the book provides teachers, researchers, educators, as well as software developers, up-to-date content about the impact of different social
media tools on the current educational environment.
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94 Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(4), 91-94, October-December 2015
ReFeReNCeS
Asur, S., & Huberman, B. A. (2010). Predicting the future with social media. Proceedings of the IEEE/
WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology (Vol. 1, pp.
492-499). doi:10.1109/WI-IAT.2010.63
Cao, G., Wang, S., Hwang, M., Padmanabhan, A., Zhang, Z., & Soltani, K. (2015). A scalable framework for
spatiotemporal analysis of location-based social media data. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems,
51, 70–82. doi:10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2015.01.002
Kietzmann, J. H., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I. P., & Silvestre, B. S. (2011). Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, 54(3), 241–251.
doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2011.01.005
Li, C., & Tsai, W. H. S. (2015). Social media usage and acculturation: A test with Hispanics in the U.S.
Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 204–212. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.018
Li, Q. (2007). New bottle but old wine: A research of cyberbullying in schools. Computers in Human
Behavior, 23(4), 1777–1791. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2005.10.005
Chia-Wen Tsai is an Associate Professor in the Department of Information Management, Ming Chuan
University. Dr. Tsai is one of the Editors-in-Chief of International Journal of Online Pedagogy and Course
Design, and International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction. He is also the Associate Editor
of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. He is interested in online teaching methods and
knowledge management.
Pei-Di Shen now works as Director of the Teacher Education Center and professor of Graduate School
of Education, Ming Chuan University, Taipei, Taiwan. Professor Shen is one of the Editors-in-Chief of
International Journal of Online Pedagogy and Course Design. Her primary interest areas are E-learning,
Knowledge Management, Virtual Community, and Management Information Systems. Her research focus
is distance delivery in higher education.
Yi-Chun Chiang, M.Ed., is a staff member of the Teacher Education Center, Ming Chuan University, Taiwan.
Copyright © 2015, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.