ABSTRACT
The study examined the influence of Social Media on Students’ Learning Ability among Secondary School Students in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State. Five research questions and five corresponding hypotheses guided the study. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Employing the method of stratified and simple random sampling strategy, a total number of 250 students (125 boys and girls respectively)) were selected from ten secondary schools in the study population. A 25 item Likert type questionnaire tagged ‘Social Media and Students’ Learning Ability Questionnaire (ISMSLAQ) and Student Achievement Test in English Language’ were used to gather the data used for the study. Hypothesis one, two and three were tested using the Chi Square statistics while hypotheses four and five were tested using t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) respectively. Findings of the research shows significant influence of Social Media usage on students’ attitude towards learning in schools; and that there is a significant influence of Social Media usage on students’ writing skills. Other findings of the study reveal significant influence of Social Media usage on academic performances of students in secondary schools; there is no significant gender difference in social media usage among students in the area of study; and that social media usage showed no significant influence on the age of adolescents. On the basis of the research findings, recommendations were made which include among others the need to incorporate social media with academic lesson content in secondary schools, students should follow the formal way of writing in schools, students should not be allowed to waste their time for their reading and personal study on social media content generating sites. Counseling programmes should be put in place for both male and female students in the use of social media. There is also need to design appropriate behavioral change instructional materials to educate students of different age group about social media usage in academic learning.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Background to the Study
Many activities of education in the formal school setting and non-formal setting require the ability to learn. This is so because individual survival, adaptation and adjustment to ever-changing circumstances in the environment will depend on individual’s capacity to learn. A number of leading authorities on learning have declared that learning involves mental activity whether by an individual’s conscious effort or not. It is a complex process by means of which knowledge, skills, habits, facts, ideas and principles are acquired, retained and utilized in order to adapt to one’s environment and also to modify the existing behaviours when necessary. It is to be noted, however, that the learning ability of any individual often depends on the quality of potential an individual has inherited from his or her parents. Although nature provides the raw materials in the form of human potential / abilities, it is the environment that determines the extent to which the potentials are developed (Nwadinigwe, 2004).
However, the work of new media literacy researchers also provides one avenue to better specify behaviours that might lead to learning. Most studies of social media and youth education define learning from literacy perceptive (Greenhow and Ahn, 2011). The literacy perspective focuses on learning practices, such as creating media rather than traditional measures of learning such as grades or standardized assessments. It is important that one understands the concept of literacy practices from this view point. According to these experts, children’s activities in school that is, listening to a teacher’s lesson, practicing problems on worksheets, taking tests to assess learning can be seen as specialized literacy practices; those of creating media serve very disparate functions than expected in the classroom. In any case, learning in the school has measurable goal than that of the social media.
Meanwhile, social media usage is an intriguing platform to study because technology is such an integral part of adolescent students’ life. This is so because students of today are born into a world where computer technology is already well established and thus, it is a common tool student’s use in their everyday life. This includes the way they receive information, communicate and learn. There is no denying the fact that today’s students are hyper-test based generation compared to the chalk and talk based environment that most adults learnt. .One would have expected that the advent of computer, internet and cell phones will enhance students’ capability to learn and improve their knowledge, skill and attitude. It is quite disturbing that students rather than reading and studying to increase their knowledge, skill and attitude are pre-occupied with social media content generating that have nothing to do with their school learning. As a result students are now gradually becoming lazy to carry out normal book reading and study habits to prepare adequately for their examinations. Social media usage among students is alarming and has now become source of concern all over the world that has attracted several researches.
Although research examining the influence of social media usage on students’ learning in Nigeria abound, there is a gap in the research regarding this topic as it pertains to students in the university. A few studies referenced the fact that social media use among students continues to increase which may or not be related to mental, knowledge, experiential, skill and attitude learning. There appears to be little or no reference to the influence of social media on students learning ability in public secondary schools in Alimosho Local Government Lagos State. This study tends to fill the gap in literature.
Most undeniably, social media usage may also be impacting the way in which learners engage with technology in general. Adeogun (2004) noted that information received by students on the computer; television and telephone can modify the behavior of individual student either negatively or positively. The information can generate new responses or change old ones, depending on the degree of observation permitted the socializing individual, and on the type of imitation he or she can have of the behaviours and attitudes exhibited by the models. Granted that the forces of development are primarily within the individual, the environment as mentioned earlier plays a secondary role in the process of natural enfoldment of that which nature has enfolded within the individual in a natural environment free from corruption. In essence, if information is positive and conducive, individual will develop positively and behave rationally but if otherwise negative the development may be detrimental.
Undeniably, social media usage creates students modes to procrastinate while trying to complete homework and assignment which affect their learning ability. The knowledge of Economics on opportunity cost is such that a student who is chooses social media twill trade-off learning in conventional way. It has been documented in the academic literature that social media usage makes students passive during classroom teaching and learning. It also makes students to be lazy and procrastinate doing their assignment or home works. We cannot throw the baby with the dirty water, the good sides of social media are that they create opportunity for students to learn more since the platform allows and encourages students to post their school work thereby increasing their attitude to learn. For lack of space, literature is replete with countless educational opportunities provided by social media.