Caracterización molecular de los hongos

2.3.1 Definition of social media

According to Obar & Wildman (2015), social media are certain computer-mediated technologies existed in form of a platform allowing users to communicate, contribute, collaborate and create online. There were four different types of social media platforms, namely, social networking, microblogging, photo sharing and video sharing. Examples of social networking include Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Microblogging has examples of Twitter and Tumblr. Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest are examples of photo sharing. Video sharing examples are YouTube, Facebook Live, Periscope and Vimeo (Warren, 2018). The history of social media could be originated from the ARPANET in 1970 (Monica, 2016). In 1979, the Usenet was created allowing users to post messages via Internet. In 1990, a social networking site called ‘Open Diary’ was created which symbolized the paradigm of social media (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Some scholars, like Moorhead et al. (2013), believed that the growing popularity of social media was due to (1) the interaction, communication, collaboration due to Web 2.0 technologies, (2) the powerful dissemination of information, (3) the ease of information access, and (4) the emotional and social support by peer. Their arguments are echoed by other scholars, like Ray & Saeed (2015) that the advancement in information and communication technology (ICT) had catalyzed the development of social media, which become part of daily life and people rely on social media platforms to share information and get connected. For the past decades, billions of people had joined in different social media platforms generating massive amount of online information. Scholars, Kaplan & Haenlein (2010), believed that large amount of social media users and huge amount of information could create enormous opportunities for companies. Their arguments are supported by scholars, Noone, McGuire & Rohlfs (2011) that social media could improve the revenue in hotel business. Other scholars, like Weaver, Lindsay & Gitelman (2012), also echoed the arguments of Kaplan & Haenlein (2010) that social media was an excellent platform for building health care communities and widening the access to health care information. Similarly, student engagement was improved using social media in education as reported by scholars Gikas & Grant (2013).

Therefore, some scholars, Ray & Saeed (2015), argued that the social media activities of Internet users and huge amount of data could be useful for researchers to develop behavioral model in order to understand their attitudes and predict their future behavior which would constitute to the business success and application development.

2.3.2 Social media and mobile learning

Many scholars believe in the potential of social media in education and include social media in teaching and learning (Moran, Seaman & Tinti-Kane, 2011; Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012; Gikas & Grant, 2013; Cheston, Flickinger & Chisolm, 2013). Moran, Seaman & Tinti-Kane (2011) had evidenced that over 90% of higher education faculty members were aware of social media where over 40% of faculty had instructed students to use social media for learning activities like (1) post content for class, (2) use in class, (3) assign students to read/view, and (4) assign students to post. Other scholars, Dabbagh & Kitsantas (2012), echoed the findings of Seaman & Tinti- Kane (2011) that statistics from the 2010 ECAR (EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research) showed the use of social media by undergraduate student in learning had grown continuously from 2007 to 2010. Among the undergraduate students, one third of them had used social media for collaboration in doing coursework. Social media was facilitating student learning formally and informally. Besides, faculty was increasingly integrating social media to assist teaching and learning activities. Meanwhile, scholars, Gikas & Grant (2013), pointed out that there was a trend students’ use of social media had shifted to smartphone due to the advancement in mobile technologies which implied social media were empowered with mobility. Gikas & Grant (2013) believed that it was necessary to understand student attitude towards social media with smartphone. Their findings revealed that students preferred using social media with smartphone in learning because (1) quick access to course materials anywhere anytime, (2) instant communication with peers, (3) interaction and collaboration, and (4) sharing information. Some scholars, Ray & Saeed (2015), agreed with mobile learning using social media because of the continuous growth in the popularity of using social media with smartphone. Most importantly, students and faculty were increasingly adopting and integrating social media to support teaching and learning.

In recent years, there were scholars investigate the use of social media in mobile learning. Dron & Anderson (2014) argued that with mobile learning using social media, students were allowed to discuss with one or more classmates where their opinions or idea would be kept on the wall of the social media. The wall was usually arranged in timeline format where students could revisit all the messages posted by teachers and students. To demonstrate the benefits of social media for mobile learning, Drigas et al., (2014) conducted a research studying if students could pay more attention to the challenges in learning. Their findings showed that students were willing to find the solutions to learning challenge with the help of social media via their smartphones. The arguments of Dron & Anderson (2014) and findings of Drigas et al., (2014) could be explained by Shen et al. (2017) that smartphone and social media could make students more engaged to learn and discuss with classmates. It was because they were always notified by social media via their smartphones whenever there were learning updates over the social media. Despite the benefits of using social media for mobile learning, some scholars, like Sobaih et al. (2016), believed that the success of mobile learning depends on the willingness of faculty. Sobaih et al. (2016) further posited that mobile learning using social media were of great academic value to teaching and learning as well as help bridging the institutions and students given the barrier is overcome.