Impact of Social Media on Development

Introduction

This chapter provides a review of existing literature on the engagement of the university students with special reference to available studies in KSA. The first section examines literature related to theopportunities which are offered by the Social Media for increasing engagement in education. The second section reviews studies which investigate experiences of the students and attitudes regarding their personal development influenced by the social media. The third section discusses the academic engagement of such students. The fourth section investigates the factors influencing engagement of the students and use. The chapter ends by presenting some of the participatory pedagogies such as John Dewey’s experiential learning, Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy and Siemens Networked Learning as a way of thinking through how the practice of education can be substantiated and developed in the current advances.

The Opportunities offered in Social Media for Increased Engagement in Education:

During the last decade, researches in different cultures investigated the ways in which social media present opportunities in education for engaging students and changing their attitudes. It is important to note that these opportunities relate to engagement of students and have been used in research for both teaching and learning and for personal, academic and professional development. Saudi studies along with other studies that investigate the opportunities which are offered by social media for engagement of students in education are reviewed in this section.

Accessibility and flexibility:

The main property of Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, what’s app, amongst others, is that these enable the easy, constant and personal access to information and people. The term, User Generated Content (UGC), have been used in the literature, to define the media generated by people on these platforms (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). These can be either of practical or theoretical information, in any field of life and knowledge. The input from members and communities in these platforms is stored and accessed in different forms such as published material, designed instructional material, discussions, videos, broadcasts of real experiences and talks of members and as up to date currency news feeds (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Everyone in the world, regardless of their physical location, can use these platforms to create a personal profile and generate media, share others media and profiles, make connections and relationships, and maintain constant unlimited access to information and people worldwide (D. M. Boyd & Ellison, 2008). This kind of multiple knowledge format is supported by many-to-many communication feature that maintains continuous participation. Andersen (2007) argued that the collective worldwide efforts present drivers for personal and cultural impact,that would be difficult to be achieved by individuals or institutions otherwise. He suggests six main ideas behind social media which are user-generated content; the power of the crowd; data on an epic scale; an architecture that supports participation; network effects and transparency of content (Ibd p .14). Mason and Rennie (2007, p. 197) point to the importance of ‘tacit’ knowledge which is confined through interaction with experienced people, in social media, to contribute significantly in education and personal development by saving time and effort to access information. In addition, research increasingly points to social media platforms becoming as important for university learners to sustain unlimited personal access to different types of knowledge, as well as, to academic basic knowledge (Al-Fahad, 2009; Al-Khalifa & Garcia, 2013). Social media have features which make it easy for academic scholars, professionals and students to publish and avail academic information, audience and resources in any field of knowledge and share any peace of knowledge with their peers (Alsolamy, 2017).Investigation of social media use amongst university teachers in Saudi Arabia revealed that they view social media to be important in providing assistance in being updated with recent knowledge in any field of life, including academic knowledge. Increasing research into this topic point to social media as an important source for the learning of the students and social media also support in formulation of university settings (Hrastinski & Aghaee, 2012). This is in accordance with many studies which had been undertaken in the world and which present the fact that social media engage in social cultural learning increases the development of linguistic abilities of the people as well as their confidence in any field of knowledge, including social roles and learner achievement (Carr, Crook, Noss, Carmichael, & Selwyn, 2008)(Greenhow & Robelia, 2009a)(LeNoue, Hall, & Eighmy, 2011; Selwyn, 2009). Alabdulkareem (2015) points out that social media sites create access to suitable scientific knowledge which can improve both teaching and learning of science in high-school education in KSA. The issue of social media networks and the associate features to improve learning from the perspective of the cross cultural impact on the perception of the student’s, have been widely investigated in Saudi studies. (Alebaikan, 2010) and (Alsolamy, 2017) studies investigated the socio-cultural dimension of networks in the Saudi context from both the perceptions of the students and the faculty members. These studies further investigated the many advantages of social networks, on the learning of the female students, with regard to some of cultural issues such as suitability for married females to study conveniently and suitability for female students in this culture to study at home.

Access to People and Participatory Cultures:

Social media facilitate immediate and constant engagement with people who could be located all around the world, in the format of person to person interaction, which is constantly renewed and interesting. (Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton, & Robison, 2009) defined participatory learning culture in the 21st century as a culture where there could be:

Lifting of barriers in expression and civic involvement,

Support for ones sharing their creations with others,

Existence of some form of mentorships where what is known to the majority is passed to the novice as experience,

Where members believe that their contributions matter,

Where people believe in some form of connections and caring with each other’s. Social media encourages involvement in participatory learning culture through engagement in the community based work, live discussions and conversations which increases students’ ability to think, and reflect on others thinking and to brainstorm about different social and learning affairs (Alibrahim, 2014; Aljasir, 2015). (D. Boyd, 2007) argued that social media could highlight properties which prepare and engage youth in negotiations in public life and cultural learning. She identified four properties for this development which are not typically present in face-to-face public life:

Persistence,

Searchability,

Replicability and

Invisible audiences

“These properties fundamentally alter social dynamics, complicating the ways in which people interact” p. 120.Some research examined these opportunities on changing people’s attitudes, civic engagement and public opinions (Gil de Zúñiga, Jung, & Valenzuela, 2012). Live discussions and events keep people updated with social issues and trending events and encourage people to undertake collaborative negotiation of opinions in socio-political issues, which increase their positive inclination towards action. Furthermore, research shows that social media could help people to develop confidence and awareness of differences amongst persons in their culture (Al‐Saggaf, 2004; Alyedreessy, Helsdingen, & Al-Sobaihi, 2017). . These opportunities and structures that promote constant and immediate access and participation, have been utilized by several universities and Institutions and colleges to provide constant connection and communication with college life and events to engage students in participation (Al-Khalifa & Garcia, 2013)(Alghamdi & Plunkett 2018). (Al-Khalifa, 2008) point that utilizing Twitter by administrative officials in the university helped students to feel more convenient to communicate immediately and to express their queries and opinions, to make administrative decisions collaboratively and most of students felt closer to the faculty and teachers and their university. (Alabdulkareem, 2015) points to the fact that the facility of the Social Media of providing access to people through social media platforms changes student’s attitudes to learning Science and allows them to overcome difficult issues by asking questions in informal settings. He points to the opportunity of making contacts with specialists, academics and professionals in any field of academic knowledge, through social media, in an easy way. Informal interactions and constant accessibility to other people, peers and teachers, in a constant and immediate way, have great influence on students’ attitudes and academic development. Several studies investigated the influence of accessibility to people and participatory cultures which have been facilitated by social media and networks from socio-cultural perspectives within the culture of Saudi context. For instance, (Alsolamy, 2017) study investigated the flexibility of access and interaction with people on social media with regard to many cultural constraints such as interaction between genders, especially, in the university settings, in bringing positive influences on female student’s learning and accessibility. Generally, the accessibility and flexibility and the person to person participatory platforms, present opportunities which encourage people to engage in development and search for updated knowledge and increases their cultural learning, collaborative decision-making and civic engagement in the societal and global issues in large.

Access to Instructional strategies:

Most authors of literature focused on opportunities of social media as instructional tools which enable platforms to engage students in learning. These writings identified that social media can bring live interactions and contextual learning situations to the class, which could be engaging and benefiting for students. These can be either initiated by the teacher or could be initiated by the students within or outside of the classroom (Chen & Bryer, 2012; Krutka & Carpenter, 2016)(Krutka & Carpenter, 2016) suggested that social media present unique and innovative opportunities for teachers to engage with students in learning activities. Some Saudi researchers focused on opportunities of social media as instructional strategies for informal academic development which significantly affect attitudes and skills of the students. (Alsolamy, 2017) point to increased utilisation of YouTube videos as resources amongst Saudi educators to support student’s engagement in tasks in the class. From interviews with lecturers, he found that social media, particularly, YouTube, significantly increase students’ motivation and engagement in tasks in the class or outside of the class and influence the confidence of the student, which could help in preparing supportive and positive climate in the class.(Alabdulkareem, 2015) , similarly, points out that social media present innovative instructional strategies platforms that provide interactive, motivating and contextual environments which influence attitudes and learning of science of the students in Saudi high schools. (Alibrahim, 2014) suggests study on university student in KSA presents pedagogical affordance for social media platforms to increase stimulation of students of the universities as well as the collaboration, reflection, creativity, critical thinking and communication skills. It can be used as strategies in the classroom as a way to link students to society and cultural negotiations, citizenship education, awareness of world events and intercultural learning. They insist that social media present live education that links the students’ lives and society. Furthermore, Krutka and Carpenter (2016) identified that informal interaction in social media increases students’ language learning abilities and linguistic development. This linguistic development includes benefits for increasing the learning of second languages through contacting the native speakers of the language. It is suggested that academics and universities in higher education, need to focus on motivating and engaging the students in learning experiences and activities such as seminars, community engagement and services, writing assignments, collaborative projects and professional learning which have impact on their development and lifelong learning (Kuh, 2009). In addition, in relation to increased challenges in higher education, social media could be used widely to engage the students in self-directed learning and in the provisioning of support to their achievement of personal goals. Generally, social media have been used widely for students’ engagement and direct communication with students. Faculty use social media widely to communicate with and engage students through conversations outside the class to increase their preparation for the class activities and engagement. (Junco, Heiberger, & Loken, 2011) Findings suggest significant increase in students’ involvement in course and classroom activities of experimental groups on the National Survey of Student Engagement which have been reported when utilising Twitter for engagement.

Access to Professional Development and Learning from Experiences:

Social media and networks have generally been viewed as a means to pursue professional development amongst professionals by learning from their own experiences, reflection on practice and understanding their shortcomings. (Parboosingh, 2002) argued that networks foster reflection on their practice and increase their ability to learn from their own experiences and to overcome practical problems which they face. It broadly entails increased collective involvement, access, contribution and achievement. They argued that social media and networks support professional development through enabling integration between learning and practice as such its main value entails learning from experiences. In this way, professionals have the capacity to reflect on and enhance their practice by interacting with peers and mentors to frame issues, brainstorm, validate and share information, which creates positive environment that influence the process of making decisions and professional judgment. There is no single way to define how professionals use social media, however, most studies point to increased utilization of the social media amongst professional for several benefits. All seem to agree that social media enable professionals and academics to reflect on their experiences and practices and formulate the styles of training to solve practical problems. For instance, Visser, Evering and Barrett (2014) suggest that ideal professional development need to foster learning and practice needs together. There mixed-methods study explored K–12 teachers’ usage of Twitter through the utilization of self-reported survey. The results indicated that teachers highly value Twitter as a means and tool of self-directed professional development. The participants reported that they use Twitter for professional purposes more than for personal ones. The most perceived benefits were that they can keep their professional knowledge updated and that they can increase meaningful relationships with other teachers on Twitter which increased their motivation in their teaching practice and their ability to seek professional development for their specific needs. McPherson, Budge, and Lemon (2015) reflected on their own experiences as academics and the influence of Twitter on their academic development. Their findings show that using social media engaged them with networks of academics, locally and globally, maintained a constant information flow that updated their academic knowledge, inspired their academic thinking and motivated their academic practices and reflection of their experience. Carpenter and Krutka (2014) and (Carpenter & Krutka, 2015) report on a self-reported survey of 755 K–16 educators, which has resulted in both quantitative and qualitative data about why educators use Twitter. Respondents reported intense and multifaceted utilization of Twitter in professional development. The most rated features amongst respondents is the personalized and the instant nature of Twitter interaction. In addition, Twitter was credited by respondents to supply opportunities to access novel ideas and maintain contact with people and advancement of ideation and trends in education. In addition, educators found that Twitter supports their expansion of knowledge beyond their own schools and districts and beyond their like-minded people to engage in diverse perspectives and ideas. Finally, participants described Twitter to have superior advantages for their practice than traditional professional development practices because it immediately resonates to their practice. Motivations for professional/personal/academic developments become important issues of research on international level (Bonk, Lee, Kou, Xu, & Sheu, 2015; McLoughlin, 2016; McPherson et al., 2015). There is increasing belief that development in this age including personal, academic and professional fields can be achieved effectively through experientially and self-directed approaches, utilizing networks and social media. There are deep motivations for professionals and students to use these tools, as tool for professional, personal and academic development. Amongst others, freedom of learning is essential to meet individual needs for building of confidence in practice within institutions and in particular within transitions. However, these practices have been rarly encountered by policyand the opportunities they offer for effective development remain underestimated.

Access to open Education and personal learning:

The concept of personal learning refers to personalised learning approaches the proponents of which identify learner’s needs to understand how to learn, by having absolute control on their learning and to practice making of choices, decision making and activity performance in an open environment, while this helps lifelong development (Van Harmelen, 2006). Personalised learning term is used to refer to learning where the content is tailored specifically for the learners’ personal needs. In personal learning each learner is able to adapt to his or her personal needs and pace of learning. As such, personal learning is not synonymous to using social media or accessing the Internet, rather the concept focuses on the process of freedom of learning and choices in an open model of education. It could be seen as self-directed or self-regulated learning, networked or experiential learning which could be facilitated by informal networks, rather than LMS(Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012; McLoughlin & Lee, 2010; Powers, Alhussain, Averbeck, & Warner, 2012) . It is necessary for this study objective to define the role of networks and social media, based on the increased current personal learning practices amongst students, in supporting formal education and regarding the influence on it which need to be open. Significantly, open education as a concept, is an important element to be considered in order to obtain an understanding of how student’s personal learning supplements formal learning (Bonk, 2009). The argument is about how students’ skills and knowledge can be increased and developed outside of schools and of formal settings of education such as schools and universities (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009a). Social media support open learning environment which makes the learner to be more integrated with friends, society or the global context. Further learning and education is no longer restricted to class time or to physical or online spaces and could be accessed on continuous basis with personal devices.(Burleson, 2005) suggests that personal learning allied with online learning environments, support students to self-actualize through learning experientially from their failure. It also supports higher education goals such as increasing student’s confident and self-directed learning. However, (Attwell, 2007) lists three challenges by personal learning model which is facilitated by social media, rather than by the formal online environment of the university. First, learning continues as a developmental, life long process, second, their is no single provider of learning, as the environment of learning can include many different providers than in school, third, learners’ have freedom of choiceand are the ones who make decision about what and how they could be learning. As such, (Attwell, 2007) suggests the main challenge of personal learning is that it totally depends on the learner’s willingness and attitudes. According to (Greenhow & Lewin, 2016) personal learning as informal learning, needs to be supported rather implicated in the pedagogy of formal learning pedagogy with increased practices of students in these informal environments.

Studies on Students’ Personal Development from social media experiences:

The main benefit of social media and networks is that it offers opportunities for students to develop through friendships and relationships and to learn about appropriate socialization and communication styles, through learning from their own experiences and from others experiences as well. The influence of social media as experience of learning encompasses the dimensions of knowledge, skills and attitudes including emotional and wellbeing dimensions. Research wyhich investigated students experiences of perceived personal development is generally limited and had used qualitative and quantitative methods. Table (4.1) presents the main studies findings with regard to research conducted on students experiences. Saudi studies are very limited and presented along with other studies.

D. Boyd (2007) conducted ethnographic studies focused on the age group of 14-18, engagement of social networks in their daily practices combined observations of face-to-face and online spaces alongside qualitative interviews. Their findings present evidence that student’s use of social media contributes to student’s self-image and social engagements and increases their relationship with friends. Ellison et al. (2007) refers to social capital as “the resources accumulated through the relationships among people” p 1145. Their regression analyses conducted on results from a survey of undergraduate students (N = 286) suggest a strong association between use of Facebook and ability of the students to maintain relationships with their friends and increase their social capital. Their findings show relationship between Facebook usage amongst students and their psychological well‐being. Steinfield et al. (2008) interviewed with university students examined the relationship between the use of Facebook, self-esteem and social engagement. They defined self-esteem to refer to ones perception of worth and value as basic need of the people which they will try to achieve. When achieved, it works as mediator to social capital i.e. people will try to have the confidence before they are able to formulate social relationships and friends. They found that students with low self-esteem gain benefits from Facebook in removing barriers to forming networks of friends and peer support. (Pempek et al., 2009) analysed diaries of college students on their use of Facebook and this revealed the whole development effect on young students’ cognitive, social and emotional state. The findings presented in Facebook become integrated in their daily activities and conversation of friends and influenced the students’ identity, overall wellbeing, offline relationships and attitudes. (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009b) qualitative analysis of data from vulnerable students’ interviews and experiences of using social media revealed students used social media to facilitate emotional support, helped maintain relationships and provided a platform for self-presentation. Students used social media for learning functions and engaged in creative endeavours. They point out that social media present a blend of the professional/ academic/personal experiences in a multi modal identity development which impacts on people’s feelings, behaviours and values and influence their resilience and confidence. They conclude that, “meaningful learning involves simultaneously developing of a social identity that shapes what people come to know, feel and do and how they make sense of their experiences.” (p. 1136) (Selwyn, 2009) content analysis of 909 UK Facebook students suggests that social media influence the whole overarching learner experience in universities as cultural and informal influence. His study findings revealed that Facebook has become essential for student’s cultural learning and integration into social life “ of ‘being’ a student, with online interactions and experiences allowing roles to be learnt , values understood and identities shaped” (p. 18). Students used Facebook to organise their learning and negotiate their assessment requirements with peers and to discuss their past and future experiences. Studies show that students strengthening classroom relationships and engagement, there was special and noticeable impact for vulnerable students who experience difficulties to catch up or engage in the class. (Voorn & Kommers, 2013) findings also suggest that social media assist in a positive collaborative environment formulation where disadvantaged and introvert students who feel shy to ask in front of the class can get the social support they need before the class , without feeling sensitive about every one watching them in a confusing manner in the class. Further, the findings of different studies revealed that Facebook and social media are perceived by students as significant for their engagement and studies at university.

A number of studies focused on the relationships between the use of social media and the development of confidence in life and transitions. Research shows that social media assist students to build confidence in a supportive positive climate, which has influence on changing their attitudes and on increasing their persistence and in combating various types of isolation and in formulation of resolutions of practical problems. (DeAndrea et al., 2012)have suggested that intervention of social media sitesare aimed to alter student’s attitudes towards college adjustments, prior to first semester. The findings revealed increased perceptions of the students regarding connection with the college and others and could influence their ability to adjust. Other studies show that students utilized social media as a way to explore about other students and to form friendship and social circles. (Madge et al., 2009) found that 50% of students’ utilized social media to communicate and explore benefits of friendships before their first day at the university and that students perceived that the most important cause to use Facebook was to find friends to facilitate their transition to the college. (Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2015) investigated student’s usage of social media in two universities, one had adopted a policy to engage with students while the other did not have any clear policy. The researcher found that student’s use of social media significantly predicted their college adjustment and academic engagement, while the policy of university has not been showing significance. The researcher suggests that adopting policy to support students, will significantly lower retention rates based on these findings. (Hu et al., 2017) curried out a longitudinal survey in China to explore bilateral relationships between social media usage, self-efficacy and cultural intelligence. Based on Social Cognitive Theory, findings indicate that both informational and socializing usage provided the sources for individuals’ self-efficacy, participants indicate increase in the development of their self-efficacy along with cultural intelligence. A number of Saudi studies focused on the role of social media to increase social inclusion and self-confidence. Al‐Saggaf (2004) study point that people in KSA engage people in learning from others views and expressing their opinions and point to increase awareness of differences amongst society members which increase confidence and social inclusion. Alyedreessy et al. (2017) study maintained that Saudi women perceived increment in their self-esteem and confidence in social participation in the society, they revealed that social media influence social inclusion for women in KSA with increased awareness. Aljasir (2015) findings point to Saudi university student’s increased utilization of social media to engage in political and cultural negotiations and they usually share their values and opinions of different social affairs on social media channels, the participant’s perceived multitude of gratifications in their careers and self-development. (Alghamdi & Plunkett 2018) investigated the role of social media in students’ academic social life in a university in KSA. There finding suggest participants benefited from social media as a source of creating positive environment for their learning through strengthening of relationships which increase inclusion of students in the classroom by supporting a positive climate for collaboration. This also increases peer support which positively influences on the learning environment and increases self-confidence of the students in academic lives.The mixed methods based approach explored 313 male and 293 female Saudi postgraduate students through surveys and interviews. The findings show that female students perceived more positive than negative impacts associated with the academic use. The participants state that social engagements in relationships have the most influence on their academic lives, the authors point to more prominent involvement amongst females which they attribute to social restrictions experienced by females in Saudi society. The international and Saudi studies reviewed in this section emphasize the role of social media as to present access to community education and social learning opportunities, which influence the personal development. These studies aim to ensure a more equal access to social media education, as this includes not only the impacts on personal development but, also, a direct connection with the local, national and international contexts. These studies show impacts of learning from experiences of others in social media on changing attitudes towards more confidant and socially integrated individuals and eventually this lead to more recognition of differences and towards a more equitable society and personal development. While these findings are valuable to understand issues related to social media influence, however, when it comes to educational practices, most of these studies define personal learning as the ability to access the Internet, is it attributed to the influence of the tools rather than of the learners and are rarely investigated regarding the issues of students’ abilities.

Studies on Students’ Academic development:

There is increased belief that social media assist in increasing personal potential to achieve goals and could assess the development of students’ academic performance, self-efficacy and self-regulated learning.(Hall & Hall, 2010) point to a clear relationship between social media and the social cognitive theory, especially, that social media present sources for personal self-efficacy which, when used properly by students, to suit their individual needs, it results in the increment and development of their self-efficacy. In this way, social media enhance students’ own perceptions of performance, including academic, which enhance their ability to take action and their capability for decision‐making in the curriculum. A wide spread belief amongst researchers is that networks change their users attitudes and empower them with accumulated wisdom and other experiences (Prensky, 2009). Particularly, the Internet generation category, has spent significant time in these networks and they have developed accumulated skills of organisation and collective intelligence at a relative young age. These skills and wisdom are clear from their performance in designing and sharing their personal existence based elements on a global scale(McLoughlin & Lee, 2010).Several researchers point to increased confidence of the students with academic production and display of own academic material (Carr et al., 2008) . Europe wide Mediappro project, reported “wide evidence of self-regulation by young people” suggesting that young people are more empowered and skilled, than sometimes assumed in education (Mediappro 2006, p.14 cited in (Selwyn, 2007) . Also point that skills of the young generation are emerging from enhanced self-organization and production capacity, in using technologies, making their ways of existence and social autonomy easier and faster. Research which investigated the influence of social media on the personal learners’ experiences in higher education in the Saudi context is limited. Only few studies investigated students’ experience of personal learning using informal social media space. However, these studies point to significant influence of such open spaces to reach communities and the influence of this on students’ self-confidence and academic development (Hemmi, Bayne, & Land, 2009) carried out ethnographic study on the influence of social media as a community and continuous lifelong learning tool, on students’ confidence and how this should influence practices in higher education. They note increased and noticeable confidence and participations of students with their academic products in classrooms and in presentations and in learning practices and regarding information sources in higher education. They conclude that social media, as informal learning spaces, have significant impacts on student’s engagement and self-directed learning. However they note those students exhibit different attitudes and diverse views, which is challenging for higher education. (Charles Crook, 2012) report on 53 focus group interviews with students aged 13 and 15 in different contexts of UK secondary schools. The findings show that students exhibited highly diverse attitudes and some of them exhibit sophisticated awareness of institutional, social and moral tensions related to their personal learning in schools. The research examination of the explorative interview by Hrastinski and Aghaee (2012) e revealed how campus students perceive using social media to support their studies and the perceived benefits and limitations of their use. They concluded, “Students regard social media as one of the three key means of the educational experience, alongside face-to-face meetings and using the learning management systems” P.451. Their recommendation in accordance with previous studies, show increasing need for teachers to support the students’ use of social media with regard to different experiences and attitudes of students which have been raised in their findings. (Alwagait, Shahzad, & Alim, 2015) carried out a survey on 108 university students in Saudi Arabia. The study explored students’ experiences of social media usage with regards to their academic performance. The findings establish a relation among students’ social media usage and academic grades. However, a linear relationship between GPA and social media use cannot be satisfied statistically. The study suggests that the study skills of the students are affected by their different experiences. (Alghamdi & Plunkett 2018) mixed methods approach explored 313 male and 293 female postgraduate it reveals that students perceived more positive rather than negative impacts on academic performances and engagements, associated with the academic process. The participants rate these academic engagements as the highest advantages of social media. There is no doubt that open learning environment in social media presents social opportunities and personalised learning opportunities which can engage learners in academic development and self-confidence enhancement, if used effectively by the student. Most studies investigated students’ engagement and experiences revealed general positive attitude amongst students about their experiences; however, this was associated with diverse and notable variation of students’ attitudes and skills. International and Saudi studies investigated experiences using quantitative and mixed methods and there has been no research which ever highlighted the diversity of personal or learning experiences.

Factors influencing students’ engagement in personal and academic development:

There are several powerful personal and other contextual influences which determine the success of the educational experience of a student, generally and could be influenced now heavily by social media. This research suggests that both teachers and learners could gain access to sources of continuous personal and academic development through achievement of required awareness, through ability to socialize, through effective communication abilities and through exercising organizational and other (learning/teaching) skills. As per the knowledge of the researchers, there have been only a few studies which have investigated factors which influence personal learning. The researchers have developed the following themes to present review of literature related to the understanding of the diversity of experiences of the students and to shed light related to findings of this study.

Students’ Attitudes (progressive model):

Under the influence of increased social media networks in higher education, learners have gained the position at the centre of the educational process. Understanding students’ attitudes, whether positive or negative, will help this research to develop and promote personal learning, and improve the quality and effectiveness of education. Beetham and Sharpe (2010) cited in Jisc the study of e-learners regarding their experiences in UK higher education and investigation of students’ strategies, beliefs and behaviours. The findings revealed that learners’ attitudes need to be understood from their past experiences and study skills as integrated and not disconnected, in their use of networks Fig (4.1). As such, the framework has been used to diagnose and identify students’ learning difficulties and skills as the framework could provide proper estimation of the students use and receptivity to use of such opportunities. It also has been used to define the attributes of the graduates in several UK universities as a realisation of integrated model of digital and learning skills as one entity, in current higher education practices ( Digdol). The researchers place students’ attitudes, access and awareness of how to learn as the main barrier to access continuous development and education in the current age. The educational systems need to support students to overcome this barrier in order for the learners to engage in self-learning and development of academic or any other special skill. The framework also presents an understanding of individuals’ motivations to gain new skills by challenges related to presenting their selves and identity.

The basic level suggests that students’ organisational skills, including time management skills, are the main barriers to learner’s access to continuous development, at present. Experience of the students in using social media for learning, is a significant factor to be understood which influences individuals attitudes towards personal learning and development. Learners need to have awareness and access to develop skills, practices, positive attitudes and experience of learning and development. Access here includes both accesses to Internet and to personal learning and organisational skills. (Kitsantas & Dabbagh, 2010; Krutka & Carpenter, 2016) suggest that learners need to increase awareness about how to learn, self-regulated learners will go forward in their personal development and academic studies, whilst learners who, for any reason, lack control and awareness about what, when, why and how they use social media, will lack access to learning. The framework presents the main issues that can frame an understanding of individual learners diversity under the influence of open education. Particularly, it focuses on personal awareness and access to personal learning and how to diagnose problems and difficulties from the learners’ personal perspective. The authors suggest that it presents understanding of individuals’ motivations and attitudes. However, it also, presents a way to evaluate and diagnose contextual problems, on an institutional level. As such, it suggests a whole engagement of faculty, teachers and students in personal development practice, in order, to improve and sustain quality of educational practices. This is in accordance with many authors who suggest that participatory practices of current networks, reflect what is in its users and could be highly shaped by contextual and institutional, organisational practices (Buckingham, 2007; Charles Crook, 2012; McLoughlin & Lee, 2007). The framework can be used by many studies for different purposes to understand personal and continuous development for different groups. It can be used by teachers to understand teaching attitudes and practices and for students to understand learning attitudes and practices. As such, the framework answers the question about what makes individuals different in their willingness to use social media for self-development which have influence which could as well appear in their practices of learning or teaching. The last level of the pyramid suggests that students, teachers or individuals, who hold positive feelings and attitudes towards their own personal learning in social media, are more likely to be engaged, self-aware, self-motivated and successful in their learning or teaching practices, compared to those who hold on to negative predispositions and experiences in social media.

Personal Characteristics:

The emphasis on personal characteristics and attitudes is increasingly required to understand how to provide equal and quality education, under the current open and participatory practices. Increasing research point to divisions in students’ attitudes and views, based on increased differences in personal skills and knowledge (Bennett & Maton, 2010; Gurung & Rutledge, 2014; Jones, Ramanau, Cross, & Healing, 2010; Kennedy, Judd, Churchward, Gray, & Krause, 2008). Networks and social media accelerate development of person sand create divides in personal self-efficacy and skill development, amongst individuals in society, generally, including divisions between students and teachers within educational institutions (Eastin & LaRose, 2000) . This is noted because it increases informal learning so that most knowledge and skills are acquired personally and outside the organisational context (Cox, 2013; Charles Crook & Lewthwaite, 2010). These studies show that students, who lack confidence in basic social skills and attitudes, will lack access to personal and continuous development, whilst their problems and difficulties remain invisible in the educational system, under the lack of awareness of increased individual difference (Greenhow & Lewin, 2016). This can influence ability of the students to build confidence in the modern world. Further it can affect academic development and success. (LeNoue et al., 2011) suggest that increased personal learning and continuous development practices in social media create variations of academic knowledge and skills in higher education classes which create real problems and challenges for providing quality education for all students. Only few studies encounter personal characteristics which could influence attitudes towards personal and continuous development. One factor impacting students’ attitude is experience as well as knowledge in using the social media platforms. Students with more experience and awareness based on their family status combined with better opportunities to access the Internet, usually have positive attitudes. D. Boyd (2007) suggested that young students need to engage with digital culture at an early age, to participate equally in social life. Also pointed to excessive safety concerns as a barrier, these included parent’s safety concerns because students need to practice critical judgments. However, they point to parent’s economic status and students’ self-perceptual image, in relation to the “coolness” associated with users of these sites, beside age and gender differences as barriers for students’ engagement. A successful learning experience, including, particularly, in social media need adequate social and self-presentation skills. D. Boyd (2007) suggests that the self-perceptual image of the student and confidant will affect social skills and participation and attitudes towards using social media. Students also may vary in their use based on their personalities, for instance, studies show that personal traits such as extraversion, emotional stability, self-esteem and openness to experience are positively related to predict the use of social applications (Correa, 2010 #180). These suggest that demographics are important as influence, to be taken into account in investigating issues related to personal learning in social media. The most important aspect to be taken into account is the entire range of individual differences based on personal characteristics. Most of 21 first century skills along with digital skills and social skills are acquired through the use of social networks, without being exposed to formal learning education (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009a). The problem in education now is that students’ confidant and skills vary considerably based on their cultural backgrounds. Economic status can be the source for negative attitudes and lack of confidence based on a record of lack of experience and access to personal devices and Internet combined with low family education. Their findings from investigating 11 students from low economic family back grounds in USA reveals that there are much to do for bringing equable education in schools under these circumstances and suggested increased levels of personal support and monitoring of the skills of the students. (Westerman et al., 2016) study on university students found that personal characteristics, self-efficacy and past experiences in using social media are important sources for student’s positive attitudes and engagement. (Bonk et al., 2015) study investigated self-directed online learners who subscribed to the monthly OpenCourseWare e-newsletter. A 25-item survey of 1,429 newsletter subscribers and 613 have also completed an additional 15 open-ended survey items. The survey findings suggested that personal values such as curiosity, interest and internal need for self-improvement, played a great role in the achievement of the self-directed learners, which varied through self-change, career development and language learning. The qualitative investigation reports on some of the personal values which, shaped those self-motivated learners to achieve a self-changing development, had specified that these values were observed to have enhanced the lives of some and had assisted others.

Self-regulation:

Social media can be in itself, a source of negative attitudes and learning difficulties when the student lacks adequate skills of control and self-regulation including time management. Students need to have the skills to adapt to their own developmental and emotional needs to keep on tasks and achieve their goals, which is challenging in these open environments (Kop & Fournier, 2011). Self-regulation influences the ability of the students regarding achievement. It involves how learners' create balance by monitoring and controlling the cognitive, motivational, emotional, persistence and social aspects of their learning. (Njiru, 2007) study reveals that students’ can be classified, naturally, into three levels, high, modest and low, in terms of self-regulation abilities. However, the study suggests that ICT rich university environment need high self-regulation abilities, and control skills, particularly, in the dimension of motivation, academic goals, self- learning beliefs, task management, volition and self-evaluation. These issues need to be taken into account by universities and teachers, as (Tabak & Nguyen, 2013) agree that learners’ personal characteristics can play significant highly influence on their ability in self-regulated learning in open environment. Students, who are self-regulated, demonstrate learner consensus, general self-efficacy, openness to experience and risk prospect dimensions in their personality. Several studies, suggest these differences and revealed problems and difficulties in students’ engagement, from their experiences of using social media. Junco (2012) examined the relationship between time spent in Facebook in different activities including preparing for classroom study, participating in learning activities and collecting and sharing information, on the College Grade Point Average (GPA) using a large sample (N = 1839) in the USA. The finding shows that time spent in Facebook significantly negatively related to students GPA. Only weak relationship between time spent in preparing to class detected while time spent on sharing and collecting information was predictive of positive GPA. Similarly, Kirschner and Karpinski (2010) conducted an explorative study that showed the time spent on Facebook while studying was negatively correlated to student’s outcomes as had been reported in GPA. Students may become distracted from their learning goals and engage in texting or other activities. It becomes more difficult for students to stay well engaged in learning with personal devices in hand. When these students find they have not learned well, they believe they don't have the capacity to succeed and experience lower levels of academic self-efficacy and negative attitudes (Junco, 2012). In contrast, (Westerman et al., 2016) exploration of the sources of negative attitudes in social media concluded that students may not be aware of the influence of their use in social media on them and that could have impact on their learning and self-perceptions ” one is not always consciously aware of the multiple sources of influence on their attitudes” P.55.They raised the importance of educators understanding the use of social media for understanding of the changing self-perceptions and performance, amongst students, which can have high impact on their development and learning and provide suggestions on students’ personal support in and out the classrooms. Besides that social media can be highly distracting for the students, there are risks on students’ development and academic success from excessive use. (Alwagait et al., 2015) survey on Saudi male university students revealed negative influence of social media on academic performance. The findings reveal high use of social media for football, movies and gaming, which impact on time management and academic performance. They suggest the need to find ways help students to find balance between social media educational use and leisure use by increasing students’ time management. In relation to the higher order skills for self-learning under the open education and social media influence, increasing research points to students’ difficulties to find balance and control between different aspects of leisure, social, exploration and study (Stirling, 2016). Moreover there is careful balance needed to obtain between control and exploration to gain advantages in open networks. When students lack a strong sense of confidence and self-goals it is likely they well usually experience problems of disorientation with relation to overabundance of information and choices, which result in waste of time without specific goals, and negative attitude (Yurttas, Karademir, & Cicek, 2011). As such these networks need increased critical thinking and experience and knowledge that enforce development of confidence for decision-making through using open environments.

Studies show that students’ negative attitudes and practices of learning in current open environments, are more likely to be related to the educational system based curriculum, where they do not receive sufficient equipment, support and teacher feedback .Particularly students with low skills in self-regulation, experience increasing learning difficulties and social media risks, without having support to their self-learning strategies. However, students can be supported by increase their self-regulated learning skills and confidence, this can be improved easily when they engage in personal learning based on their needs. Students support in open and personalised learning present opportunities to change learners’ perceptions of performance and attitudes, and assess building confidence after a successful experience of engagement in learning.

Contextual Factors in the educational setting:

Contextual factors in the setting, such as the university environment, and teachers play significant role in students’ attitudes, confidence and awareness to access and engage in personal and academic development. In the momentum of current open learning and teaching practices there is still lack of awareness and articulation of integration of students’ personal learning practices, which result in reported increase of variations of attitudes (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009a). It is clear that there are fundamental changes in the ways students learn and there is increased necessity for the changing needs of the learners and requirements under the influence of personal and open learning practices. Social media can have several risks on students’ development and academic success. Young students engagement need to be monitored and students need guidance of safe digital behaviour, and there is need some times for interventions, when this could have direct impact on students’ development and academic success. (Cranmer, Selwyn, & Potter, 2009)identified the need to raise students awareness of negative influence of social media such as cyber safety, cyber ethics, attention shift, social disconnection and media credibility.{Govani, 2005 #180@@author-year} study identified higher education students awareness of privacy in online settings can prevent the above mentioned incidents, which if occurred in the student experiences previously, can affect and explain their negative attitudes to use social media. In contrast, (Cranmer et al., 2009) suggests that most problems and barriers for students’ access and academic success emerge from contextual factors in the setting and lack of awareness of how to support students skills and strategies. (Cranmer et al., 2009) criticise the exaggeration of social media negative influence as this hide the main problem which is lack of student’s educational support on their personal learning strategies. They suggest the main barriers for students’ development emerge from teachers and schools lack of integration and absence of dialogue about how to critically use open environments and social media. Whereas Scholes relies on personal learning there is still disconnection and lack of integration between schools practices and students’ practices. Further (Krutka & Carpenter, 2016) agrees that schools tend to exaggerate social media as source of risk on learning and eliminate its formal guidance application. This also making barriers on informing the development of 21-century skills, by exaggerating social media risk teachers are less motivated to improve their selves to be able to support students and realising their problems. New learning literacy entails teachers presenting clear answers to questions why, when, what, why, how, with whom, these answers present strategies that are basic to students to alter their attitudes and practices and engage them in effective personal learning and development of confidence and skills using social media. When students lack teacher support on their self-directed learning, the probability is that they will engage more in the social media based risks rather than opportunities. (Alabdulkareem, 2015)notes the same barriers in high schools in Saudi. He suggests restrictions of formal support and barriers from teachers’ negative attitudes, who significantly see social media as source of risks for education, instead of as complementing sources for student’s education. Eventually, when students move to higher education, they will lack self-learning and 21th century skills necessary for success in higher education. In the higher education context, studies also show lack of integration of pedagogies, organisation and time issues in the setting with networked learning practices. Many authors suggest the need to extend the formal pedagogical vision of networks as disconnected from learning practices and skills. In the Saudi higher education, (Al-Shehri, 2010) evaluated the awareness about of the educators and professors of higher education disciplines regarding the issues related to eLearning and suggested that there is still narrow pedagogical vision and lack of awareness and integration about self-directed students’ needs and the requirement under high use of networks in learning in this context. Deepwell and Malik (2008)surveyed 250 students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and explored issues related to their engagement in self-directed learning. The study used focus groups and the follow up in-depth interviews found that social media, within the university context, facilitate students’ engagement in studies and in their transition processes. However, students exhibited increase demand for academic guidance about what and how, to choose academic resources effectively for their independent learning of the educational courses. Students identified the need for significant role of the teachers in facilitating and guiding their self-directing learning.

There is less awareness of learning differences regarding self-directed and self-regulated learning processes. Students need to be informed explicitly of the benefits of personal learning. Faculty also needs to find ways on how they can support students to build their confidence and strategies in personal learning. Teachers and institutions need to find ways to engage students and to evaluate the different characteristics, to make the students self-motivated and active. There is a fundamental need for changes in different directions and educators need to understand the nature of students’ experiences and attitudes in this age and the barriers for their development.

Social Inclusion:

As the education industry has moved significantly, during the last decade, from teacher centered into learner centered approaches, social inclusion can be seen as the main factor which could be needed to sustain the development and the effective use of networks as main source of knowledge. Wenger suggests that members of a community interact with each other, where they can exchange experiences and knowledge which can highlight their actions and reflection. Members need to be motivated by shared values and practices which assist the development of social and experiential learning and increase their self-directed learning, through exchanging of ideas and conversations where the experts teach the novice. The CoP framework has been widely used in professional and academic learning because it is expected that members are motivated based on a domain of knowledge or when they have interests of learning the same subject. Criticisms for CoP emerge from its inability to achieve the mutual participation as there are several barriers for social inclusion that are influenced by the community members and their motivations (Cox, 2004 cited in (Alsolamy, 2017). These include egos, personal attacks from others, and interpersonal relationships, lack of sense of belonging and lack of trust amongst members. In educational settings, while social media has the potential to connect cultural groups, there is always a need for educational intervention to facilitate some segregations and exclusions which could occur (D. Boyd, 2007). (Alibrahim, 2014) point to lack of interventions regarding student group based interaction and cooperation which could contribute to maximise interpersonal problems between students which impede their cooperation and social learning. Furthermore, under open practices of education, social inclusion is fundamental for students’ personal and self-regulated learning and engagement. Lack of social inclusion can highly influence motivation regarding participation for engagement in activities. Faculty of the universities tries to engage students using different ways in social media. Most studies point to peer influences as main resources in the formal networks which are encouraged by solidarity and social inclusion.

Pedagogies to support Personal Learning and development:

This section reviews some of the fundamental participatory pedagogical assumptions in the curriculum which are essential to enforce students’ personal learning at present regarding the influence of social media and open education. Then the theory of network based learning is presented. It is aimed that theories would present some of principles that assist positive attitudes for sustaining these networks, and learning practice for better education.

John Dewey - Experiential Learning and Society

(Dewey, 1938) believed in progressive education that promote growth from, and in society. Education is not supposed to be isolated from students’ lives, or from what lays outside schools, in the culture, or in the world. By contrast, when students increase awareness of diversity of experiences regarding a wide range of issues and problems, in their culture, the possibility that they will be active members of the society, increases. They become more able to think critically, and to care and act for their own and about the problems of others.(Dewey, 1938) suggest that there is only one way to achieve this in education and it is through education pedagogy that one could support growth in the learner’s experiences from the society. Education itself need to encourage students for action and participation, through increasing students capacity to understand their selves, their culture and others, which increase their awareness of differences, and capacity of thinking and decision-making. This can be achieved by engaging learners in experiential learning, where students learn from their own reflections, on their own experiences, and from reflections on others experiences education whereby everyone has equal opportunity to present and share learning suitable to personal needs (Kolb, 1984). Experiential education of Dewey should improve not only persons, but also societies. Reflection occurs when learners are fully empowered and motivated in their selves to engage in solving their own problems (Rodgers, 2002). In this way, they develop the critical thinking and increase their decision-making capacity. Learning from one’s own experiences and from experiences of others, not only increases ones capacity of learning sophisticated and relevant knowledge, but, would also develop the skills, behaviour, values and attitudes that would last with students and could allow them to live their lives with others better (UNESCO, 2002) Dewey’s educational method suggests that connections between society and education start from the experiential learning and reflection process of the learners (Rodgers, 2002). The main pedagogy emerges from that, the process of education itself, become democratic. By giving students freedom of choices to learn, increase their capacity to reflect, and respect others opinions, which increase their capacity of realising differences. By this, schools are places where students are prepared for their positions in life, and to have active non passive role to drive social change. The main standard for successful education pedagogy, is that when all students have the confidence to share their experiences in the culture, reflect on others, help each other’s, and act collectively for social justice, inclusion and equality . It is clear to see that Dewey’s description of experiential learning pedagogy, years ago, demonstrate description of personal learning at present. Personal learning in social media extend the education, the teacher, the class, opening opportunities to practice processes of freedom and participatory education and provide students with equal opportunities to freedom of expression and learning, which can transform students and society. It also facilitates students’ knowledge of social contexts, cultural learning and reflections on diversity of experience where students realise the differences and become active members. There is need now to aid students and guide them to discover their full potential, by motivating their learning with real life contextual as well as personal experiences and by encouraging their attitudes to engage with diversity of experiences and issues by ensuring pedagogy of equality and social inclusion practices.

Paulo Freire – Pedagogy for the oppressed

Paulo Freire was involved in adult literacy in Brazil when he developed a belief that critical awareness develops from action and reflection, through which people realise their real needs and problems (Freire institute, web page). In 1968, he wrote his seminal book “Pedagogy for the Oppressed” where he discussed power imbalances in education, and its influences on development of persons and society. (P. Freire, 1970) believed that education is not liberating the learner to learn, rather imposing power on students making them desperate, all their lives. Similar to Dewey, Freire believed that everyone should have the chance to be empowered and to develop the knowledge and skills for life, through education that engages students by posing problems and helping students to think autonomously and to develop solutions. Freire (1970) believe in total autonomy and freedom for learner to choose learning based on his needs to reach his full potential, and refers to the traditional education as the banking model of education. Freire (1970) stated that education and teachers do not work for the improvement of the students, rather, other agenda take place, to fill students with irrelevant content, leaving students less empowered in their selves. Freire (1970) believed in ethical issue surrounding the roles of leaders, researchers, and teachers to support and empower students who struggle and to raise their critical reflection and autonomous action and to help them increase their ability to solve their own problems. This can be achieved by fellowship and solidarity. Consequently, Freire was concerned of humanising education to be open, where students are empowered to realise that teachers are not the only source of information and "come to see the world not as a static reality, but, as the reality in the process of transformation" (Freire, 1970, p. 71). This empowerment applies for teachers as well, in order for teachers to transform the students, they need to be themselves educated through engaging in realising and solving the problems in their teaching, and to understand the needs of their students (P. Freire, W Fraser, J., Macedo, D. and McKinnon, T. , 1997). Personal learning will help radically transform people, students, education and society. However, students need the power and skills to practice this freedom, and education need to act to empower those who lack skills such as elderly, underachieving students, and vulnerable students, who lack social skills. Education and teachers now can find ways to effectively support students who struggle, by engaging them to build their own confidence in personal learning. However, there are challenges. Pedagogy of the oppressed, stress tracking, the changing reality of power imbalances significantly have changed in the modern world. Pedagogy of the oppressed demonstrates that the power imbalances, amongst individuals, are the main barriers, not only for personal development, but ,also for social mobility. This can start from education pedagogy which reinforces equality, diversity and development of all students and teachers. There is necessity to listen to teachers and learners and to learn from them and to critically identify the changing conflict sources of social reality in this world.

George Siemens - Network Learning (Connectivisim)

(Siemens, 2005) claimed that learning in the age of networks pose different challenges and changes in education, and suggest Connectivisim as learning theory to identify some changes. The theory redefined learning as the ability to connect to and to access sources of knowledge and relationships in networks. The organisation of knowledge within these networks presents a messy situation of uncertainty of knowledge that is “located within diversity of opinions”. This can be seen as opportunity and challenge for education, as it increase the capacity of learners’ thinking and critically build meaning in the networks. Some learning skills are more important than others for students’ growth in networks, particularly decision-making and self-directed learning, process promote growth in networks “Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information” (Siemens, 2005, p. 5). Semines implicated a conceptualisation of cognition in networks, that is similar to radical views of Information Processing, which eliminate cognition to metacognitive process, they describe learning as “an ever‐evolving bio functional process of multiple source integration and reorganization of the learner’s own intuition”. As such, Semines claimed that cognition resides in the network. This suggests that education to implicate some changes to understand students such as to take advantage of the plenty of knowledge available, as a chance to develop knowledge‐production capability which enables “knowledge production in children in the form of learner insights” (Iran-Nejad & Stewart, 2011) (p.190). Siemens believed that learning in the networks occur when learners are engaged in creation and production through maintaining different sources, and learning occurs through metacognitive and evaluating processes about “which elements in the network serve useful purposes and which elements need to be eliminated.” (Kop & Hill, 2008). Self-organisation skills, informal and lifelong learning and learning skills emerge as defining learning themes within the network age according to Siemens (2005) because the “Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known “P.5 . One needs the ability of critical thinking and to filter information and to make decisions on what, where and how which means that the “The ability to see connections between fields, ideas and concepts is a core skill” p5. One of the emergent themes within learning in the networks according to Seimens is that it adds to the meta-cognitive and cognitive abilities regarding the impact of emotional domains on decision making and learning. The theory puts both cognitive and emotional abilities as the main drivers for decision making when learning in the network age. Finally, the theory put that navigating through networks, and being active in these networks is a condition where the learner enter a cycle of experimental learning and development, where they can exercise their own critical creative and decision making skills and impact their life long development. (Kop & Hill, 2008) analysis of this theory present learning in the networks is a developmental process which is not different from self-directed learning. The theory does not define the teacher role. Therefore, networked learning, according to (Tschofen & Mackness, 2012) is the theory which emphasises to move away from the “learning process” into the “learner” and, motivates them for engagement in development and lifelong learning within these networks. “Connectivism may offer a framework in which the focus on the primarily external structures, processes, and demands of learning .is reduced, and factors which address and accept how learners engage and motivate the self in the development of personal potential come to the fore.” Webpage

The theory was criticised because of the elimination of some cognitive process, such as communication and presentation skills as digital literacy. Another criticism is that it does not recognise the participatory nature of these networks and the teacher roles. However, network learning theory presents and emphasises upon the important and the basic understanding for metacognitive and emotional processes in decision-making and self-direction processes throughout networks. As such, it implicates educational practices of understanding of developments in the networks, thus, teachers can understand the requirements and educational needs of their students.