Connecting Classrooms through Social Media Instruction in Educational Institutions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore instructors’ use of Social Media (SM) in teaching with the focus on: instructors' views of SM; the policies that exist in the use of SM by instructors; how SM supports instruction; how SM contributes to instructors’ professional development; the challenges instructors face as they adopt SM in teaching. The phenomenology qualitative approach using a semi-structured interview guide and focus group discussion was adopted to capture data from ten (10) purposively and conveniently sampled instructors who taught at the tertiary and second cycle levels. The data was analyzed thematically. The key findings were that instructors were: instructors were aware of SM and used some SM in their teaching; YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook were the most used SM; SM contributed to instructors' professional development; students' absence from the platform, lack of and limited internet connectivity; obstruction with power supply, and in some cases, the prohibitive policy that forbids the use of electronic gadgets and SM use in education institutions, were some of the challenges instructors faced in adopting SM in teaching. The paper pointed out the implications of the findings for policy on SM use in education institutions.