Mobile Education via Social Media: Case Study on WeChat

Abstract

Social media has been developed very fast in recent years. Almost every generation has their preferred social media platforms. They communicate with others on social media, share photos and information through social media, search information through social media, and plan their future on social media. It had been adopted by young people and students very fast. It also attracted the attentions from educators. Some universities and schools have developed teaching curriculum for social media and adopted social media in teaching and learning. However, some academics have argued that the results of using social media in teaching and learning may be affected by some contents and games from the Internet. Some students cannot separate the good learning contents from the bad or fake ones that they may be used by criminals. Other researchers also argued that social media account is private and the use of social media for teaching and learning may force the students to open their privacy to their teachers, which is a problem. Social media, as a tool for teaching and learning, is the same as chalks and pencils. It could have positive or negative influence on learning. When used properly, it can enhance learning performance dramatically. Combined with mobile technologies, social media provides better solution for teaching and learning. Mobile technology has its own advantages (e.g., anytime and anywhere) and disadvantages (e.g., small screen and calculation capability). Majority of social media teaching and learning studies focused on Twitter, Facebook, and Second Life platforms. This study examined a new mobile social media platform (original from China) – WeChat, which has more than 800 million users all over the world. Instead of using university teaching materials, this study composed teaching materials for public learners and compared the number of readings, reposts, and likes for different contents on mobile educational social media public accounts.