(727)SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES AS TEACHING RESOURCE

摘要

One of the new challenges associated with improving the teaching-learning process in class is gettingcooperative models to strengthen the overall development of students and to facilitate communicationbetween teachers and students.The social networking websites are changing dramatically the way we relate. At present, more than900 million people are already heavy users of this new way to socialize and communicate. Thepopularity of social networking has been as sudden as impressive. Virtual communication tools wereborn just four or five years ago ─as is the case of Tuenti, Twitter or Facebook─ are now saturated withmillions of users with the same purpose: relationships between them. The increase of people usingthese websites is so explosive that, for example, users of Facebook in Spain have risen from fourmillion active users over eight in one year.The possibilities of these websites are very large, there are a wide variety of them (social networkingfor young or old, sites to make new friends, stay connected with our contacts, for learning or just asentertainment) and all the websites have in common the same goal: to keep the user in constantconnection with the rest of the world.The ability to connect people is inherent in social networking services and this may have an immediateapplication in the field of education. In this article we review the different characteristics and potentialuses of social networks in relation to strictly educational objectives. In this way we intend to takeadvantage of these applications as a means to encourage contact, dialogue, communication, andcooperation between students and teachers.