A study on the academic uses of facebook in Vocational Education

Social Network Sites such as Facebook is popular among students who have been accessing Facebook during lesson time with the rampant availability of Smartphones. It is a challenge to draw the students´ attention away from the usage of Facebook and instead of finding ways to prevent them using Facebook and affecting their learning; educators should explore ways to blend teaching and learning through the Facebook platform and this study explored ways to do that through a trial. Data was collected from 2009 to 2012 by tracking the students´ usage on Facebook and conducting a survey from two different batches of students attending a 2-year technical certificate programme in a Vocational and Technical Education Institution. The results suggested that Facebook is an effective tool in reaching out to students especially for the assimilation of new students into the new school environment. It also enhanced the students´ learning as the students were able to collaborate, share information, ask questions and discuss.