Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Faculty member of Faculty of Communication Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran
2 -Master's student of Faculty of Communication Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran
Abstract
Teenagers, as a dynamic and active generation who are supposed to build the future of the country, form many of their actions and behaviors in the context of virtual social networks and beyond communication in the real life environment. As a generation that was born with technology and grew up in a society based on communication technologies and transferred an important part of their real life behavior and actions to the virtual world, they are now more than ever influenced by technology and Marshall McLuhan's words are involved in technological determinism.
In the meantime, in social life and communication based on technology, a major part of the life of the teenage generation is formed and continues in the school environment and interaction with new communication tools, possibilities and places, especially social media. Teenagers, who constitute a large population of the so-called Z generation or the electronic generation, choose and use the new social media as an important source of information and a tool for interaction and communication among their friends, along with their peers. For this generation, electronic devices, which were once a luxury for their parents, are always considered as a basic necessity to live in the modern world. They are the first generation for whom the extraordinary technological advances of the 20th century are just a normal part of life.
In recent years, the use of virtual social networks has grown significantly, especially among teenagers and high school students. However, little is known about the extent, purpose, and manner in which students use new media in Iran, and more specifically, whether these new media tools help or harm their academic achievement. .
Therefore, with the aim of studying the extent, scope and contexts of using new media platforms among Iranian teenagers, the main problem of the current research is how teenage high school students in Tehran use social media to promote educational activities and They use their lessons and communicating with peers and academic groups in doing things related to school, following up on curricular topics and the like.
In other words, this research tries to study the goals of educational use of social media by high school students in Tehran and check whether variables such as gender, the amount of time spent on social media, and the use of social networks have a significant relationship with the activity. Does it have educational and learning opportunities for students or not?
The aim of the present research is to study the impact of new media platforms on the educational process of generation Z teenage students in the first and second secondary levels of high schools in Tehran using a survey method. The data in this research was collected by using a researcher-made questionnaire and distributing it among a valid sample size of 450 students in eight girls' and boys' high schools in Tehran. The analysis of the findings shows that more than 66.9% of the male and female students participating in the research spend more than 2 hours a day on new social media for various activities from entertainment to communicating with friends and classmates. and follow up on matters related to their school and education.
Conducting various statistical tests, including K-Square and two-way variance, showed that the independent variable is the amount of students' presence in virtual social platforms in four of the total cases related to teaching and learning, including getting help from the teacher, getting rid of the stress of lessons and exams, Access to educational and educational content in the context of virtual social networks and disrupting studying due to presence in new media platforms has been effective, and the independent variable of gender has played an effective role only in the component of using social media for collaborative learning. Is.
The findings show: the variable of students' presence in virtual social platforms has a significant relationship; In other words, the more students participate in new media platforms, the more "disruption in studying" and "relief from the stress of lessons and exams" (direct relationship). Also, the presence of most of the studied students on social media does not necessarily mean more and wider access to the educational content and getting help from the teacher in this context.
Keywords:
social media. Education. learning Generation Z Youth. High school students. Tehran.
Keywords
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