Influence of Social Media in Building Teachers’ Community of Practice in Selected Secondary Schools in Mbale Municipality July 2015.

Abstract

The study was conducted on influence of social media in building teachers’ community of practice in selected secondary schools in Mbale municipality. The study was guided by the following objectives: examining the influence of teachers’ membership in SNS on their knowledge and technology skills; discovering how teacher’s membership in SNS builds interpersonal relation among themselves, and examining how teachers’ membership in SNS enhances their classroom instructional practice. The study was conducted using a descriptive survey design. The data was collected from 108 respondents using questionnaire. It was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study found that; majority of teachers (80%) agreed that use of social media added to their personal learning and 95% of respondents agreed that social media was effective for personal learning. On the other hand, the study found that (62%) of the respondents agreed that SNS improved their communication skills, and another (62%) of the respondents again agreed that SNS improved their interpersonal relations with friends at work and off work. It was also found that, all the respondents agreed that SNS should be used in educational settings in view of its tremendous benefits in communicating assignment, content supporting school work, class discussion, as well as communicating student progress report. In addition, 73% of respondents believed that SNS help teachers to develop new pedagogical techniques. The recommendations are that: Social Networking Sites should include more privacy options that can facilitate the learning process and guard against SNS hacking. There should also be a need to review the general strategic plan of the school ICT policy to include the introduction and use of Social Networking Sites to share and relate with individuals.