Social media and smartphones as teaching resources: Spanish teacher’s perceptions

Abstract

New learning environments and social media have taken a step forward with their use in the classroom, even becoming an important reinforcement for education during the unprecedented situation caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Teacher’s actions and perceptions in this regard have been essential for a quick response in a global lockdown, in which mobile technologies played an essential role. This study presents a descriptive and correlational study with two main objectives: firstly, to discover the accessibility and self-directed use of social networks, and secondly, to describe the perceived utility of SMD (smart mobile devices) and SNS (social network sites) for Spanish teachers. With a quantitative and qualitative methodological approach, correlations between established variables were analysed in a sample of 2,048 Spanish teachers. The results, firstly, highlight the absence of differences in terms of age and gender, thus demonstrating their maximum penetration among teachers; and secondly, demonstrate the relationship between frequency of use and positive perception towards relevance in pedagogical activity. The conclusions, addressed from the qualitative approach, show interesting issues pointing to a lack of knowledge, sense of responsibility, and risks associated, when teachers express their perceptions regarding the use of SMD and SNS in pedagogical integration.