SOCIAL MEDIA RESOURCES UTILIZATION AND THE TEACHING OF BIOLOGY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background of the Study

The study media involves all the forms of internet operations which help in dissemination of information about all facts of life in the society. The social media exist in varied forms ranging from radio and television transmission Face book, watt Sapp, media twitters, YouTube, Skype, and among others. In context of education, the use of social media or network is considered to be a good idea, as it allows establishment of contacts, relationships, information sharing and self-initiated learning (Chen, 2017).

Corroborating the above, Michelle (2013) posted that in teaching learning process, the social media helps both learners and teachers to get reliable in information and knowledge about an any topic in subject disciplines. Whenever the social media is mentioned, what comes to mine is the operation of the internet system. The internet system has the capacity of receiving, processing, storing and retrieving information whenever it is needed. The internet system has come to perform the function of a library and laboratory to a greater extent. As applied to teaching and learning process, the internet makes the teachers and even the learners to have implicit confidence in any ideas they extracts from the media.

More so, there are some facts which cannot be seen in a textbook, but which the internet provides. The internet or the social media as brought innovative skills and programmed which go a long way to broaden the scope of education and improve the quality of life in the society (Michelle, 2013.) The internet is said to be the fastest and most reliable source of learning. According to Duffy (2018). The internet has come to serve as a way of improving the process and quality education. Now a days, students and teachers can share knowledge through the social media. This has brought about varieties in presentation of facts and knowledge in all disciplines. Thus, the internet provides an alternative way of teaching and learning. It can therefore be said that the social media is veritable source of the knowledge.

It is often said that is an island in the context of learning. The internet system according to O’ Hanlon (2007) through the various activities and programmers in Face book, watt Sapp, twitters, Skype, YouTube, to mention but a few, contributes to exchange of knowledge and ideas thereby adding valve to education and human life in the society as a whole.

More significantly, in the teaching of sciences especially, a subject like biology, the internet system or social media can serve a useful purpose.For instance, in a school where there is no standard library for reading and laboratory for practical, the internet can provide an alternative way of learning. In the internet, live experiments are carried out and the apparatus well as their usefulness are displayed for are career understanding by the learners. Thus, it is believed that the social media could play a significant role in the teaching- learning process. It could be of help to both the teachers and the learners since ideas, information and concepts in all fields are retrievable from the social media.

Admittedly, in the teaching of biology, in particular it is presumed that the internet through its various applications such as the Skype, Facebook twitters, and YouTube among others can serve as useful means of sending information illustrative object, diagrams and videos to further explain concepts, and ideas to learners. These information, illustrative diagrams and videos presented in the media can also concretize the lesson and make it understandable and retentive to the learners.

It is therefore in consonance with this background information about the roles of the social media in the teaching – learning process that the researcher motivated to carry out a research study to investigate the utilization of the social media in the teaching of biology in secondary schools.