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The use of social media in higher education has been demonstrated in a number of studies to be an attractive and contemporary method of teaching and learning. However, further research and investigation are required in order to align social media's pedagogical benefits with the theoretical perspectives that inform educational practices. It is the objective of this study to provide a systematic literature review using bibliometric analysis techniques and content analysis to provide a map of research produced between 2009 and 2021. This study aims to identify theoretical frameworks, current research trends, and patterns in this field. A total of 772 publications were analysed using bibliometric methodology, while a subset of 55 publications were analysed using content analysis. As indicated by the results, there is still a growing interest in this area of research, with recent studies still focusing on attitudes towards the use of social media in teaching and learning. According to the content analysis, technology acceptance theories and learning theories are the most commonly used reference theories. This field has yet to elaborate on pedagogical theory, and there is a tendency to rely primarily on technology acceptance models rather than pedagogical models. A discussion of future practice and research implications is also provided.

With the recent COVID-19 pandemic and disruption of campus-based education, the use of mobile social networking applications to supplement formal education has attracted a great deal of attention. Teachers do have opportunities to join students' online groups to share, clarify, and exchange housekeeping information and course-related content with them. Teachers can, in particular, provide English as a foreign language (EFL) students with more sources of linguistic input, interaction, and feedback. Research investigating this potential, however, is still scarce in such contexts. The current study explores the likely affordances of teaching presence in students' WhatsApp groups for designing, facilitating, and guiding cognitive and social processes conducive to their language learning. A mixed-method design was employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data and information from English-major undergraduates (N = 111) and faculty teachers (N = 8) who joined the same WhatsApp groups for one academic semester at a major university in Oman. Descriptive and thematic analyses of data from a survey with both closed-ended and open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews indicate that the shared WhatsApp groups functioned as small close-knit communities where students were able to constantly access teachers for their assistance, feedback, and clarification of content. Despite these merits, however, the participating faculty believed that the presence of teachers in WhatsApp groups might have consequences for students' tolerance of ambiguity, scaffolding, and autonomous language learning. The paper concludes by discussing several pedagogical implications and directions for future research.

Background: Holocaust memory and learning processes have become increasingly mediatised as a result of rapid technological advances. There is, however, little information available regarding how people learn about this topic informally through social media. Objectives: This paper explores how adult learners develop their learning ecologies by using social media to learn about the Holocaust informally. Methods: The study uses a learning ecology perspective to analyse the interests, expectations and learning process of a group of adult learners (N = 276). An online survey tool was developed to collect information on the interests, expectations, and benefits of learning about Holocaust-related topics among online users of four Italian Holocaust museums' social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarise the characteristics of the sample and to answer the research questions. Results and Conclusions: The results show that most of the respondents are mostly women, with an average age of 50 and a higher level of education. In terms of interest and expectations, they are particularly interested in issues related to the intertwining of transnational and national memory. They also express a sense of civic responsibility with regard to the legacy of the Holocaust. Finally, components of the learning process show proactive behaviour and a preference for individual learning, while interaction with peers is considered less important. Takeaways: There is an urgent need to understand how learners' preferences influence the development of learning ecologies and the types of content they are most likely to be exposed to as a result. It is also important for social media content providers to understand that learners are looking for quality resources and trustworthy content to further their education.

Research on scholars' use of social media suggests that these sites are increasingly being used to enhance scholarly communication by strengthening relationships, facilitating collaboration among peers, publishing and sharing research products, and discussing research topics in open and public formats. However, very few studies have investigated perceptions and attitudes towards social media use for scholarly communication of large cohorts of scholars at national level. This study investigates the reasons for using social media sites for scholarly communication among a large sample of Italian university scholars (N = 6139) with the aim of analysing what factors mainly affect these attitudes. The motivations for using social media were analysed in connection with frequency of use and factors like gender, age, years of teaching, academic title, and disciplinary field. The results point out that for the most used tools the influence of the variables examined was higher in shaping scholars' motivations. In fact, frequency of use, age, years of teaching, and disciplinary field were found to be relevant factors especially for LinkedIn and ResearchGate-Academia.edu, while gender and academic title seemed to have a limited impact on scholars' motivations for all social media sites considered in the study. Considerations for future research are provided along with limitations of the study.

In the research subfield of social media memory studies (Birkner & Donk, 2020), digital memory of relevant historical events has its own scholarship and avenues of publication (e.g., Garde-Hansen et al., 2009; Hoskins, 2011). As for the specific area of Holocaust studies, with the passing of the generation that witnessed and experienced the Holocaust (Wieviorka, 2006), scholars have stressed that learning about the Holocaust will progressively rely less on public speakers and more on audio-visual testimonies and second and third generation accounts (Gross & Stevick, 2015; Hirsch, 2012). Scholars have advanced the idea of a "virtual Holocaust memory" to consider both digital and non-digital memory projects related to the Holocaust that draw attention to the pervasive nature of the virtuality of memory (Walden, 2019). Despite the pace at which technology has advanced and become woven into the fabric of youths' lives, it is still unclear how "the internet and in particular social media impact on students' knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust" (Gray, 2014, p. 105). Moreover, scholars argue that for contemporary digital users, there is a need to "resurrect" Holocaust commemoration through the creation of immersive and more engaging memories as mass media such as cinema and television may be no longer suitable (Kansteiner, 2017). This study provides a review of social media use for Holocaust remembrance and for teaching and learning about the Holocaust. The aim is to identify the main topics of research and potential connections between the two fields and to provide indications for further research.

In recent years, there has been increasing emphasis on the benefits of social media and social network sites to foster young people's participation in digital public spaces and their civic engagement. Using the principles of the Student Voice approach, this study investigated the use of a Facebook group to support secondary school students' voices and viewpoints on school quality and policy (N = 98). The results showed that students were reluctant to be active in the group for several reasons, such as mistrust of school policies and resistance to combining Facebook use with school-related issues. The low participation provided clues to reflect on the design of Student Voice projects to support civic engagement at school and to evaluate the use of digital sites to support Student Voice. Some considerations on the reasons for project failure and how to successfully reach student participation in a technology-enhanced environment at school that addresses power relations, authenticity and inclusion are provided.

While Holocaust museums have embraced social media to connect with online audiences and provide educational materials, the specifics of their use are not well understood. A Delphi study involving 22 experts developed a framework for examining Holocaust-related social media content. This framework, the result of a three-round iterative process, includes three main areas: Historical content of the Holocaust, Contemporary issues related to the Holocaust, and Museum activities and communication. The hierarchical system of categories can help users explore the vast range of online materials and help educators identify effective strategies for using social media content in Holocaust education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Holocaust memory and learning processes have become increasingly mediatised as a result of rapid technological advances. There is, however, little information available regarding how people learn about this topic informally through social media. Objectives: This paper explores how adult learners develop their learning ecologies by using social media to learn about the Holocaust informally. Methods: The study uses a learning ecology perspective to analyse the interests, expectations and learning process of a group of adult learners (N = 276). An online survey tool was developed to collect information on the interests, expectations, and benefits of learning about Holocaust‐related topics among online users of four Italian Holocaust museums' social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarise the characteristics of the sample and to answer the research questions. Results and Conclusions: The results show that most of the respondents are mostly women, with an average age of 50 and a higher level of education. In terms of interest and expectations, they are particularly interested in issues related to the intertwining of transnational and national memory. They also express a sense of civic responsibility with regard to the legacy of the Holocaust. Finally, components of the learning process show proactive behaviour and a preference for individual learning, while interaction with peers is considered less important. Takeaways: There is an urgent need to understand how learners' preferences influence the development of learning ecologies and the types of content they are most likely to be exposed to as a result. It is also important for social media content providers to understand that learners are looking for quality resources and trustworthy content to further their education. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Teaching and learning about the Holocaust is a field of study with an established scholarly tradition.Social media are information ecosystems that enable novel practices of Holocaust education and remembrance.The concept of lifelong learning ecologies has been developed to explain learning as a multidimensional and complex aspect of human life. What this paper adds: The study is the first to apply learning ecologies to the teaching and learning of the Holocaust through the use of digital technology.The study findings provide insight into how adults learn about the Holocaust informally using social media.The findings suggest that users are more proactive in their individual learning process and less active in interacting with peers. Implications for practice and/or policy: It is important to understand that learners' preferences have implications for the development of learning ecologies and the types of content to which they are most frequently exposed.In addition to providing opportunities for learners to critically reflect on their own learning practices, museum staff provide opportunities for learners to interact with each other and with Holocaust education specialists.Social media content providers should be aware that learners are looking for quality resources and trustworthy content to continue their learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By articulating a shared victimhood or guilt or responsibility, memorial museums are designed as ethical projects that encourage visitors to learn from the past to build a "better future". In contemporary Europe, Holocaust memorials and museums constitute a trajectory of remembrance about public Holocaust memory that consolidates political legitimacy and articulates national narratives of the legacy of WWII. In parallel, increasing adoption and spread of digital technologies have resulted in a convergence and a globalisation of themes and user interests associated with Holocaust memory. The purpose of this study is to investigate the perspectives and interests of users of the social media profiles of a group of Holocaust museums and memorials in Germany and Italy. Using a primarily quantitative approach, the study sought to understand the motivations, interests, and online activities of users of nine Holocaust museums and memorials. While national narratives regarding public policy continue to diverge in the two countries, users express a convergence of interests and motivations when using these social media profiles. This dual venture of Holocaust memory is a complex yet powerful example of how the globalisation of digital media is playing an increasingly significant role in European contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study takes a social-technical systems approach to investigate how national and transnational memory of the Holocaust are intertwined on the social media profiles of a set of Italian museums and memorials. We examine how Italy's four most important Holocaust museums and memorials use social media as ecosystems to provide historical content and engage their audiences in digital remembrance about the Holocaust on four social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Results show that posts on Facebook led to a higher volume of interactivity and positive responses than posts on the other platforms, while user activity in terms of creating new posts remains low on all four platforms. The four institutions tend to address a national audience and interweave transnational Holocaust memorial themes with distinctively national ones. Although the examined social media profiles demonstrate that museums and memorials are reliable sources of historical and trustworthy information through which they shape memory ecologies, their use reflects a conservational attitude, with a preference for a target audience over the age of 25, expressed both in the choice of platforms adopted and in the mostly one-way communication approach employed. The paper outlines implications for further social media practice in Digital Holocaust Memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on scholars' use of social media suggests that these sites are increasingly being used to enhance scholarly communication by strengthening relationships, facilitating collaboration among peers, publishing and sharing research products, and discussing research topics in open and public formats. However, very few studies have investigated perceptions and attitudes towards social media use for scholarly communication of large cohorts of scholars at national level. This study investigates the reasons for using social media sites for scholarly communication among a large sample of Italian university scholars (N=6139) with the aim of analysing what factors mainly affect these attitudes. The motivations for using social media were analysed in connection with frequency of use and factors like gender, age, years of teaching, academic title, and disciplinary field. The results point out that for the most used tools the influence of the variables examined was higher in shaping scholars' motivations. In fact, frequency of use, age, years of teaching, and disciplinary field were found to be relevant factors especially for LinkedIn and ResearchGate-Academia.edu, while gender and academic title seemed to have a limited impact on scholars' motivations for all social media sites considered in the study. Considerations for future research are provided along with limitations of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, the information gathered from massive learning platforms and social media sites allows to derive a very comprehensive set of learning information. To this aim, data mining techniques can surely help to gain proper insights, personalise learning experiences, formative assessments, performance measurements, as well as to develop new learning and instructional design models. Therefore, a core requirement is to classify, mix, filter and process the big data sources involved by means of proper learning and social learning analytics tools. In this perspective, this paper investigates the most promising applications and issues of big data for the design of the next-generation of massive learning platforms and social media sites. Specifically, it addresses the methodological tools and instruments for social learning analytics, pitfalls arising from the usage of open datasets. and privacy and security aspects. The paper also provides future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Media tools are seen by many authors as powerful drivers of change for teaching and learning practices, in terms of openness, interactivity and sociability. However, extensive surveys about actual use that are carried out with large samples at a national level are rare. This study reports the results of a survey addressed to the Italian academic staff, with the aim of identifying the uses of Social Media in the field of university teaching practices. The response rate was 10.5%, corresponding to 6139. The respondents were asked to identify frequency of use, motivations, teaching practices and obstacles related to the use of a number of tools: generic social network sites (Twitter, Facebook), professional and academic networking services (LinkedIn, ResearchGate and Academia.edu ), tools to write and comment (blogs, wikis) and to archive and retrieve content material for lectures and group work (podcasts, YouTube and Vimeo, SlideShare). Analyses of data tested which socio-demographic variables mostly affected frequency of use, and the relationships between motivations, ways of use, barriers to use and the scientific discipline. The results show that Social Media use is still rather limited and restricted and that academics are not much inclined to integrate these devices into their practices for several reasons, such as cultural resistance, pedagogical issues or institutional constraints. However, there are differences among academics in the ways they use Social Media or perceive them, mostly depending on the scientific discipline of teaching. Overall, the results emphasise ambivalent attitudes towards the benefits and challenges of Social Media in the context of higher education with obstacles prevailing over advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at providing empirical evidence on how higher education scholars are using Social Media for personal, teaching and professional purposes. A survey tool was addressed to the entire Italian academic staff, with a response rate of 10.5% corresponding to 6139 responses. The study takes into account a number of socio-demographic variables such as gender, age, numbers of years of teaching, academic title, and academic discipline. It also explores the relationship between the different kinds of use, the relationship between frequency of use of Social Media and online and/or blended teaching, as well as the use of institutional e-learning systems. The results show that Social Media use is still rather limited and restricted and that the variable most associated with frequency of use is scientific discipline. In addition, age and seniority seem to influence the adoption of Social Media. The results also revealed that frequency of personal use is mostly associated with the frequency of professional use more than with the frequency of teaching use. They also show that prior experience with e-learning or blended learning is greatly associated with Social Media use. Overall, the study emphasises a generally more favourable attitude towards personal sharing and connecting with peers in professional networks rather than integrating these devices into their teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technologies and social media platforms have been used in museum communication for over a decade now, and Holocaust museums have increasingly adopted them in their modes of commemoration and provision of educational content. Nevertheless, very limited research has been conducted into the potential of social media as new memory ecologies. In this exploratory study, we conceive social media platforms as socio-technical-ecological systems whereby users develop and engage with memory practices of the Holocaust. We adopt a networked socio-ecological approach to analyse how a sample of Holocaust museums (N = 69) develop practices of digital Holocaust memory in social media. The institutions are analysed in terms of "size" (small, medium, or large), how they differ in their attitudes towards these practices, and to what extent they circulate Holocaust memory on social media. The study adopts multiple quantitative approaches and combines the results of a survey with a set of social media metrics analysing how museums engage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube in terms of generated content, interactivity, popularity, and type of content. Results show that museums have an overall positive attitude towards social media although some concerns were expressed, mostly by smaller institutions; they tend to use mostly Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and to share educational content and information about the museum's activities. However, despite a tendency to aggregate a large number of fans and followers, especially in the case of larger institutions, interaction with users remains limited. Prospects for more interactive participation and its implications are also discussed. • Museums have an overall positive attitude towards social media although concerns were expressed by smaller institutions. • They tend to use mostly Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and to share educational content and information about activities. • Interaction with users remains limited as the management of contentious contents is still a complex issue for these museums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the passing of the last testimonies, Holocaust remembrance and Holocaust education progressively rely on digital technologies to engage people in immersive, simulative, and even counterfactual memories of the Holocaust. This preliminary study investigates how three prominent Holocaust museums use social media to enhance the general public's knowledge and understanding of historical and remembrance events. A mixed-method approach based on a combination of social media analytics and latent semantic analysis was used to investigate the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube profiles of Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Auschwitz–Birkenau Memorial and Museum. This social media analysis adopted a combination of metrics and was focused on how these social media profiles engage the public at both the page-content and relational levels, while their communication strategies were analysed in terms of generated content, interactivity, and popularity. Latent semantic analysis was used to analyse the most frequently used hashtags and words to investigate what topics and phrases appear most often in the content posted by the three museums. Overall, the results show that the three organisations are more active on Twitter than on Facebook and Instagram, with the Auschwitz–Birkenau Museum and Memorial occupying a prominent position in Twitter discourse while Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum had stronger presences on YouTube. Although the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum exhibits some interactivity with its Facebook fan community, there is a general tendency to use social media as a one-way broadcast mode of communication. Finally, the analysis of terms and hashtags revealed the centrality of "Auschwitz" as a broad topic of Holocaust discourse, overshadowing other topics, especially those related to recent events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the documented number of studies that investigate social media in teaching and learning settings, the topic of social media literacy is still an under-researched area. This study adopts the theoretical lens of New Literacy studies to suggest a combined perspective for investigating social media literacies. This perspective considers both social media skills that are transversal across different social media (global skills), and those that pertain to a specific social media platform (local skills). It examines practices that are decontextualized (literacy as something to be acquired), and those that are situated and context-dependent (literacy through participation). To map current research on social media skills, a systematic literature review was conducted. Analysis of 54 publications was carried out following the UNESCO DLGF framework for digital literacy competencies, and also using a critical lens based on four metaphors whereby, for learning purposes, social media are seen as a tool , as a process , as collaboration , and as participation. The results show that most of the studies consider global social media skills, while only a few examine skills sets specific to a particular social media platform. In addition, most of the identified skills concern decontextualized practices, with very few studies emphasizing the importance of fostering situated social media practices. We conclude that there is a need for more expansive theoretical elaboration in the field, and provide a number of recommendations for investigating, understanding, and designing educational curricula and activities that support the development of social media literacy. • Social media literacy is still an under-researched area. • Global and local social media skills are considered in social media literacy. • Social media practices are decontextualized or situated and context-dependent. • 54 articles on social media literacy are systematically reviewed. • There is a need for more expansive theoretical elaboration in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial social media are being increasingly adopted in formal learning settings even though they have not been conceived specifically for education. Whereas highly popular social services like Facebook and Twitter have been thoroughly investigated for their benefits for teaching and learning in higher education, other social media platforms which have been gaining considerable attention among youth have been largely overlooked in scholarly literature. The purpose of this study is to fill that vacuum by analyzing whether and how social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and WhatsApp have become an integral component of teaching and learning in higher education. A total of 46 studies are analyzed in terms of what pedagogical affordances of these four platforms they identify (e.g., mixing information and learning resources, hybridization of expertise, widening of the context of learning) and the benefits for learning that the authors go on to investigate. Results show that although the use of WhatsApp is well documented in a plethora of studies, there is a dearth of research about Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat. While more than half of the studies are carried out in the Middle East and Asian areas and investigate mostly benefits for second and foreign language learning, the overall geographical distribution of studies examining learning via social media reflects the preferences expressed for these services on the part of the general population. Moreover, it is found that the pedagogical affordances of social media are still only being partially implemented and that diverse social media exploit affordances to different degrees. • Social media research continues to increase and attract growing scholarly interest • Prevalence of the number of WhatsApp studies over the other three services considered • Pinterest and Instagram studies still attract mild scholarly interest • Snapchat is the least investigated of the services considered • Geographical distribution reflects the preferences expressed by the general population in regard to single platforms [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]