British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 42 No 5 2011 E89–E90

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2010.01129.x

Colloquium

Social networks: a learning tool for teams? _1129 89..90

Patrick Tissington and Carl Senior

Address for correspondence: Patrick Tissington, Aston Business School and School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston
University, UK. Email: P.A.Tissington@aston.ac.uk

The modern-day student begins university life as part of a generation that is born into a world of
ubiquitous computing. The sum of the world’s knowledge can be accessed through the Internet-
enabled mobile phone in his/her pocket. However, with access to such knowledge comes the
evolution of a mindset distinct from their parents. Although contentious, the term ‘digital native’
has been applied to describe people who have this information age mindset (Prensky, 2005). Such
a mindset is defined, not by over familiarity with various social networking sites, but by a distinct
style of cognition with very specific characteristics (Frand, 2000). Amongst other things, the
digital native has a zero tolerance for delays, multitasks at every opportunity and also needs to be
part of a social community throughout the day.
Perhaps one could argue that this information age mindset would flourish within higher educa-
tion. Indeed, one of the most significant changes in students’ experience of university over the
past 20 years has been the increased use of group work to deliver learning objectives. This change
reflects the needs of the modern-day workplace which often requires its workforce to operate
effectively in groups. However, as modern organisations increase in size, they require their work-
force to operate in teams that span across national borders. This would also mean that the
modern-day undergraduate would need to be accustomed to working across cultural and reli-
gious boundaries. While universities have, in general, been active in developing teaching strate-
gies that encourage mobile learning there is very little research if any into the possible factors that
facilitate the ability to work in teams, virtually and across national or cultural boundaries (Alex-
ander, 2004). Thus, it is not known if the need for socialising that is inherent with within the
‘digital natives’ is counter-intuitive to the lack of ecological social interaction that is seen in the
geographically and culturally dispersed virtual work team?
To address this question, our research looked at the relationship the current generation of under-
graduates has with the use of social networking media. Students in one undergraduate module,
introduction to organisational behaviour, were selected due to their cultural diversity. In this
course, the current cohort came from 57 countries which reflect the diversity of many interna-
tional organisations. We asked a sample of 290 of these students how they interacted with social
networking media. Our results were surprising with nearly all of them indicating that they used
Facebook everyday swamping MySpace (1% regular use) and Twitter (4%). In fact, over a third log
on to Facebook first thing every morning. We also discovered that they had easy access to the
Internet with over 90% owning a laptop and all but one student owning a mobile phone with the
majority of these phones having Internet connectivity. Nearly 60% indicated that they also use
their mobiles phones to access the Internet and 84% indicated that they stayed in contact with
friends/colleagues electronically throughout the day. Here, it is clear that even when most of their
colleagues are physically not far away, social networking is used to add to the feeling of connect-
edness and support which one derives from an effective community of practice. Such social
© 2010 The Authors. British Journal of Educational Technology © 2010 Becta. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford
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E90 British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 42 No 5 2011

groups see its members becoming adept at its core competency merely by social interaction with
its members (Wenger and Synder, 2000).
When considering the nature of the new workplace, these digital enhancements to socialising
can provide alternatives to the traditional workplace social benefits such as the casual corridor
chat or the combined work/social chat over coffee (Brown & Duguid, 1991). Whatever form it
takes, we know that humans are driven to socialise as a very basic necessity—probably with its
origins in our deep evolutionary past when it was discovered that hunting in packs was more
efficient than alone (Nicholson, 1998). Natural selection has led to those humans who wanted to
be part of a group being more likely to survive. Perhaps the strength of this drive is sufficient to
overcome the very many shortcomings of electronic communication as compared to face to face.
These data show us that these undergraduates—who are in essence the workforce of the future—
are immersed in a world of transglobal computing from birth, have not lost the evolutionary urge
to socialise with each other. Indeed, they have readily adopted the technologies on hand and use
social networking via the Internet or mobile telephony to remain in constant touch with each
other. It further suggests that as these ‘Generation Y’ individuals grow into the managers and
chief executive officers of tomorrow, they will be uniquely placed to take on the challenges of
virtual teams.
It has recently been noted that social networking sites and even participation in online social
games facilitate the rapid dissemination of knowledge as well as serve to refine it via an iterative
social peer process by which other digital natives act as a modern-day Delphi experts (Kane,
Fichman, Gallaugher & Glaser, 2009; van der Meij, Albers & Leemkuil, 2010). Indeed, the digital
native also views knowledge as a utilitarian concept that is accessible everywhere at any time and
access to it is more way of life than a right. This, perhaps idiosyncratic, outlook has ensured that
knowledge is fast becoming democratised and is no longer solely the preserve of a select few
academics and policy makers. So we see that social networking sites such as Facebook not only
serve a vital role in complementing the needs of the new generation of digital natives but also
maintain our evolutionary imperative to socialise and share knowledge.
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Kane, G. C., Fichman, R. G., Gallaugher, J. & Glaser, J. (2009). Community relations 2.0. Harvard Business
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© 2010 The Authors. British Journal of Educational Technology © 2010 Becta.