Using Facebook as a Tool for Courses: a Case Study of "Introduction to Video" Course At Animation Department

Abstract

New communication mediums known as social media are the products of developing communication technologies. These mediums offer platforms for people to share their feelings and opinions as well as their experiences of real life consisting of various elements such as friendship, professional life, etc. There are great numbers of users who log in to these mediums all around the World in a widespread manner. Among all these social media platforms, "Facebook" is on the top for being the most popular social networking service. Despite its popularity in communication and sharing, Facebook is of little use in the World of education technologies. However; Facebook could provide great convenience in education platforms with its features such as video uploading, sharing, public or private messaging. According to a study Turkey in 2009, with its 14 million users, is the top third country to use Facebook actively all around the world. Considering the number of users and the frequency of occurrence, Facebook could be beneficial for education platforms. The aim of this study is to define the advantages of Facebook usage in " Introduction to Video" course given at Anadolu University (Turkey), Fine Arts Faculty, Animation Department in terms of course-student-lecturer triangle and to identify the aims of usage. Within the concept of this aim, the contribution of Facebook usage in Introduction to Video course, given at the Fall Semester of 2011-2012 academic year and attended by 20 students, was examined.