Social media based education in Korea

In my case, using Facebook for the purpose of education was the first time that I used it to discuss the application of smart education in basic educational technology class when I was an undergraduate. (I didn't think that it would lead me to my Ph.D.:) It was my first time considering ideas of teaching and learning with good utilization of social media, which means how to use knowledge useful in learning in an effective way. At that time, social media remained at the level of searching for information and socializing with friends, so I had a strong negative perception of social media in education. Perhaps it was not because of the educational potential of social media, but rather because I used social media in the ways to expose more side effects and to think about negative effects such as addiction.

In some of the master's courses, I used several platforms, such as Quip, Edmodo, and Trello, as tools for writing or collaborative activities in formal learning. After I came to the United States I learned deeply about social phenomena on social media and how to effectively utilize tools that support social media-based learning.

This series of social media-related learning experiences have made me wonder or pity why platforms that can be applied to collaborative learning or education are developed mainly in English countries such as the United States and social media utilization education is more active. It has also been hard to understand that countries with fast Internet speeds and safety such as Korea are behind in using these technologies for education. Although I believe that a small number of users (Korean users), education policies, and business uncertainties may have been at work, I thought that more actively studying social media-based education and technology integration based on their experiences would be helpful in educating learners who are familiar with the digital world in the future.