IN AND OUT UNIVERSITY CLASSROOMS: FACEBOOK AS A TOOL OF CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE

Nowadays social networks can be considered as psycho-technological environments (De Kerckove,1999) [1] with a high identity-making value. Pedagogy cannot ignore these new places, with the aim ofmaking formal training increasingly more ‘connected’ to informal training through Social networks, asFacebook, Twitter, Flickr. This paper aims to present an action-research that is based on new andinnovative ways to incorporate technology and social media into teaching methodology (Joosten,2012) [2], as forms of distance and online education programs. While until now most popularresearches try to study the social network influence on young people and on their academicperformances (Helou & Rahim, 2012) [3], to analyse the content of user profiles, and try to diversifyusers and nonusers, our action-research explores the pedagogical relevances of Facebook ininteractive laboratorial experiences, carried out with graduating students in the academic year2012/2013 at the University of Naples "Federico II". We tried to implement frontal lessons with socialnetworks technologies creating a closed group on Facebook and adopting a questionnaire (created adhoc and tested with a pilot study) to evaluate students’ beliefs on educational scopes of Facebook andits usefulness for teaching learning. Through the exploratory experience of the Facebook groups,students have also realized that externalization/construction of meaning and knowledge is not anindividual but a social community act. The appearance, therefore, more interesting is the ability forstudents to turn knowledge from tacit to explicit. Using metaphors, analogies, and especially throughreflections on experiences in common, students are able to explain and to share knowledge, which isdifficult to express through purely frontal teaching methods. Teachers, as “digital immigrants”, do notalways seem to grasp the potentiality of social networks, which are the preferential medium ofexchange and self-representation of their students, considered as “native digitals” (Prensky, 2001) [4].Native digitals require a rethinking of the traditional didactic structure, employing e-learning usability.The surprising results of our research demonstrate that according to students, Facebook should beuseful for educational practices, first as a platform and as an open virtual space for instructionalmaterials and sharing narratives, second as a virtual community of research, where it’s possible to coconstructknowledge and reflexion upon contents and upon themselves (Strollo, 2012) [5].