USING INTERNET AND SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION

MICHAEL B. BAYLON AND ORLANDO P. LOPEZ

ABSTRACT: The internet, since its first inception, was invented because of efficient information deliverance. Together with this goal, it has to fill the gap of interactivity, not only for two nodes in the communication setup, but also creating a network of interaction. With this premise, web-based or online social networking was used to assess its effects as an environment where appropriate tools were supplemented by the said medium in engineering education. Part of validating different aspects of the social networking tools applicability is to design and conduct a survey of the authors students on the usefulness of internet tools, especially in working out their individual, dual, and group modes of learning while subjecting them to different levels of difficulty in their assigned tasks. Ultimately, the paper suggests how these internet tools are used effectively in educating engineers of the future.

KEYWORDS: social networking, tools in engineering education, internet, web-based learning tools

INTRODUCTION While this paper is currently presented, researchers, in a global scale, have already come up with their own conclusion about how effective social networking tool can be in a specific field, e.g. business, education, medical arts, engineering and architecture, etc. From the research of Facebook, in cooperation with two researches (Ugander et al, 2012, and Backstrom, 2012) at the Universit degli Studi di Milano, the researchers examined all 721 million active Facebook users (more than 10% of the global population), with 69 billion friendships among them. It is now the largest social network studies ever released as compared to the 20th century experiments on the theory of Six Degrees of Separation. According to them: a. After measuring how many friends that people have, it was found out that the distribution differs significantly from previous studies of large-scale social networks. b. That the degrees of separation between any two Facebook users is smaller than the commonly cited six degrees, and has been shrinking over the past three years as Facebook has grown. c. It was observed that while the entire world is only a few degrees away, a users friends are most likely to be of a similar age and come from the same country.

In Figure 1, a cumulative degree distribution, in a semi-logarithmic scale, is best viewed as an important basic view of any social network. It shows the percentage of individuals who have less than a given number of friends. For example, only 10% of people have less than 10 friends, 20% have less than 25 friends, while the median (50%) have over 100 friends. [3]

Figure 1. Semi-Log Cumulative Distribution of Facebook in 2011 (Ugander, 2012) In the light of education, engineering education researchers from western countries found out some interesting findings: (Pollara, P. & Zhu, J., 2011)
Social networking is already one of the most common ways that communication occurs virtually. Participation of a mentor and mentee on the Facebook group page was seen to positively affect their relationship both online and offline. It was found that when communication was initiated by the mentor, the mentees participation increased. The roles of mentors and mentees on the Facebook page highly reflected the dynamic of the mentor-mentee relationship. Participation on the Facebook site was lower than expected.

A survey was conducted and it resulted to the following observations: Most students believed that they learned more because of using the group page and thought it was helpful in achieving their goals for their project and for the group. Most students would like to use social networking for educational purposes and were interested in using social networking in school. Students reported that they liked seeing how other students responded to their posts on the Facebook page. Students believed their relationship with their mentors and with other students were not positively impacted by the use of the page. Students initially expressed difficulty in accessing the page, but believed the benefits of using the Facebook page were worth the extra time and effort.

This paper aims to explore the use of internet tools in social networking, specifically, Facebook. This would be validated by second hand data from a questionnaire survey adapted from a related study of Pollara and Zhu in 2011. The Anatomy of Social Networking Tools Anatomy of Facebook Group Page Almost all the features of Facebook are said to be useful in the conduct of interactivity learning. It is designed to assist the user to maximize the interaction among the members of the Facebook community, especially the Group that one has created, where he/she is the default owner and administrator. Referring to Figure 2, the following components and features of one of the authors Facebook Group, CED135 of Iking, are discussed. 1. Profile image: For a group page, like this one, you can use your logo. Make sure its an image that you want representing your group alongside every status update and post. This will literally be the face of your group! Maximum dimensions are 180(w)x 540(h) pixels. 2. Other Photos: These photos get pulled from the photo album and wall posts on your page. Try and think of any imagery that you think best represents your brand and post them in an album so they appear along the top. You can hide or delete any images you dont want displayed later. 3. Post: This is where you share interesting and relevant information with your students on Facebook. Anyone who likes your page will see your posts in their personal newsfeed. 4. Wall/Feed/Seen: Your Wall is the primary place users can engage and conversate with your subject/course. Users can comment, like and share your messages, links and video. Below each of your posts you can view quick analysis of the posts popularity, including impressions and feedback rate. 5. Tabs: Your students can navigate through interesting parts of your page, including your Photos / Photo Albums, Some information about your Group (some hyperlinks can be posted here), Announcement of Events (e.g. recitation days, exam days, submission of assignments, schedule of class reporting), Uploading of Files. 6. Members/Add Members: If you have only few students added when the group was created, you may add here more. This is a hyperlink to the list of the existing members of the group. 7. Admin Tools: To the right of your Wall, you have an easy access list of helpful administrative tools. Here you can view analytical data for your profile by clicking View Insights. Or, if you have given your personal account Administrative access to the fan page, you can sign in as yourself and toggle between using Facebook as yourself or as your company. This is a new feature, which essentially allows you to interact with other pages & people AS your page. More in depth administrative tools, such as editing and updating your profile pages content, can be found by clicking Edit Info at the top of the page.

8. Newsfeed: This is the real time updates of the activities of your students in Facebook, plus that of your friends. 9. Sidebar of Friends Online: This notifies you if your friends are online. It can be customized by clicking these icons: Options: You may opt to change your Chat Sounds, go to Advanced Settings, or just Turn Off Chat. Search: This is used to find a friend who is online; also, it is a means to check if a friend has either removed you in his/her friend list or worst, blocked you.

Hide sidebar: If you not comfortable of seeing this sidebar of friends online, you may opt to click this icon to hide. 10. Groups: This is located at the lower, left side of the page. It lists your existing groups which either youve created, been administering, or joined. 11. Favorites: This contains the Newsfeed, Messages, and Events hyperlinks. When you click one of these, you are brought to the specific page. 12. Search Engine: This feature assists you to look for specific person who can be your friend or related to you in some degree of separation. 13. Profile/Home/Settings: The Profile button will bring you to your page that contains information about you and your wall where some of your friends can write on it (a feature that can be customized). 14. Classified Ads: Pseudo-random advertisement that Facebook wants to promote to users. Theres a possibility that in one occasion, the product/service that is flashed, could be useful to you. 15. Seen: This is one of the favourites of the group owner; it shows who have seen the specific status. It reports who, when and what time that the group member viewed it. 16. Video in Status: Other than mere texts, videos, webpages, or photos can be posted or embedded in the status. The site where it originated from can be seen and can be explored just right at the exact site where it was first uploaded.

Figure 2. The Anatomy of a Facebook Group Thru Administrator's Account. Anatomy of a SkyDriveTM Page In order to facilitate file management, the owner can use SkyDriveTM. Microsoft SkyDrive (previously Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live Folders) is a file hosting service that is needed in order to allow users to upload and synchronize files to a technology known as Cloud Storage. Then these files (mostly organized in folders, similar to PC file management) can be accessed correctly from selected web browsers. Microsoft Networks Windows Live has this as part of online services range that allows users to retain files in private, shared exclusively with contacts, or publicly available (where files can be shared without MS account). Because of its large storage capacity, 7 GB, new users would opt to migrate from its predecessor Yahoo Group folders. One of the authors has the privilege to obtain his account in one of the institutions that he formerly taught (before April 22, 2012), thats why his storage capacity was upgraded to 25 GB of free storage; thus, flexibility in terms of online storage capability. The service is built using HTML5 technologies, and files up to 300 MB can be uploaded via drag and drop into the web browser, or up to 2 GB via the SkyDrive desktop application for Microsoft Windows and OS X.

Figure 3. The Anatomy of SkydriveTM. Referring to Figure 3, the following description of different components of a typical SkyDriveTM is listed below: 1. Profile/Settings/Notifications: This component notifies the user if he has unread messages as linked to his MSN (Microsoft Network) email account. Moreover, the Settings when clicked, a dropdown shows Options, Help, Feedback where youll be brought to a another page. Similarly, Profile will opt you to choose among the following: Users Availability (in tick form), Edit Profile, Account Settings, and Sign Out. Also, the users profile picture is displayed and can be customized. 2. Messaging: This notifies the user if he has unread message. 3. Folder Navigator: This component was retained from the original. It allows the user to choose on what folder to find his files. 4. Search Engine: In order to locate rapidly specific filename, you may opt to use this feature. 5. Files: Located at the top, leftmost part of the page, this feature adds accessibility in terms of sorting and/or filtering your choice of file groups. a. Recent docs filtered files that are recently uploaded. b. Shared filtered files that are shared to any of the following categories: with contacts or with the public. 6. Groups: These are groups of users with declared specific interest of files and folders. You can either join these groups or make your own group, with your MSN account as your passport.

7. Create: You will be prompted to choose to compose one among Folder, Word Document, Excel Worksheet, PowerPoint Presentation, OneNote notebook. 8. Upload: This feature will instruct you to upload file/s (at most three), guided by the usual message box in opening a certain file. 9. Share Folder: When this is clicked, a message box will prompt you to type the recipients of your shared folders. To give specific instructions to the recipients, texts can be written in a blank space provided. You have also the option to send it as an email, a status (FB) or twit (Twitter) post, or just get a link of the current page. 10. Folder Actions: Among the choices in this component are Download Folder, Embed Folder, Delete Folder, Move Folder To, and Properties. Its main purpose is to manage your folders. 11. Folder Content: This is the largest area of the page, where you can view the available folders and files, as can be reflected from the Folder Navigator. The Use of Graphic Software The use of Graphic software, such as MS VisioTM or Autodesks AutoCAD was encouraged so that precision should be observed in illustrating problems and eventually graphical solutions. This can be reflected from Figure 4 and Figure 5. In Figure 4, the students were tasked to make a report on the Application of Strength of Materials to their specific engineering field. In this case, the group is composed of Electronics Engineering major. To stimulate discussions among members of the group, one of them posted it as a wall photo which automatically saved in the Photo Tab of the Group Page. In Figure 5, the author posted one of the problems given in the last examination. It has been a practice by the instructor to discuss in class the solution to the problems of the recent examination, but due to unforeseen week-long vacation due to bad weather, the author opted to open discussion with his students through the use of comments to status and the chat box. This was made possible by using MS Visio Diagram to illustrate the given problem and posted as a wall photo.

Figure 4. Example of Status in a Facebook Group (Initiated by the student)

Figure 5. Example of Status in a Facebook Group (Initiated by the instructor)

The Use of Mathematical Package Software In one of the reports of the authors students, they came up with an application of a math package software known as MatLab. The report topic under the subject Strength of Materials was How to Draw Shear and Bending Moment Diagrams Using MatLab. Through the use of the Group Page, CEM303 with Sir Iking, the group members discussed how to organize the whole report. The following is a summary of what took place in the said Group Page before presenting in the class their assigned report: The group leader asked the rest of the group of what are their preferred topics to be discussed. One of them, other than the leader, proposed a MatLab script that would compute and draw Shear and Bending Moment Diagrams. And it was accepted unanimously. The group leader listed Tasks-To-Do for each member. This includes finding a specific problem in words, illustrate the loaded beam, manually solve the problem and draw the shear and bending moment diagrams. Through a series of posts of their manual computations, showing them in our wall by either using INSTAGRAMTM or the common photo uploading, they came up with correct manual computations that would be demonstrated in front of the class during the reporting proper.

It can be shown from Figure 6 the manual computation and drawing as posted from the Group Page. Figure 7 shows one of the outputs of the MatLab script as demonstrated in class.

Figure 6. Manual Computation of Shear and Bending Moment

Figure 7. Using MatLab Script to Plot the Shear and Bending Moment Diagrams The Use of Internets Multimedia During the last day of classes, since the students are not coming from the same engineering major, a culminating activity was set and letting themselves organize the whole activity. Again, with the use of Group Page, conversation took place. One of the games played in the activity was the Pinoy Genyo, where there are two participants for every group. The words that will be guessed are terms that were discussed in the Strength of Materials class, such as stress, Ferdinand Singer, Torsion, Shear, Helical Spring, Strain, and Beam. This culminating activity was captured and uploaded to YouTube.

Interaction of Internet and Social Networking Tools The paradigm used in this paper can be well illustrated in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Paradigm of Internet and Social Networking Tools

Pedagogical Value Survey

A survey was administered to twenty-nine of fifty-eight participating senior engineering students at the completion of the study. The survey was adapted from the Pedagogical Value of Wiki Survey by Hazari et al (2009). Our instrument consists of 29 items addressing five constructs: Learning/Pedagogy, Motivation, Interaction with Students, Interaction with Mentors, and Technology. Items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Data was also collected through a content analysis of postings on the Facebook group page entitled, Social Networking Tools Survey. The researchers analyzed data to ensure the reliability and validity of coding. Researchers coded data from the Facebook page according to pre-existing research questions.

LEARNING MOTIVATION PEDAGOGY LEARNING PEDAGOGY MOTIVATION INTERACTION WITH STUDENTS INTERACTION WITH MENTORS TECHNOLOGY

INTERACTION INTERACTION WITH WITH TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS MENTORS

1 0.931 0.812 0.911 0.833 1 0.722 0.859 0.914 1 0.897 0.983 1 0.963 1

Data Results and Interpretation

strongly disagree 1 1 LEARNING PEDAGOGY 2 4.52 3 4 5 6 7 8 MOTIVATION 9 4.40 10 11 12 INTERACTION WITH MENTORS INTERACTION WITH STUDENTS 13 14 4.71 15 16 17 18 19 20 4.80 21 22 23 24 25 TECHNOLOGY 26 4.54 27 28 29
I understand more about STRENGTH OF MATERIALS) because of using the CEM303 ni Sir Iking/ CED135 of Iking Facebook group page Using the Facebook page aided me in achieving CEM303 ni Sir Iking/ CED135 of Iking objectives. Using the Facebook page aided me in achieving MY OWN goals for the CEM303 ni Sir Iking/ CED135 of Iking. Because of using the Facebook page, I was able to learn more about science and the environment. The benefits of using the Facebook page are worth the extra effort & time. Using the Facebook page enhanced my interest in the project. I would like to see Facebook incorporated into other projects. I would recommend Facebook to be used in my school classes. I would prefer to use Facebook to discuss other school topics. I will continue to use Facebook to discuss science topics with other students and my mentors. I participated in the CEM303 ni Sir Iking/ CED135 of Iking project more because of using the Facebook page. I was more interested in engaging in the project activities because of the Facebook page. I liked seeing other students responding to what I posted on the Facebook page. Using Facebook helped me interact more with other students. My relationship with other students grew stronger because of using the Facebook page. I learned more about other students through using the Facebook page. I learned more because of information posted by other students on the Facebook page. Using the Facebook page promoted collaborative learning with other students in the project. I liked seeing my mentors' feedback on what I posed on the Facebook page. Using the Facebook page helped me interact more with my mentors. My relationship with my mentors grew stronger because of using the Facebook page. I learned more about my mentors through using the Facebook page. I learned more because of information posted by my mentors on the Facebook page. Using the Facebook page promoted collaborative learning with my mentors. The Facebook interface and features were overall easy to understand. The benefits of using Facebook outweighed any technical challenges of its use. Browsing through information and comments in Facebook was easy. Compared to other social networking sites, Facebook was easier to use. The design and structure of Facebook helped enhance my learning.

disagree 2 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 2% 2% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

neutral 3 5% 0% 8% 19% 7% 2% 12% 13% 8% 10% 10% 8% 0% 0% 7% 2% 2% 7% 0% 0% 2% 2% 0% 2% 7% 13% 0% 2% 13%

agree 4 35% 34% 34% 50% 39% 52% 30% 27% 52% 40% 36% 47% 38% 21% 25% 45% 31% 32% 21% 27% 28% 28% 18% 35% 32% 33% 43% 25% 46%

strongly agree 5 60% 66% 59% 31% 53% 45% 58% 59% 39% 50% 54% 46% 63% 79% 67% 52% 66% 60% 79% 73% 70% 70% 82% 63% 60% 54% 57% 73% 40% weighted average 4.61 4.75 4.56 4.18 4.50 4.50 4.46 4.36 4.25 4.43 4.46 4.43 4.71 4.93 4.68 4.61 4.75 4.61 4.89 4.82 4.75 4.75 4.93 4.68 4.54 4.39 4.67 4.79 4.30 standard deviation 1.81 1.85 1.77 1.65 1.77 1.76 1.76 1.73 1.68 1.74 1.76 1.74 1.84 1.92 1.84 1.80 1.86 1.81 1.91 1.88 1.86 1.86 1.92 1.83 1.79 1.74 1.80 1.87 1.67

0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

Conclusion and Recommendation

REFERENCES Ugander, J., B. Karrer, L, Backstrom, and C. Marlow (2011) The Anatomy of Facebook Social Graph; Preprint arXiv:1111.4503 Backstrom, L, P. Boldi, M, Rosa, J, Ugander, and S. Vigna (2011) Four Degrees of Separation; Preprint arXiv:1111.4570 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyDrive Pollara, P. & Zhu, J. (2011). Social Networking and Education: Using Facebook as an Edusocial Space. In Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2011 (pp. 3330-3338). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.