Adoption and perceived usefulness of social media by pre-service teachers in Nigeria

Abstract

Social media networks are fundamentally changing the way we socialize, communicate, and perhaps the way students learn. This paper explored the patterns of pre-service teachers’ adoption and perceived usefulness of social media. It also explored the relationships between the pre-service teachers’ perceived usefulness of the social media in relation to socialisation, communication, and study, and (a) the time they spend on social media, and (b) their social media account subscriptions. The participants were 388 pre-service teachers from one tertiary institution in Nigeria. The social constructivist theory, the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Technology Acceptance Model were used to underpin the study. The result revealed that Facebook and WhatsApp were the most common social media applications used by the participants and they use the media chiefly for socialising. With respect to the time they spent on social media daily, 310 (80%) spent at least one hour on social media on average daily while 196 (50%) spent over two hours on average every day. The relationships between social media subscriptions, and perceived usefulness of social media for socialising and for communication, were found to be positive and statistically significant. Similarly, the relationships between the time spent on social media and perceived usefulness of social media for socialising and also for study were found to be positive and statistically significant. The results suggest that the pre-service teachers are adopters of social media and perceive the media useful not only for social activities but also for academic purposes. However, they have not really adopted the social media for academic purposes. The research findings make a compelling case for the incorporation of social media into the teaching and learning context.