For my Final Project I completed a mini survey of a group of people to see what they think about “Social Media, Online Learning and Mobile Device use”. Thirteen participants answered the general questions I asked people through Facebook messaging to take the survey. For the Part-1 Survey I received 13 responses. I am investigating the participant opinions and demographic data to see how the information may inform the design and development of my dissertation research. My research project site has a sub-community of instructors that function as an online teaching resource in the Web 2.0 Gitshed mobile device based learning environment. The participants are contributing to beginning aspects of the development of a Professional Learning Network (PLN) for the Professional Guitar Instructors participating in the researcher designed Mobile Device Based Learning Environment (MDBLE).
Results:
The majority of the respondents were male 62%, with 38% females also responding. Seven of the survey takers, 54% were 30-40 years of age, and the 18-29, and 50-64 age groups each represented 23%. The sample group contained two members that reported some college, one member was a college graduate and ten had attained the College+ education level. Facebook was the social media site used my 48%, with Twitter, Instagram and Other each used by 15% of respondents. When asked how they used social media, the top three uses were Communication 29%, Entertainment 24% and Education 21%. Ninety two percent support social media use for online education, and would be willing to use a smartphone or a tablet to learn to play a musical instrument online. One hundred percent use social media apps on their mobile devices. All respondents currently use smartphones and about half (6) use iPads also. Four expressed an interest in using social media and mobile devices to learn a language, 2 music, 2 all or everything, 2 math and sciences, 1 teacher, educational training and web development, and 1 current events. These results support the use of Social Media, Learning Networks and Mobile Devices. A future survey, targeted at Professional Guitar Instructors, is the next recommend group of interest to discover the differences and similarities to these 13 respondents.
The accompanying graphic created in Google Forms shows a visual breakdown of the data collected.
