Abstract

Social Networking Sites (SNS) have become popular among students and faculties, especially for all young population. SNSs are a relatively new technology, and little research has been conducted on the beliefs of the teacher candidates about using Social Network as an instructional tool. The study was conducted to find out for what purposes prospective teachers usually use SNSs in their daily lives, which learning methods can be used with SNSs and what positive and negative aspects of using social network in higher education are. 72 prospective teachers (14 males and 58 females) participated in the study. The focus group as a form of qualitative research method was performed to collect data, which were examined using content analysis method. Findings indicate that social network sites have some positive aspects and some negative aspects in terms of education. However, these negative effects of social network sites in terms of education can be eliminated or lightened using the cooperative learning approach.

Key words: Social network sites, cooperative learning, teacher education, prospective teacher.