Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana

Yeboah Solomon Tawiah; Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor

doi:doi:10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11

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Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana

Yeboah Solomon Tawiah, Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor

Published in Science Journal of Business and Management (Volume 3, Issue 2)

Received: 27 January 2015 Accepted: 9 February 2015 Published: 15 February 2015

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Abstract

The growth of social media sites has been a phenomenon in the last few years. However, not much is known about how teachers have embraced the technology as the phenomenon is virtually unexplored in the extant literature in Ghana. The research therefore explored this issue by examining familiarity and usage of social media technology among teachers in Ghana. Teachers in Ghana were randomly selected from ten schools and pretested questionnaires were randomly administered to them. The empirical evidence suggested that majority of the teachers were familiar with social media technology and are using one or more of these social media sites. They access the social media sites through their smart phone as a preferred mode of internet device. The most familiar social media sites which emerged were Facebook [99%], Wiki [99%], followed by YouTube [98.5], Instagram [91.4%], Web-blogs [87.8%], Slideshare [84%] and LinkedIn [76.1%]. However, Facebook and YouTube are the most used media sites among the teachers with 96.4% and 93.9% respectively. They spend over 22hours a week on the sites for several purposes including personal and professional development. In spite of the increasing usage, over 76% of the teachers have not integrated it for instructional purpose in the classroom although few of them occasionally share academic and useful information to their students. Some of the reasons which were given for not using the tools for instructional purpose include, fear of privacy violation, not part of curriculum, cyber abuse, distraction of students’ studies and infrastructural problems among others.

Published in	Science Journal of Business and Management (Volume 3, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11
Page(s)	50-59
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Familiarity, Usage, Exploratory, Technology, Teachers, Social Media, Tools, Web 2.0.

References

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APA Style

Yeboah Solomon Tawiah, Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor. (2015). Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana. Science Journal of Business and Management, 3(2), 50-59. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11

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Yeboah Solomon Tawiah; Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor. Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana. Sci. J. Bus. Manag. 2015, 3(2), 50-59. doi: 10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11

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AMA Style

Yeboah Solomon Tawiah, Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor. Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana. Sci J Bus Manag. 2015;3(2):50-59. doi: 10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11

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@article{10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11,
  author = {Yeboah Solomon Tawiah and Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor},
  title = {Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana},
  journal = {Science Journal of Business and Management},
  volume = {3},
  number = {2},
  pages = {50-59},
  doi = {10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjbm.20150302.11},
  abstract = {The growth of social media sites has been a phenomenon in the last few years. However, not much is known about how teachers have embraced the technology as the phenomenon is virtually unexplored in the extant literature in Ghana. The research therefore explored this issue by examining familiarity and usage of social media technology among teachers in Ghana. Teachers in Ghana were randomly selected from ten schools and pretested questionnaires were randomly administered to them. The empirical evidence suggested that majority of the teachers were familiar with social media technology and are using one or more of these social media sites. They access the social media sites through their smart phone as a preferred mode of internet device. The most familiar social media sites which emerged were Facebook [99%], Wiki [99%], followed by YouTube [98.5], Instagram [91.4%], Web-blogs [87.8%], Slideshare [84%] and LinkedIn [76.1%]. However, Facebook and YouTube are the most used media sites among the teachers with 96.4% and 93.9% respectively. They spend over 22hours a week on the sites for several purposes including personal and professional development. In spite of the increasing usage, over 76% of the teachers have not integrated it for instructional purpose in the classroom although few of them occasionally share academic and useful information to their students. Some of the reasons which were given for not using the tools for instructional purpose include, fear of privacy violation, not part of curriculum, cyber abuse, distraction of students’ studies and infrastructural problems among others.},
 year = {2015}
}

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TY - JOUR
T1 - Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana
AU - Yeboah Solomon Tawiah
AU - Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor
Y1 - 2015/02/15
PY - 2015
N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11
DO - 10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11
T2 - Science Journal of Business and Management
JF - Science Journal of Business and Management
JO - Science Journal of Business and Management
SP - 50
EP - 59
PB - Science Publishing Group
SN - 2331-0634
UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11
AB - The growth of social media sites has been a phenomenon in the last few years. However, not much is known about how teachers have embraced the technology as the phenomenon is virtually unexplored in the extant literature in Ghana. The research therefore explored this issue by examining familiarity and usage of social media technology among teachers in Ghana. Teachers in Ghana were randomly selected from ten schools and pretested questionnaires were randomly administered to them. The empirical evidence suggested that majority of the teachers were familiar with social media technology and are using one or more of these social media sites. They access the social media sites through their smart phone as a preferred mode of internet device. The most familiar social media sites which emerged were Facebook [99%], Wiki [99%], followed by YouTube [98.5], Instagram [91.4%], Web-blogs [87.8%], Slideshare [84%] and LinkedIn [76.1%]. However, Facebook and YouTube are the most used media sites among the teachers with 96.4% and 93.9% respectively. They spend over 22hours a week on the sites for several purposes including personal and professional development. In spite of the increasing usage, over 76% of the teachers have not integrated it for instructional purpose in the classroom although few of them occasionally share academic and useful information to their students. Some of the reasons which were given for not using the tools for instructional purpose include, fear of privacy violation, not part of curriculum, cyber abuse, distraction of students’ studies and infrastructural problems among others.
VL - 3
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Author Information

Yeboah Solomon Tawiah

School of Business and Management Studies, Department of Marketing, Cape Coast Polytechnic, Cape Coast, Ghana
Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor

School of Business and Management Studies, Department of Marketing, Cape Coast Polytechnic, Cape Coast, Ghana

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APA Style

Yeboah Solomon Tawiah, Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor. (2015). Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana. Science Journal of Business and Management, 3(2), 50-59. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11

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ACS Style

Yeboah Solomon Tawiah; Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor. Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana. Sci. J. Bus. Manag. 2015, 3(2), 50-59. doi: 10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11

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AMA Style

Yeboah Solomon Tawiah, Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor. Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana. Sci J Bus Manag. 2015;3(2):50-59. doi: 10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11

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@article{10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11,
  author = {Yeboah Solomon Tawiah and Horsu Emmanuel Nondzor},
  title = {Familiarity and Usage of Social Media Technology: An Exploratory Study of Teachers in Ghana},
  journal = {Science Journal of Business and Management},
  volume = {3},
  number = {2},
  pages = {50-59},
  doi = {10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjbm.20150302.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjbm.20150302.11},
  abstract = {The growth of social media sites has been a phenomenon in the last few years. However, not much is known about how teachers have embraced the technology as the phenomenon is virtually unexplored in the extant literature in Ghana. The research therefore explored this issue by examining familiarity and usage of social media technology among teachers in Ghana. Teachers in Ghana were randomly selected from ten schools and pretested questionnaires were randomly administered to them. The empirical evidence suggested that majority of the teachers were familiar with social media technology and are using one or more of these social media sites. They access the social media sites through their smart phone as a preferred mode of internet device. The most familiar social media sites which emerged were Facebook [99%], Wiki [99%], followed by YouTube [98.5], Instagram [91.4%], Web-blogs [87.8%], Slideshare [84%] and LinkedIn [76.1%]. However, Facebook and YouTube are the most used media sites among the teachers with 96.4% and 93.9% respectively. They spend over 22hours a week on the sites for several purposes including personal and professional development. In spite of the increasing usage, over 76% of the teachers have not integrated it for instructional purpose in the classroom although few of them occasionally share academic and useful information to their students. Some of the reasons which were given for not using the tools for instructional purpose include, fear of privacy violation, not part of curriculum, cyber abuse, distraction of students’ studies and infrastructural problems among others.},
 year = {2015}
}

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