“SOTSIAALMEEDIA JA TEISTE INFOKANALITE KASUTAMINE HUVIJUHI POOLT ÕPILASTELE INFO EDASTAMISEKS – HUVIJUHTIDE JA ÕPILASTE HINNANGUD, EELISTUSED JA SUHTUMINE TARTU LINNA PÕHIKOOLIDE NÄITEL” (juhendaja Aurika Komsaare, MA).
LÄBITUD ÕPPEKAVA: huvijuht-loovtegevuse õpetaja õppekava.
SUMMARY: THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER INFORMATION CHANNELS BY LEISURETIME MANAGERS FOR COMMUNICATING INFORMATION TO PUPILS – THE EVALUATIONS, PREFERENCES AND ATTITUDES OF LEISURE-TIME MANAGERS AND PUPILS ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE BASIC SCOOLS OF THE CITY OF TARTU
Considering the growing popularity of social media and my personal experiences, which have helped me realise that the choice of a communication channel is essential in successfully communicating information to pupils, I have aimed my final paper at studying how practicing leisure-time managers use social media and whether social media could be the solution enabling effective communication with pupils, so that in my future work, I could manage this task as well as possible. Hence, my objective was to specify the evaluations of leisure-time managers and pupils on how effective is the use of social media and other information channels in communicating information to pupils by leisure-time managers, what are the preferences of pupils and leisure-time managers with regard to information channels and that are the attitudes towards using social media; also the possible differences in the evaluations, attitudes and preferences of pupils and leisure-time managers.
Pursuant to the objective, I set the following research questions:
- What social media services do leisure-time managers use to communicate information to pupils?
- What information channels do leisure-time managers use in addition to social media?
- What information channels do leisure-time managers regard to be most efficient, which do they prefer and why?
- What is the general attitude of leisure-time managers towards using social media to communicate with pupils, why?
- What information channels to pupils regard as efficient, which do they prefer and why?
- What is the general attitude of pupils towards the leisure-time manager using social media to communicate with them and why?
- Are there any differences in the evaluations, preferences and attitudes of the leisuretime managers and pupils, what are the differences?
To meet this objective, I compiled this final paper, which is divided into eight chapters. The first three chapters are theoretical and in the first one I give a short overview of the communication channels used at schools. In the second chapter I explain the definition of social media, its use in youth work and schools. As in my seminar paper titled The Use of Social Media in Performing the Work Duties of Leisure-Time Managers on the Example of the Leisure-Time Managers of the Schools of Tartu City written in 2015, the matter of whether study information systems are also social media rose, the third chapter is dedicated to introducing study information systems. The last five chapters of the paper are empirical – the first introduces the method and samples of the study, the second gives an overview of the study carried out among leisure-time managers, the third gives an overview of the study carried out among pupils, the fourth compares the results of the two aforementioned studies and the fifth chapter of the empirical part provides a discussion regarding the research questions on the basis of the gathered data.
In order to find answers to the research questions, I carried out two surveys – one among the leisure-time managers of Estonian-language basic schools in Tartu and the second among the 7th to 9th grade pupils of the same schools. The sample of leisure-time managers included 11 leisuretime managers, of whom 9 answered the questionnaire. The sample of the pupils studied was 2038 and of them 270 answered the questionnaire.
The replies given by the leisure-time managers revealed that of social media services, the leisuretime managers communicate information to pupils most often via the social network Facebook. In addition to social media, other channels used most often are posters and communicating information through teachers. Leisure-time managers themselves see social media channels Facebook, Youtube and Google+ as the most efficient, but also have high regard for direct conversations with pupils and informative meetings. All the leisure-time managers having responded to the questionnaire support using social media to communicate information to pupils and generally regard the use of social media to be necessary.
Pupils regard as the most efficient information channels to receive information from the leisuretime manager such channels as study information systems eKool/Stuudium, communicating information through teachers, Youtube, Facebook and the webpage of the school. The most preferred information channels among pupils are eKool/Stuudium, Facebook, teachers, e-mail and the school web page. Although nearly a half (49%) do support the leisure-time manager using social media to communicate information to pupils, there are also those who have a neutral or negative attitude.
On the basis of the collected data, the most significant differences in the evaluations, preferences and attitudes of pupils and leisure-time managers are (1) the leisure-time managers seeing social media channels as more efficient than pupils do, (2) the leisure-managers being in favour of communicating information to pupils via social media while some pupils have a neutral or negative attitude and (3) the leisure-time managers regarding the need to use social media to be higher than pupils do. On the basis of the study, it may be concluded that social media could not be the perfect solution for reaching pupils and not all young people support it and there are also pupils who wish to receive their information through other channels.
As a future research topic I suggest conducting a similar study among upper secondary school pupils.