Facebook and Virtual Communication. An Experimental Study in Higher Education Teachers

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of a Facebook training program in the virtual communication of university teachers. The importance of the theme developed is based on the fact that at present, for the process of interaction and communication between labor, academic, economic or social communities, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are being used, where all types of information flow through the available technological tools and social networks, and which is selected by the users, according to the stakeholder to which they belong; one of them is Facebook. The approach was quantitative, with quasi-experimental design, for which a sample of 140 university teachers was divided into two groups: control group with 60 teachers and the experimental group with 80 teachers. The results indicate that there is influence of the Facebook training program in the virtual communication of university teachers, as demonstrated by the statistical test (Mann-Whitney U = 155.500; Z = -1,084, Asymptotic (bilateral) significance .000<.05). This finding can help generate favorable opinions for its possible use of the Facebook platform for educational social interaction purposes.

Keywords

• facebook
• comunicación virtual
• educación superior
• interacción social