Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Journal of Business and Social Science, cilt.5, sa.11, ss.274-285, 2014 (Hakemli Dergi)
The rapid developments in information and communication technologies, affecting every aspect of life at the end
ofthe 20th century have led to a digital revolution which created a new virtual world including virtual offices,
virtual stores and even virtual classroom environment. In this context, working, shopping, educational and
learning practices have been transforming for decades. All of these developments and the new media tools
provide individuals to reach information sources in an easier and unmediated way, enable instantaneous,
interactive communication and information-sharing. Today the whole world of web technology, for the need of
access to information in terms of providing enriched learning environments are becoming widespread use for
educational purposes. Especially blogs and wiki technologies have supportive role in active learning, constructive
learning, cooperative learning and group working learning methods in educational processes. Those social
networks are also considered for their positive effects on students' critical, analytical, creative and intuitive
thinking and learning skills while making a contribution in information society access as well. The aim of this
study is to reveal how and at what rate the social network sites, wikis and blogs are used at the level of higher
education in Turkey in general education activities. For this purpose, an online survey was conducted at
communication facultiesof universities across Turkey among academicians. As planned an exploratory study for
this research, the survey was designed with open-ended questions. Research findings show that communication
faculty scholars tend to use social networks to engage in personal communication and rarely blog for education
purposes, mostly because of the absence of new media use skills. The paper offers the use of blogs for higher
education planning model in order to disseminate academic knowledge and to provide a mutual interaction
among scholars and digital age students as a challenge of new media.