Social Networking Sites in Education – Governmental Recommendations and Actual Use

The aim of this paper is to explore to what extent and for what purposes pre-service teachers (Study 1, n = 474) and upper secondary pupils (Study 2, n = 324) use social networking sites (SNS), and how the Government’s recommendations correspond to the two groups’ understanding of their educational institutions’ SNS guidelines. Results show that the majority in both groups want to communicate with peers, not with each other. Both report negative SNS experiences. Pre-service teachers do not use SNS for pedagogical purposes, pupils do. Governmental recommendations are discussed in relation to the findings regarding institutional guidelines. Keywords: Social networking sites, SNS, preservice teachers, upper secondary pupils, teacher education, school, governmental, pedagogical use, learning