2011 International Conference on Telecommunication Technology and Applications
Proc .of CSIT vol.5 (2011) © (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore
Using Social Networking in Elementary Science Learning: The Case
of Happy Farm in Taiwan
Hsu-Wan Chen
National Taiwan Normal University
Abstract. Children have been curious about science and ready to engage in the practices and language of
science; their scientific views of the natural world and ways of thinking are gradually built upon as well.
Because of the lower entrance barriers of web 2.0 technologies, user-generated content is the topic of the day.
Since young children are often immersed in the online settings, it is natural for them to use these tools
without difficulties. These tools aim at user-generated-content which is able to be shared and cooperated in a
convenient and flexible manner. One of them is social networking, which is possible to be implemented in
the educational settings. On the other hand, in Taiwanese elementary schools, the concept of Green
Chemistry is relatively less mentioned in the design of science curriculum. However, as global citizens, it is
suggested that students consider and participate in relevant issues. Due to being the host of 2010 Taipei
International Flora Expo, the city government has expanded open spaces; green spots are built up along the
Sec. 2 and Sec. 3 of the Roosevelt Road in Taipei City as well. For students in the neighborhood, these spots
are suitable places for their learning. In this article, the Happy Farm is selected; various stages on-site are
also designed. As this research is a preliminary work, the activities are not yet implemented but four
elementary school teachers were volunteered to be interviewed. At last, it is expected that students will have
a deeper understanding in the process, and then implement the concept of sustainable development in their
daily lives.
Keywords: social networking, collaborative learning, elementary science learning
1. Introduction
Though curricular content in science learning may vary among different countries, science is convicted to
be an important aspect of people’s lives, which is also a required subject at the level of elementary or
primary schools around the world. In the early childhood, most of the children have been curious about
science, they are also ready to engage in the practices and language of science. Their scientific views of the
natural world and ways of thinking are gradually built upon while growing up. On the other hand, due to the
emergence of social networking and digital devices, people are now more engaged in online settings.
Moreover, these tools aim at user-generated-content which is able to be shared and cooperated in a
convenient and flexible manner. With real-time interaction, simple connectivity, and various apps and
multimedia forms, these tools may be implemented in educational environments which might be helpful.
Still, it is considered to be important to develop students’ related scientific abilities. According to the
Ministry of Education in Taiwan, the elementary science education aims at developing children’s ability of
investigating natural phenomena and things around, identifying problems and exploring issues. Furthermore,
to enable learners to gain related knowledge and develop self-inquired abilities, it is necessary to implement
an appropriate teaching strategy. In this article, the main idea is about the use of social networking, as well as
on-site and online activities. From a student-centered and collaborated learning perspective, educational
activities are designed.
2. Trends in Science Learning
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Corresponding author. Tel.: + 886-911-687-660; fax: none.
E-mail address: chenshuwan@gmail.com
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Societies are now increasingly influenced by science and its technological applications; there is a
growing importance for citizens to understand the products and process of science as well. However,
students who have bad experiences in science learning may become reluctant and unwilling learners; it is
highly possible for them to have been deprived of what is given by science as well. In order to have the
ability of participating actively in the essential issues, to some extent, students as a whole need to be
prepared through their science education. For sure, as scientifically informed citizens, they are responsible
and expected to be engaged in issues, for example, sustainable development.
On the other hand, very often, hands-on practical activities in science education which have been done
are facilitated or simply following a recipe or cookbook to achieve results already presented in the textbook.
Given the dominance of this aspect in the curriculum, in terms of school science, truly open-ended
investigations which represent real scientific inquiry are relatively few. However, this has been increasingly
coming under challenge since curriculum change reflects contemporary concerns as well. In order to guide
students towards interdisciplinary understanding, not only science teachers but also teachers of other subject
areas should know about the psychological processes involved in performing the tasks of science. In the
process of observation, inductive and deductive reasoning, natural and artificial phenomena are studied;
generalized knowledge is produced as well.
Science learning has also been changed due to the application of digital technologies which have
pervasive influences on human society. In the past decades, information exchanges and accesses to science
have been dominated by the elites; however, currently, they are literally open. Besides, schooling has been
challenged to contribute to the development in students of general and subject-based competencies. Under
student-centered models, students use their own experiences to construct their understanding and attitudes
toward the world. Students then actively and constantly engage in the process of constructing meaning from
their experiences.
3. What Should Be Taught in School
So far, there has not been all agreed on what should be taught and learned in modern schools among
various countries. However, most of the countries have constituted domestic curriculum standards depending
on their particular contexts. In science education, there are many knowledge and skills; one of the cores is
scientific literacy [1]. In Taiwan, the Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines has been launched which describes
the following needs. As students are encountering scientific problems at any time and everywhere, without
combination of daily experience, science education doesn’t make sense at all. In addition, for instructors,
integrating supplement materials or lesson plans are helpful for their daily teaching. For students, while
similar experiences of knowledge are aggregated and organized, they would learn those contents in a
systematic way. Moreover, collaborative, game-based, and student-centered learning could be viewed as a
strategy to improve students’ performance or achievement.
Due to the transition and popularity of using technologies, accessing to information is much easier now.
In contrast to the pattern of teaching and learning in past decades, the current one has been different. Thus,
educational objectives should be reconsidered and rethought from an innovative perspective. For example,
technologies can be viewed as social media which is facilitating collaborative and reflective learning. As
some of the materials may go beyond students’ average abilities, students who are with higher-abilities and
instructors can provide essential learning scaffoldings for those who are with lower-abilities [2]. By the use
of social networking, learners can also find a broader community which makes them willing to share
information and references.
4. Social Networkings and Learning Communities
Students today have been grown up with the Internet and immersed in the digital technologies. In this era,
the web 2.0 technologies play quite an important role, especially social networking, which aims at
connecting people and maintaining or creating relationships. Web content is generated and distributed in a
decentralized way. Besides, social networking allows users create their own profiles and display some
personal information, which increases the sense of community and enhances the cohesion of users.
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It is possible that social networking makes the whole class as a learning community. It offers various
possibilities for dealing with some of the risks or challenges in contemporary education as well. It
strengthens social and institutional relationships [3], which not only facilitates the sharing of knowledge, but
also has the potential of creating new knowledge [4]. While participating in an informal relationship of
resolving a shared problem, actually, students are learning through collaboration, cooperation, and
partnerships [5]. It also requires a high level of participants’ cognitive involvement while collaborating, as
well as the creation of a shared understanding [6].
Besides, learning communities in educational settings link up several existing courses. Hence, students
may have opportunities for deeper understanding and integration of the material they are learning. Sharing
knowledge through collaboration is considered to be one of the core components of learning communities. It
is also beneficial as knowledge is socially distributed [7]. In the process, learners also test their previously
held values and attitudes against those of others in making sense of experiences, which is necessary while
learning is aiming at resulting in new behavior [8].
5. An Exemplar: The Happy Farm in the Roosevelt Road in Taipei
An exemplar is proposed as following description. Due to being the host of 2010 Taipei International
Flora Expo, the city government has expanded open spaces and environmental rehabilitation. Green spots are
built up along the Sec. 2 and Sec. 3 of the Roosevelt Road. For students in the neighborhood, these spots are
suitable places for their learning. In this article, the Happy Farm is selected because of its specialty and
abundance. The Happy Farm is considered to be the biggest one among the spots; it is also special as there
are assigned volunteers to be gardeners. Various stages on-site and online activities are designed.
Fig. 1: The keyhole garden.
Fig. 2: The storage tank.
Stage 1. The keyhole garden:
What does the garden look like?
Why is it designed in such a way?
Do you have any idea of designing a garden? Please draw it.
Stage 2. The storage tank:
Where did the water come from?
How do you use the water effectively?
Do you know any other similar systems for collecting water? Please draw it.
Fig. 3: Questions are listed at each stage.
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Students will be taken out of school and do observations in the farm. While walking around on-site, they
need to think about the questions proposed by the instructor. They can take pictures and discuss with their
classmates that anything they have discovered. In this article, the Google Buzz is chosen as the tool. It is not
viewed as a replacement of traditional teaching and learning, but as an enhancement tool. Google Buzz is
one of the services provided by Google and has been annoucend last Febuary. Because of the intergration
with Google apps, such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Documents, it is more convenient and
considered to be more functional to use Buzz, in contrast to other popular social networkings.
First of all, students construct their account. After implementing the activity in the Happy Farm, students
need to answer above questions shown in figure three. To engage each student more, they post their answers
on Google Buzz which are first set private then turn to be public. Thus, their answers are viewed by others
which also stimulates their thinking in the meanwhile. Then, the instructor organizes students’ answers. If
there are any related misconcepts in science, the instructor and students try to figure these mistakes out and
do discussions as well. Students are also encouraged to post their feelings of this activity. According to
students’ postings, the instructor can also reflect the execution of this avtivity.
6. Elementary Teachers’ Ideas of Social Networking
In this article, qualitative data analysis is employed. Reasons for elementary teachers’ implementation or
no implementation of social networking are analyzed. Four elementary teachers were volunteered to be
participants as they have mutual friends of the author. The followings are questions.
Question 1. Do you know anything about Social Networking? If yes, please express your ideas.
Question 2. Have you ever applied any social networking to your teaching? If yes, please describe how you
use it. If no, please state why you consider not implementing it.
Question 3. How do you think about applying social networking to your teaching from your past experiences?
Has anything been changed due to it? If you have never applied it to your teaching, will you consider
implementing it in the future?
Questions number 1 and 2 are yes/no questions and then participants were asked to express their ideas.
Each of the questions is composed of two sub questions, that is, the sub question of yes/no as well as the sub
question of expression. For convenience, the former is shortened as Y while the latter is shortened as E. If
the participant answered “yes”, then it is labeled as 1 in the Y column; if the participant’ response satisfied
the terms in the list, then it is labeled as 1 in E column. The list of the terms will be mentioned later. If the
participant answered either “not sure” or “I’ve heard that…”, then it is also labeled as 1 in the Y column.
Only when the participant answered “no”, it is labeled as 0 in the Y column. If the participant’ response
didn’t satisfy any term in the list, then it is labeled as 0 in the E column. Besides, the list includes the
following terms: social, micro-blogging, chatting community, communication, and interaction. The
following is the analysis. Participants are labeled as A, B, C, and D, based on the order of answering
questions.
Table 1. Participants’ responses to questions number 1 and 2 are as follows.
Participant A Participant B Participant C Participant D
Y
E
Y
E
Y
E
Y
E
Question 1 1
1
0
0
1
1
1
1
Question 2 1
1
1
1
0
0
1
1
In Question 1, three of the four participants’ responses indicate participants have certain knowledge of
social net working as this term is widely used, they know social networking is for freinding and community,
communication and interaction as well; only one is lacking of it. In Question 2, three of the participants have
the experience of using social networking in their teaching for discussion and answering as well; one
expressed that he has shared his own teaching experience with his peers on Facebook. In Question 3, two of
them have positive attitude toward the educational use of social networking as it may be helpful for students
learning, but one of the two said that she will not use social networking very often in her teaching. One of
them expressed that it is possible to develop a more appropriate interface in the future; another one expressed
that he will introduce social networking to his students in Social Science lessons, but he will not implement it
in his teaching. All of the participants are general elementary school teachers. Three of the participants are
under 25 years old while one is above 30 year old. Three of the participants are female and one is male.
Three of them are teaching at schools in Kaohsiung while one is teaching at school in Taichung. Three of
them have been teaching for less than 2 years while one has been teaching for 10 years. Two of them have
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bachelor degree while two of them have master degree. Three of them major in education while one majors
in chemistry.
7. Conclusion
As this research is a preliminary work, the activity is not yet implemented; however, by interviewing
elementary school teachers, related barriers and challenges are investigated. On the other hand, because of
implementing such activity, social negotiation among students and the instructor has been promoted while
students are in small-group and whole-class discussions [9]. The interaction has no longer been dominated
by the instructor only. Although students’ work may not be extensive and well organized, it would be a
special experience for them. However, as the concept of Green Chemistry is less mentioned in existing
learning materials in Taiwan, the instructor has to re-edit the content in addition to typical textbooks which
brings additional loading to instructors. From the children’s point of view, they are not familiar with this
kind of learning, in order to run it smoothly, proper guidance from the instructor is needed. It is truly a
special learning experience which creates a dialogue between students and their local community. Gradually,
the sense-of-place will be fostered. As Digital Storytelling is an emergent expression form, it is possible for
students to demonstrate their work by this form [10]. For example, they first do their plan as individuals, and
then collaborate with each other as a group.
Since the scientific investigation may not be completed within one period of class, for school
administrators, to set a whole school day for science learning is a possible way. It is suggested that
spectacular events to be designed and established not only at a class level but to be highlighted at a school
level. While a whole class or school is doing investigation of certain meaningful problems, parents, local
scientists, volunteer groups from diversified background are encouraged to assist instructors and students.
For instructors and students, it is helpful to think about the teaching and learning experience, as well as the
evaluation and reflection of the roles they play in the process.
On the other hand, technology is not the whole story of learning and teaching; that is, technology itself
should not be the focus of the class, rather, the curricular content and the pedagogical methods still matter.
When it comes to “learning by doing” or “learning by playing” on-site, it seems to be a fundamentally
primitive and traditional way, but it is considered to be effective. Furthermore, instructors still have much to
do to improve students’ learning in science. Thus, it is expected that students will have a deeper
understanding in the process, and then implement the concept of sustainable development in their daily lives.
8. Acknowledgement
Thanks for my supervisor, Prof. Wang, helped me revise the paper.
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