Social Media and Autonomous Learning at a Latin America University: The Social Neuroscience Role of the Developing Metacognitive Capacities

Themainpurposeofthisarticleistoinvestigatetheselectionpatternsandusesmadeoftheweb toolsandsocialmediainbothformalandnon-formaleducationofstudents.Thepossibilityofusing networkstoprovideamultitudeofstimulithatcanbeusedforfacilitatingthelearning,whichoffer awiderangeofpossibilities.Theauthorsfoundthat inmanycases, thestudentsusethedevices andapplicationsasa‘simpleremotecontrol’discardingalltheavailablepossibilitiesforlearning. Thecriteriaforselectingtherespectiveapplicationinmanycasesarearbitraryorjustaresponseto advertisingortheusageoftheirfriends.Thewebtoolsandsocialmediaprovideampleopportunities, oftenforfree,forincorporationintolearningactivities.Tobenefitfromtheuseofthemforlearning purposes,itisimportanttoknowstudentpreferencesandthewayinwhichtheyhandlethemedia, intheirprivateandacademicenvironments.Also,theperceptionofthesenseofspatial,socialand temporaldistance,whichgives shape toour relationships anddaily exchangesof information is essentialforteachers.Itisimportantforuniversitiesthattheusageoftechnologiesisnotdriftingtoo farawayfromthosewhichstudentsuseoutsidethewallsofthecampus. KeywoRDS Appropriation of Technological Tools, Autonomous Learning, Latin American University, Learning Situations, Personal Learning Environment, Social Media, Social Network, Social Neuroscience, Social Web, Web 2.0 International Journal of Advanced Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing Volume 10 • Issue 2 • April-June 2018