The Integration of Social Networking Services in Higher Education: Benefits and Barriers in Teaching English

Social networking services (SNSs) have been popular and essential media to increase lecturer-student interaction, collaboration, and communication as well as lecturers' supervision in Indonesian universities including in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). This mixed method study utilized a survey and interview as the techniques of data collection which specifically explored the lecturers' perspectives on the use SNSs for personal and educational purposes as well as demographic information related to the experience and frequency using SNSs, ownership (possession) of SNSs, and SNSs popularity. The findings revealed that the participants had much knowledge and experiences with SNSs. Even though most participants found some benefits of SNSs in EFL classes including easing communication, supervision and evaluation, time flexibility, and creativity. There were two barriers that have emerged, including lack of skill and cost to use. Implications and future research are offered to improve technology integration in higher education.