Hacettepe Egitim Dergisi, vol.29, no.4, pp.230-243, 2014 (SCI-Expanded)
© 2015 (publisher). All rights reserved.This study has two basic purposes. First of all, the study was carried out to develop a valid and reliable scale to determine the elementary and high school students’ purpose of social media use. The secondary purpose was to examine the students’ purposes of social media use in terms of certain variables (gender, age, level of education, school type, Internet use time and Internet use duration). The study was conducted with 388 students from elementary and high schools in the city of Eskişehir in the academic year of 2011-2012. For data collection, the scale for social media use purposes developed by the researcher and personal information form were used. As a result, a 12 -item valid and reliable scale with two dimensions (interaction between individuals and preparation for the course) was developed. Based on the research findings, it was revealed that the students’ purposes of social media use differed in both dimensions with respect to the variables of Internet use time and school type. In addition, it was also found out that there were differences in the dimension of interaction between individuals with respect to gender and daily and weekly Internet use durations as well as in the dimension of preparation for the course with respect to the participants’ age and level of education. In line with the findings obtained, usability of social media in the teaching-learning process was discussed, and several related suggestions were put forward.