Evaluation of the students' opinion about the using online social networking sites in education

The aim of the study, to determine purpose of usage online networking sites of the secondary school students and to evaluate students' opinion about the using online social networking sites in education. For this purpose, survey model was used in this study. The participants are 3241 secondary students who studied in Diyarbakir city's central town (Yenişehir, Kayapınar, Bağlar and Sur) in 2013-2014 academic year's spring semester. In this study, personal information form and "Students' Opinion About The Using of Online Social Networking Sites in Education" scale was developed by the researcher for investigation secondary students' opinion about the using online social networking sites in education. Data, collected from the survey, were obtained and interpreted by t-test, ANOVA, percentages and chi-square analyses. At the result of the study, secondary students opinions about the using online networking sites in education, were observed significant differences according to states; gender, income level, class level, time spent on the internet and on the online social networking sites and online social networking site chosen. The result, obtained about the subsclaes of the secondary students' opinions about the using online networking sites in education, can be summarized as follows. It is seen that; • The majority of secondary school students participated in the study, have at least one online social networking sites' account, and most students are using an online social networking site called Facebook, • Male students' opinions about the using online social networking sites in education are more positive than female students', • There are significant differences at secondary school students' opinions about the using online social networking sites, according to most preferred social networking site that they used, • There are significant differences at secondary school students' opinions about the using online social networking sites, according to class level, ages, level of overall average, time spent on the internet and time spent on the online social networking sites, • There are significant differences at secondary school students' opinions about the using online social networking sites, according to the types of secondary school they studied, • The small amount of teachers, who enter courses of the students, use online social networking sites for support their courses, the students like this application, • When the students proposal to using online social networking sites in educations are examined, it has been concluded that there are some points that students see as discomfort, as a lack, Keywords: The Internet, Online Social Networking Sites, Social Network, Social Media, Online Social Networking in Education, Web 2.0 and Education