Authors: Angela Frawley, London Coronica, Sam Kirk, and Stephanie Messier
Our team is collaboratively working on an initial summary of the preliminary research we have done on TikTok, our selected modality, guided by these assigned questions.
- What background reading did our team leverage to learn more TikTok?
2. What question(s) would our team like to pursue as we explore our topic?
3. What type of learning event and delivery technology did our team choose?
What is TikTok? TikTok, “a short-form, video-sharing app that allows users to create and share 15-second videos, on any topic” (Geyser, 2022), has exponentially grown to rise to the top of social media platforms in 2022. An unregulated, open-source media outlet for information sharing, this social media platform has many social, political, and economical impacts.
TikTok, while popular amongst teenagers, is also rising in popularity amongst teachers and educators. Hartung et al. (2022) argued that teachers are capitalizing on TikTok’s broad reach and flexibility. They claimed that teachers are using TikTok “to craft and promote a particular professional identity, often teaming up with companies to support their work, starting their own education resource businesses, and accruing a significant following of fellow teachers, students, and members of the public” (p. 2). The potential for TikTok is endless.
As a team, we embark on a journey of exploration to “develop objective and realistic accounts of technology use in situ” (Selwyn, 2010, p. 65), to identify TikTok as a socially constructed and socially negotiated form of social media that can be utilized for educational purposes. Drawing on Fawns’ model of entangled pedagogy, we reflected on how to avoid conflating TikTok’s capabilities with technological or pedagogical determinism. We adhere to the notion that this thinking “requires a holistic view of situated, purposeful uses of technology” (Fawns, 2022, p. 3). It would therefore be equally important to seek out the impacts of TikTok as a tool and its ethical implications.
Through examining preliminary research, it appears that TikTok has the potential to be used as an educational tool for teachers and learners. According to Liao (2021), the TikTok platform has opportunities and challenges especially in physical education. Educators can easily create fun and engaging TikTok videos with TikTok’s user-friendly editing function. Additionally, Al-Maroof et al. (2021) claimed “the fact that YouTube and TikTok are sources of information to users in different fields implies that both are significant and widely spread platforms for knowledge sharing and acquisition” (p. 208). While it may seem simplistic to utilize TikTok as an educational tool, in the same way that YouTube is used, there are various implications to consider for TikTok due to its differing Terms of Services (TOS) on the open platform.
Considering the use of TikTok and its implications, looking at the ethics, privacy policies, and licenses serves a vital role when answering the question, if TikTok can
be used as an educational tool. Through a brief exploration of TikTok’s TOS, it was identified that there is no propriety for users. Anything you post including video, music, will be given away to TikTok.
There is still much to explore for understanding how TikTok can be used for educational purposes. From our team’s initial research efforts, we have determined several guiding questions that will help move our critical inquiry further.
Guiding Question: Can TikTok be used educationally?
Sub-Guiding Questions:
o What are the opportunities and challenges for learning in TikTok?
o How content is created on TikTok?
o Can TikTok educational material be inserted into a DLE?
o What are the implications (i.e., privacy, ethical dilemma, license, TOS, technology affordances)?
o What are the impacts (i.e., algorithm, biopsychosocial model of social media, cognitive consequences)?
o What are the theoretical implications supporting TikTok as an educational tool?
As a team, we will experiment with content creation by creating our first TikTok video as an introduction of our respective research outcome, which will be purposefully inserted into our live presentation on Google Slide.
References
Al-Maroof, R., Ayoubi, K., Alhumaid, K., Aburayya, A., Alshurideh, M., Alfaisal, R., & Salloum, S. (2021). The acceptance of social media video for knowledge acquisition, sharing and application: A comparative study among YouYube users and TikTok users’ for medical purposes. International Journal of Data and Network Science, 5(3), 197 https://doi.org/10.5267/j.ijdns2021.6.013
Fawns, T. (2022). An entangled pedagogy: looking beyond the pedagogy—technology dichotomy. Postdigital Science and Education, (20220402). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-022-00302-7
Geyser, W. (March 31, 2022). What is TikTok? – Everything you need to know in 2022. Influencer Marketing Hub. https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-tiktok/
Hartung, C., Ann Hendry, N., Albury, K., Johnston, S., & Welch, R. (2022). Teachers of TikTok: Glimpses and gestures in the performance of professional identity. Media International Australia, https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X211068836
Liao, Y. (September, 2021). Application of Tik Tok in physical education [Paper presentation]. ICISCAE 2021: 2021 4thInternational Conference on Information Systems and Computer Aided Education, Dalian, China. https://doi.org/10.1145/3482632.3483060
Selwyn, N. (2010). Looking beyond learning: Notes towards the critical study of educational technology. Journal of computer assisted learning, 26(1), 65-73. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2009.00338.x
April 19, 2022 at 2:06 pm
Hello Team 3, thanks for putting the focus of your project on this extremely popular social media platform. As with many social media-related topics, the questions your team has raised about privacy, ethics, and algorithms surface quickly. I wonder if in your readings, you may find discussions about how educators can help keep their students safe in the case that a students’ social media product or content goes viral? What are some potential situations that could arise from a viral video? Perhaps there may be conversations about the impact of viral content in terms of digital citizenship, literacy, and footprint.
April 28, 2022 at 9:03 am
Thanks for your great questions! This is something we are currently exploring as a team! So far we have learned that (a sneak peak into what we’ve started to look at around privacy) here are the resources we have explored so far if you want to explore it further!
Thanks team 3!
April 24, 2022 at 4:16 am
TikTok is a good topic for your team study, particularly given its popularity among a younger generation. I’m sure you know that it’s being used in a variety of ways in education, which means that you might also want to say a bit about how it’s being used already, rather than only focusing on its potential. That will nicely flesh out your own experience of working with it for educational purposes.
April 28, 2022 at 9:02 am
Thank you Irwin for your comment and suggestion. From our research, a few studies have emerged as TikTok currently being used as an educational tool, or as a pilot with future instructional merits. Liao (2021) discussed TikTok in physical education for athletes and Henneman (2020) explored the merits of TikTok with a group of students in journalism experimenting with storytelling. Also, we came across a great example of TikTok as a platform to promote learning with the Booktokers on TikTok who share their passion for readings and thus stimulate youngsters to read (Guiñez-Cabrera & Mansilla-Obando, 2022). As we are continuing our research, we will keep in mind recent studies on TikTok currently being used as a learning tool.
Thanks again for your insights – team 3
References:
Guiñez-Cabrera, N., & Mansilla-Obando, K. (2022). Booktokers: Generating and sharing book content on TikTok. Comunicar, 30(71), 119-130. http://eprints.rclis.org/42978/
Henneman, T. (2020). Beyond lip-synching: Experimenting with TikTok storytelling. Teaching Journalism & Mass Communication 10(2), 1-14. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349151860_Beyond_Lip-Synching_Experimenting_with_TikTok_StorytellingLiao, Y. (September, 2021). Application of Tik Tok in physical education [Paper presentation]. ICISCAE 2021: 2021 4thInternational Conference on Information Systems and Computer Aided Education, Dalian, China. https://doi.org/10.1145/3482632.3483060
April 25, 2022 at 11:55 am
Hi Stephanie,
The technology your team has chosen is one that I haven’t yet explored myself but many around me have. I find it interesting that the propriety stays with TikTok and not the creator, I did not realize that. Knowing it is used in schools, in my daughters class, without having us as a parent authorize its use, it brings forward some of those parent worries; however, it appears that it can be used positively as a learning tool. I know of one person who has used it to learn about investments and making positive life changes, motivating individuals when we were all forced into our bubbles. Your topic defiantly makes me reconsider the choice I have made to not participate on this platform, a bit of peer pressure in a way. Has it benefited you in your learning journey?
April 28, 2022 at 9:00 am
Hi Myrna,
Thank you for your comments and questions. The issues of consent, ethics, privacy and terms of service are being explored as part of one of our guiding questions as of what are the implications of TikTok. As a team, it was one of the topics that concerned us the most as educators but also parents. As we are evolving in our research, we do realize that TikTok offers opportunities for education with its technological affordances, and that it is a platform that may need to be embraced in education (Adnan et al., 2021) given the current generation of digital natives in schools (Liao, 2021). Stay tuned for more coverage on this topic in our presentation!
References:
Adnan, N. I., Ramli, S., & Ismail, I. N. (2021). Investigating the usefulness of TikTok as an educational tool. International Journal of Practices in Teaching and Learning (IJPTL), 1(2), 1-5. https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/52140/
Liao, Y. (September, 2021). Application of Tik Tok in physical education [Paper presentation]. ICISCAE 2021: 2021 4thInternational Conference on Information Systems and Computer Aided Education, Dalian, China. https://doi.org/10.1145/3482632.3483060
May 24, 2022 at 2:56 pm
Hi Stephanie (and team!). Your technology is a very good one to review, I’m interested to see what your take is on the use of TikTok for Ed purposes. One could argue it’s too late to go back now as it’s already so popular! And how do we mitigate the massive amount of material that is available in this platform!! Such an interesting conversation to have, thank you for allowing us to be a part of it. I am interested as well to know the reasons TikTok is so…addictive (for lack of a better word), and if we could somehow capitalize on that focus from the user towards other educational means? Great topic!
May 27, 2022 at 11:28 am
Hi Emma,
Thanks for your comment. I agree with you that given TikTok is such a popular platform that the education sector should just embrace it. We decided to investigate TikTok as our technology because of the 1 billion users and the #LearnonTikTok. As for your questions for the reason why TikTok is so addictive, it is because of its algorithm. Liao (2021) explained that Tik Tok uses a formula to filter user information based on the amount of user information, the maximum number of users browsing history, the data processing, the user’s time spent on a certain category of video along with the user’s comment in the video category. The users’ essential information is tracked, analyzed, and recommendations of videos are pushed accordingly to their interests. To answer the second part of your question, the #LearnOnTikTok is a model that is worth analyzing further and see if that could apply to other educational mean. Thanks again for your questions!
References:
Liao, Y. L. (2021). Application of Tik Tok in physical education [Paper presentation]. ICISCAE 2021: 2021 4thInternational Conference on Information Systems and Computer Aided Education, Dalian, China. https://doi.org/10.1145/3482632.3483060