Social Networks as Teaching Tools
Year: 2013
Type: preprint
Abstract: This paperdraws from a pilot project at the Free University of Bozen/Bolzano consisting in using an electronic forum in a political science class. Students were challenged to respond to a ‘prompt’ from the instructor on some topical issues in EU politics and to engage in informed discussion on topics addressed in class. I argue that beyond the content-specific elements involved, the forum was designed to train students in such practices as discussing and debating issues that feature prominently in current EU politics. The forum prescribes a method of discussion and critique and presents itself as a miniature of the democratic ‘public sphere.’ This paper refers to Jurgen Habermas’s seminal studies on the notion of ‘public sphere’ and shows how the EU public sphere is largely shaped by the new electronic media.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Roberto Farneti
Institution: Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2266454449