The Socla Project: an Attempt to Build an Innovative Study Environment through SNS Linkage of Second-Year High School Students and Working Adults
Abstract: A two-week program “Socla Project” was conducted to provide academic support for 17 high school students by using iPad and Twitter to link them up with 10 university students and working adults (“supporters”). Students engaged in research on the themes related to the significance of work life or university. Supporters constantly plied them with questions and collected opinions from people outside with Twitter, which forced the students to reconsider the meaning of studying and to garner information of their future paths without ending up in superficial research. Although large amount of the written messages (100-200 on average) was not directly related to study, this online communication resulted in no dropouts. The analysis of the questionnaires showed there were no problems concerning the tool usage, and that the existence of supporters and other students was effective in continuing research. Surveys on study motivations and self-consciousness were affected by the “ceiling effect.”