Using social media as educational tools from the perspective of students:

In the light of communication colleges interest in using social media in the educational process, the current research seeks to answer a key question: "How do communication students use social media as an educational medium, and what are their attitudes regarding their advantages and disadvantages?". It aims at outlining students' perceptions of this educational medium and identifying the most important topics that can be included in a social media curriculum. This research is a descriptive one based on a survey using a purposive sample of 148 students from communication colleges in United Arab Emirates, Sultanate of Oman, and Arab Republic of Egypt. Results showed the diversity of social media used by students between WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Students prefer emails as teaching tools, followed by using search engines within the classroom, and mobile phones to send and read instant messages for educational purposes such as student groups on WhatsApp, while social media have fallen to last place. The main topics that students see as important to include in their courses were how to carry out media campaigns through social media networks, methods of disseminating information and news, and social media ethics. This research recommends that courses on social media are important and should be used intensively in Arab universities academic programs. In addition, communication students and professors should be trained to use these new educational tools. It is also needed to promote social media positive aspects and avoid their disadvantages, as well as to use their interactive characteristics to support a distinct learning environment in media disciplines.