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Secondary schools do not have the same technical resources and capabilities as universities. They usually need to rely on ready-to-use tools to fulfill their information and communication technology ( ICT) structure. Social networking site ( SNS) has emerged as a practical solution to this need. However, few have collected empirical data on the application of SNS in a secondary school setting. This paper probes into the current condition of SNS usage among secondary school students using a sample of 851 students in Macau, a Special Administrative Region ( SAR) of China. Data in terms of access, profile and activities are collected. The activities on SNSs are analyzed by regression techniques to produce a prediction model relating perceived academic benefit and SNS activities. The model yields a strong positive relationship between that benefit and activities such as raising questions and engaging in study-related discussions. The model also yields a weak dependency on activities such as searching for information and entertainment. The paper also evaluates the actual academic utilization of a Facebook Group for one class of secondary school students for a period of one year. At the end of the year, various opinion parameters are measured, and improvements are observed in most parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Networking has reached every corner of the mass population in recent years. Academic professionals have employed social networking sites (SNSs) to help them make their teaching more lively and multi-faceted. Results of using SNS in teaching have generally received positive outcomes. This paper examines the content of a forum-like discussion page on Facebook where students are free to write anything about their school. The page is setup by students from a particular school and participants are mostly the student population of that school. The page is an anonymous forum, thus, the content is not restricted to praise only. The theme of the forum is anything related to the school. By looking at what students are saying on the forum, it gives an idea of the kind of discussions or conversations that students usually engage themselves in. These are online "traces" that reveal attitude, social relationship and affiliation. The results of this paper show that student discussions are mainly involved in categories such as school policy, student conduct, reflection on teachers, reminiscence, and encouragement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]