Using social media affordances to support Ill-structured problem-solving skills: considering possibilities and challenges

Educators consider the development of problem-solving skills in learners to be a primary goal of contemporary teaching and learning efforts. Yet, participating in problem-centered instruction is challenging for learners, and educators have sought different ways of supporting learners as they make sense of complex content. Social media applications are readily available for use by educators, which in turn provides many opportunities for these tools to support teaching and learning activities. While social media affordances offer educators exciting opportunities to support learners in authentic problem-solving contexts, these tools do not come without challenges, and little research has considered how such tools can specifically facilitate the development of learners’ problem-solving abilities. The purpose of this paper is to identify prominent educational affordances of social media and to explore how these identified affordances have the potential to support ill-structured problem-solving activities. This paper offers researchers and educators new directions for facilitating problem-centered learning when using social media.