Social media: Communication characteristics and application value in distance education

Social media are the online media for social interaction, based on Web2.0 technology, which has the typical characteristics of the user-generated content and the online inter personal interaction. When social media involves in distance education, it makes the educational communication elements of distance education undergo a qualitative change, and forms a new network communication model of group interaction. The value of social media in distance education is to promote to build and share distance learning resources, and to support distance learners to carry out social interaction, and to promote the collaborative learning and the reflective learning.