The use of Facebook in informal contexts: what implications does it have

The main aim of this paper is to describe the results of a preliminary observatory study on the use of Facebook by teenagers in informal contexts. The authors illustrate the preliminary results of the research and analyse some significant variables that contribute to a greater understanding of the important debate on social networks as a source of information and knowledge in relation to formal and informal learning contexts. The contribution constitutes an opportunity for illustrating the potential and advantages that could derive from the use of social networks in education; this problem is now under scrutiny by national and international educational research since it represents a possible meeting area between formal and informal. The key problem in the renewal of teaching strategies is, in fact, the focus of a new possible integrated use of ICT in the teaching/learning processes as an essential factor for the possible restructuring of the didactic action systems in formal contexts in relation to the different learning dimensions (cognitive, emotional, social/relational, psychomotor) and their implications.