With the increased focus on the use of digital platforms to facilitate teaching and learning comes the challenge of creating connections between international students and their new classmates. The use of social media in higher education may be one avenue that can enable not only learning but also social connections between students to improve the international study experience and sense of community. This article reports on the findings of a small survey study at an Australian university, which demonstrate that the majority of international students surveyed had greater prior experience with social network sites for personal and educational use rather than wikis, blogs, and discussion forums, which are often used in institutional settings. Furthermore, the results suggest that the educational use of social network sites led many participants to add new classmates as profile friends. These findings have implications for the choice of digital platforms for pedagogical use of social media and how that may impact on the teaching of international students in higher education for making connections.

中文翻译：

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面向国际学生的社交媒体，学习和联系：学生使用的内容与学习管理系统提供的工具之间的脱节

随着人们越来越重视使用数字平台来促进教学和学习，在国际学生和他们的新同学之间建立联系的挑战越来越大。在高等教育中使用社交媒体可能是一种途径，不仅可以使学生学习，而且可以使学生之间建立社交联系，从而改善国际学习体验和社区意识。本文报告了在澳大利亚大学进行的一项小型调查研究的结果，该研究表明，大多数接受调查的国际学生都具有较早的使用个人和教育用途的社交网站的经验，而不是Wiki，博客和论坛。通常在机构环境中使用。此外，结果表明，社交网站的教育用途导致许多参与者将新同学添加为个人资料朋友。这些发现对选择用于社交媒体进行教学的数字平台产生了影响，以及这可能会如何影响高等教育中的国际学生建立联系的教学。