THE USE OF THE SOCIAL NETWORKS BETWEEN THE STUDENTS OF TEACHER'S DEGREE IN AN ENVIRONMENT EXCLUSIVELY ONLINE

The purpose of this paper is to know the use of social media in the initial training of future teachers in a University in which they operate exclusively online, and compare the results obtained according to gender, age, grades and courses. It has started from the ten most used social media: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Skype, SoundCloud, Tumblr, Twitter, WhatsApp, Wechat and YouTube. The methodology has been based on design, validation and administration of an online questionnaire with a valid sample of 130 participants. Among the most noteworthy results regard to most used social media, WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype were the highlighted channels, but their academic use is not as productive as expected, considering their potential for these purposes, as Facebook for example in virtual teaching environments. However, YouTube usage data indicates that it is a regular learning resource, in spite of not being the most used by these students. It has also been found that Pinterest has more academic use than Instagram, despite the greater use of the last one among young people nowadays, which is explained by the higher age of students and the versatility of Pinterest to show presentations and jobs.