| Sumario: | The sizeable majority of research findings on educational adaptation of social media (SM) is based on college student samples. A cursory review of the extant literature on the educational use of SM appears to convey an uncritical spirit regarding adaptations of modern Web 2.0 technology. This article examines the issue of whether publication bias is a factor in this emerging research domain. To that end, a keyword search in the database ProQuest, which limited the output for the term social media/educational in the abstract, produced 452 scholarly journal references. A subset of these studies (n=40), with a focus on empirical outcome, on the efficacy of SM in educational settings was examined. A second search identified studies (n=104) that reported 'limitations' to the instructional use of SM. Findings indicated that about 25% of these studies using college student samples and about 50% on faculty respondents report contrary findings, negative results, expressed concerns, and limitations to SM use in higher education. However, in nearly all studies, such results were reported as secondary or tertiary findings; few studies presented contrary results or student/faculty concerns about educational adaptation of Web 2.0 technology as the primary research finding. Based on this analysis, there appears to be little evidence for publication bias in this research domain; however, educators need to be vigilant and maintain a critical perspective on both investigatory design and research findings regarding this highly salient academic topic. Vigorous debate and contrarian views on instructional applications of Web 2.0 technologies should be encouraged.
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