Social media use for deaf and hard of hearing students in educational settings: a systematic review of literature

The pedagogical benefits of the social media may be most pronounced when they impact groups of learners who are at a disadvantage in conventional face-to-face contexts. Among such disadvantaged groups are the deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) students who may experience new opportunities with the help of the social media. This paper stems from the assumption that social media can play an important role in enhancing the learning experience for DHH students. The paper presents evidence around derived from a systematic review of the literature on the use of social media by DHH students in educational settings. A comprehensive search through multiple known databases identified a dataset of 172 papers from which 11 papers met the criteria for in-depth analysis. The analysis revealed that DHH students often reported a positive impact of social media on their learning in the form of increased interaction, learning motivation, as well as support and feedback. Students also reported challenges such as privacy, time management, inappropriate content, perceived isolation and parental resistance to adoption. Besides presenting the evidence found in literature, our analysis highlights that researching the effect of social media on DHH student learning remains an under-explored area of study.