The social media in academia and education: Research R-evolutions and a paradox: Advanced next generation social learning innovation

This editorial presents an evolutionary model for the adoption of Social Media and Social Networks in Academia. It seems that the rapid development of technological infrastructures in the context of social networks had to face inflexible structures in Academic Institutions in the same moment where students in a massive way adopt social networks for different purposes than learning. The evolution of social media research in the last five years is significant. A number of issues related to the formation, development and adoption of social networks in different domains have been investigated promoting the scientific debate. In this special issue the emphasis is on the adoption of social networks in learning and knowledge management domains in academic settings. The bold contribution of our meta-analysis in this guest editorial is the specification of the open research issues that can initiate further research. To our understanding an evolutionary model is confirmed and defines a context of exploitation for the contribution of social networks research towards more effective next generation learning systems in academia. Beyond the fashion of use of social media for learning purposes, there is a multidisciplinary orientation towards flexible personalized learning contexts. Furthermore a number of enablers are presented. This editorial can serve as a position document for scientific debate fostering international collaboration and empirical research in the various aspects of the well-defined agenda. It can also serve as a reference edition for researchers interested in the adoption of Social Networks, in the Academia.