75 JADLeT Journal of Advanced Distributed Learning Technology USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ESL LEARNING – TWITTER VS. PINTEREST Ana-Maria CHISEGA-NEGRILĂ * Abstract: E-learning 2.0 has marked the change from individual, passive learning, to student’s collaborating to improve their knowledge. Multitasking and ubiquitous computing represented a turning point in learners’ using various devices to gain information. The Internet extended from the desktop towards iPhones, tablets, etc. while classroom activities escaped the traditional framework and moved on to the virtual medium. Differentiated instruction has represented the dawn of modern instruction and gained momentum due to the changes in the Information Society. Social media have thus become extremely popular among learners as it transformed their experience in an entertaining and engaging one. If Facebook and Twitter have already become commonplace in terms of public use and acceptance as learning tools, other platforms seem to have emerged in the last years in an attempt to topple the popularity of the former. Gaining impetus in the last years, Pinterest has drawn the attention of ESL teacher because of its benefits to visual learners, its resemblance to the ESL textbooks, and its use as an online scrapbook suitable to incorporate a variety of materials (pictures, infographics, media files, links etc.). Keywords: ESL; social media; microblogging; Twitter; Pinterest. INTRODUCTION he diminished capacity of universities to fund more courses due to the crisis and its lingering effects on the economy has forced academia to turn its eyes towards more profitable variants to the existing offer. From its inception, MOOC or Massive Open Online Courses have provided learners with quality courses that combine e-Learning with other modern free resources such as blogs, wikis, social networking, etc. Benefits of social networking are numerous as fostering communication through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. develops collaboration (wikis, SecondLife), builds a sense of community, boosts creativity, and facilitates convergence of * Command and Staff Faculty, “Carol I” National Defence University, Panduri Street, Bucharest, Romania, anachisega@yahoo.com T T