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Collaboration
Social Networking: Learning Theory in Action
5/28/2008
There has been a lot of recent debate on the benefits of social networking tools and software in education. While there are good points on either side of the debate, there remains the essential difference in theoretical positioning. Most conventional educational environments are "Objectivist" in nature and highly structured in terms of students progress and choice. Social networking essentially requires a less controlled, user-generated environment, which challenges conventional views of the effective "management" of teaching and learning. Therefore, can social networking both as an instructional concept and user skill be integrated into the conventional approaches to teaching and learning? Do the skills developed within a social networking environment have value in the more conventional environments of learning?
Certainly, social learning theory is not new, but some would argue that while the social learning theorists hold that social interaction is at the center of effective learning and that no individual learns in isolation, social networking software does not provide a helpful context within which social interaction skills are developed. In other words, the valuable social skills that support learning are not the skills developed within current Internet-based social spaces.
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As you may expect, traditional academic institutions have generally resisted the influence and increasingly pervasive presence of social networking activities in the life of their students, but recently the same institutions have had to look with new eyes at all of the aspects and consequences of these new modes of technological socialization sweeping the younger generations. (DeRossi, 2007)
The National School Boards Association (USA), in partnership with research firm Grunwald Associates and with the support of Microsoft, Newscorp, and Verizon, published a 2007 data-rich survey dissecting social and education related activity patterns by American students. The focus of the study was K-12 instruction; however, much can be learned from the results of this study that apply to the uses of social networking technology in general.
The list of "popular" uses itemized by Grunwald certainly seems to support the idea that the biggest uses of these tools are simply unidirectional (posting messages, downloading media files, updating personal information). While these types of uses could be utilized in a self-reflective learning environment, however, actual "social" skills seem to be lacking.
However, also according to Grunwald, when examining the distribution of innovative uses of the same tools--that is, students who use networking tools more collaboratively, creatively, and with actual project outcomes in mind--the uses of the tools can change according to the intentions of the user and more complex and learning-related skills can be developed, if the purposes change.
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