Is Social Learning Working?

[Steve Holder]

In researching using social media for learning I encountered this site - a social network for people who want to learn about using social networking for learning. How beautifully recursive.

What I've come here to learn is whether social learning is really effective, and under what conditions it's ideally used.

Any thoughts, anyone?

[Jacquie]

HI Steve, I came here for the same reason. I am planning to do my PhD in this area... I'll be looking for case studies from those who have made social learning with ICT work effectively for their students. Maybe I will do a comparative study between the UK and Australia - there will be some interesting differences I suspect...

[Steve Holder]

Thanks for joining the discussion, Jacquie. On my ning.com page, I did a search for "learning" and turned up 5,124 social media sites related to learning on ning alone. Don't know if social media is effective for learning, but it sure seems popular.

I'm a perennial Spanish language student, so I think I may join one of those groups and do my own first-person study.

Please pass on anything you uncover about the "when and how" of applying social media to learning.

[Laurie Drew]

I recently found a site that I thought was using social media very effectively for learning. livemocha.com is for learning languages (you mentioned learning Spanish). You can partner up or "friend" others who speak the language you are learning or are even trying to learn the language you speak. There are directed lessons for learning the language and exercises that utilize feedback from others in the network. A chat feature provides that opportunity for asking questions or immediate feedback.

I had difficulty conceptualizing social networking as a powerful learning tool until I saw it in action here. For me, this helped put the features into a learning context and really gave me ideas for social networking in the workplace.

[Kevin D. Jones]

Here are some case studies by my cohort, Dave Wilkins:
http://dwilkinsnh.wordpress.com/case-studies/

Also look at Jive's repository:
http://www.jivesoftware.com/resources

There is a TON out there.

I am also starting my master's thesis on this. I haven't nailed it down yet, but I am leaning toward ROI on social media as an EPSS (employee performance support system). Now, I just have to write it up...

[Steve Holder]

Thank you, Kevin. I took a quick look and will follow up.

[Sahana]

Social learning has always been around. And has probably been one of the most effective means of learning as Bandura and Vygotsky had said long back. We turned toward our colleague or friend to ask for help when stuck.

What is new are the technology and the applications that have evolved and are evolving to support social learning and sharing of knowledge. These applications, I believe, came into existence because their creators must have observed the way, e.g., communication takes place. Then, our natural urge to share made us use applications like Twitter to share information thus building our own microcosm of similarly interested people.

What has probably made us realize the importance of social learning are a combination/juxtaposition of a few things--a simplistic analysis:

Recession
Decreased training budget
Lack of formal training because of point 2
Ever-decreasing shelf life of knowledge
Ever-increasing need to be on top of things to survive in this market
Sheer struggle for survival--both individual and at an organization level
A knowledge-driven economy
Need to be innovative, to be cost and time effective
Survival instinct making us turn to tools and features available for free that can help us to keep ahead
Twitter, Facebook, Ning, etc., answering this need in different ways
Features of Web 2.0 no longer seen as technological innovations but as tools of survival
Collective knowledge evolving as a strong weapon to counteract recession
Social learning thus coming out this crucible because it is free and available and powerful

The tools are now helping to trim redundancy and "structure" this initial unstructured flow of information

Sahana

http://twitter.com/sahana2802
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sahana2802

[Nathan Ketsdever]

I think any study would have to address these 5 concepts:
• type of content
• type of learners
• organizational culture
• time resources
• environment of learning

I wonder if much literature on self-organized learning exists online...

[Stephen Gilfus]

Gentleman take a look at a new white paper from our team at the Gilfus Education Group
Social Learning Buzz masks deeper Dimensions – Mitigating the confusion surrounding “Social Learning” -- Article by Frank Ganis

Foreword
It is our hope that by leveraging socially based technologies the education industry can shape a new educational technology paradigm that realizes the promises of true “Social Learning”.
By understanding its applications we can create a unique opportunity to improve student engagement, student retention, academic success and overall educational outcomes.
– Stephen Gilfus, Gilfus Education Group

Social Learning Dimensions - Gilfus Education Group.pdf