using social media for learning

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Produsage: Using Social Media for Learning Mike Petersell Web 2.0-based Learning & Development Florida State University Summer, 2010

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Produsage: Using Social Media for Learning

Mike PetersellWeb 2.0-based Learning & Development

Florida State UniversitySummer, 2010

Today it is easier than ever to remotely create or join communities built around common interests.Web 2.0 tools enable people from anywhere in the world to share information, cooperate with one another, and even take collective action without the high cost of face-to-face assembly.

Virtual communities form organically as people with common interests are naturally drawn together.Knowledge sharing in virtual communities is fostered by enjoyment, satisfaction, reciprocal help, and social learning. Group members tend to be hobbyists rather than professionals who, due to competitive constraints, cannot freely share their knowledge.

The learning that takes place in virtual communities happens informally.While virtual communities are based on common interests, it is difficult to predict specific information that will be shared. Individual learning is based on personal motivations. Members of the same community sharing the same experiences will make different discoveries from those experiences.

ShareInformation

Attract & JoinCommunities

Engage &Participate

BookmarkInformation

Social learning process. The diagram to the right depicts one way in which social learning takes place through virtual communities.

Individuals share information using web 2.0 tools or through social media networks. The information attracts would-be community members who offer opportunities for further engagement and participation in discussions related to the topic. Community members collect and store information using bookmarks which can again be shared in other related communities or synthesized into new information.

ShareInformation

Share information. Virtual communities form around common interests. Potential community members identify each other by discovering the information they share online. This could be through blog entries, postings to forums or discussion boards, or messages posted on social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook.

Contrary to face-to-face communities in which people generally gather, then share information, virtual communities reverse the order to share, then gather. People share information online. Others who are interested in it gather around it to form a community.

Attract & JoinCommunities

Attract & join communities. The core of any virtual community is the common interests of its membership. Therefore, forming communities is dependent on posting content online that will be attractive to people with like-minded interests. Posting content about practices, ideas, or personal expertise using web 2.0 tools is likely to capture the attention of at least a few other people who share the same interests.

Viewed from this perspective, almost any webpage has the potential to become the catalyst for the formation of a virtual community.

Engage &Participate

Engage & participate. Knowledge sharing provides the basis around which a virtual community may form. Level of contribution, engagement and participation by group members ultimately sustains the community.

Virtual community membership is voluntary. The level of involvement of each member will be dependent on his or her personal goals, needs, or depth of interest. A handful of community members usually account for the bulk of activity. On the other end of the spectrum, there may be lurkers who only read information posted by others without contributing anything of their own. However, active involvement provides better opportunity for tangible (access to knowledge, personal gain) and intangible (enjoyment, learning) rewards.

BookmarkInformation

Bookmark information. As a virtual community grows, the complexity of group interactions and the amount of content shared increases. Even highly engaged members become challenged with sorting through all of the available information.

One way to manage this information is by bookmarking and tagging WebPages. Tools like del.icio.us or diigo allow users to save bookmarks and tag pages to create a personal archive of WebPages that are relevant to the individual.

These stored archives become a repository of new knowledge and information for the user that can be used for future sharing or just to contribute to the individual’s own learning.

SOCIAL LEARNING EXAMPLE

The slides that follow provide an example of the social learning process based on my personal experiences.

Share information.In pursuit of my interest in workplace learning, I began writing this blog called Many Ways to Learn to share information online. Here is excerpt from a posting on virtual instructor led training.

Attract & join communities.Shortly after posting my blog entry on virtual instructor led training, I came across a question about virtual classroom best practices on the Chief Learning Officer network forum. I replied, sharing a link to my blog entry as part of the reply.

Engage & participate.Sharing the link to my blog on the Chief Learning Officer forum led to further dialog about this topic which took place in the forum and on Twitter. The Twitter conversations led me to discover a virtual community of people interested in workplace learning called #lrnchat that meets every Thursday through a Twitter chat.

Bookmark information.To keep up with the amount knowledge sharing that occurs among the #lrnchat participants, I began using del.icio.us to bookmark and tag WebPages for future use.

Share information.After participating in my first #lrnchat session, I wrote this blog entry: I have learned…socially!!! describing my experiences. My intent was to share information about what I had learned with others who might be interested in this community, thus beginning the cycle again.

SHARING INVITATION

If you are interested in workplace learning, I invite you to join my network on del.icio.us where you can view the WebPages I have bookmarked and tagged and you can share some of your own. The slides that follow explain how to do so.

Step 1. join del.ioci.us – it’s free!Go to: http://delicious.com and click the “join now” button in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Step 2. sign in using a Yahoo! ID.Sign in to del.icio.us using your Yahoo! ID if you have one. If not, follow the instructions to create a new account.

Step 3. locate the network link.From your bookmarks page, locate the network link directly below your name. Click on the link to take you to the network page.

Step 4. add me to your network.To add me to your network, you can select “add a user to network” from the top right of your network page and then type my username: mpetersell, or you can visit my bookmarks page and select the “add to my network” link at the top right of that page.

Thank you. I look forward to sharing links about learning with you.

Many Ways to Learn (personal blog): http://mwtl.blogspot.com/LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mpetersellTwitter: http://twitter.com/mpetersell