Social media is creating a cultural change which is much more than just a change in the use of web services. Public conversations, sharing, and knowledge building between people enabled by network technologies – also known as social media – brings challenges everywhere and especially within universities. As a researcher on collaborative learning at the Media Lab of Aalto University I’ve studied social media, as it impacts learning environments not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of culture and pedagogy.
Social media has already changed society. Consumers are no longer alone, but can share their experiences about a product or service to the entire world. The relationship between company and consumer is taking the form of public dialogue. Marketing, sales, brand management, strategy, internal and external communications, product development, HR, CRM, and pretty much everything is changing because of this. Those university courses that touch on these topics need to renew themselves rapidly.
Learning has already changed and keeps changing. Instead of using the handouts of their own lecturers, students can learn with the best educational resources in the world, eg. via the OCW consortium. As high quality lectures are published on YouTube and other video sharing sites, students need more than a passable oration to physically come to a lecture. Even group work, discussions, and peer learning can happen online, so there is sometimes little reason to use the resources of one’s own university except to pass exams. Wikiversity and Wikibooks are examples of fully open learning opportunities.
The remaining strengths the universities hold are their capability to grant degrees and their capacities for study guidance and motivation – as well as the student union activities and their social opportunities. But these turn universities into study guidance centers. If something more is desired, then universities need to compete on the global education market with other forms of education. Free (gratis) education used to be a strong ace in Finland, but independent online studying costs nothing.
Engaging collaborative learning methods are rarely used in university settings, but they should be leveraged if students are to be offered added value that they cannot get from the web. Peer learning, PBL, progressive inquiry, cross-curricular themes, and authentic and personalized learning are some of the related keywords. Universities need to realize that they are merely one of the contexts where students learn, and form meaningful links to those other contexts that benefit the student.
Social media brings new ways of communication and interaction to everyone, both students and teachers. Some teachers are trail blazers, but these new ways of teaching and collaboration will not become mainstream until they are embraced at the organizational level.
Tarmo Toikkanen
Researcher at the Learning Environments research group, at the Department of Media/Media Lab of the Aalto university School of Art and Design
http://tarmo.fi
Tags: social media
I have just followed Networked Learning Conference (3-4.5.1010 Denmark)and I was astonished that there was only ONE paper which needs the concept social media.
Here is a copy of that one, they seem to share same worries with?
The Paradox of Social Media and Higher Education Institutions
Justin Bonzo, Assessment and Curriculum: Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia and Gale Parchoma, Educational Research, Lancaster University
This paper explores the paradox that occurs between institutional expectations and expectations held by student regarding the use of social media in support of learning in higher education settings.
Specifically, the example is given of a disagreement that took place in a recent conversation in a distributed medical education programme in Canada. The current body of research regarding the incongruity of expectations about integrating social media into a higher education institution framework suggests that a widening gap is emerging and that conflict is taking place. The example from Canada exemplifies the difference that exists in people’s understandings and expectations of how social media can be employed for benefit in education.
The paper looks at the principles of social media and the potential impact on many of society’s institutions, including government, commerce, media and education. Interestingly, higher education seems to have fallen behind in adopting and adapting to the new social media reality.
The key points of social constructivist thinking are then examined with special attention to the following five points:
learning requires active participation by the learner;
previous experience is important when reinforcing new learning;
individual knowledge construction requires a social interaction element;
negotiation within the learning environment is essential; and, learning best takes place within a socio-cultural context.
These principles are then addressed in relation to the social media principles of active participation, collaboration and that of reflection.
Finally, three points are expanded as to potential sources and reasons why conflict may occur when trying to integrate a popular social media perspective into the established higher education setting. These are:
existing hierarchical structure of higher education institutions;
accreditation and quality concerns; and,
formal and informal learning.
Social media is more than computer application and programs and the technology behind them it is about transformation. At its core, social media is a collection of ideas about community, openness, flexibility, collaboration, transformation and it is all user-centred. If education and educational institutions can understand and adopt these principles, perhaps there is a chance for significant change in how we teach and learn in formal and informal settings. The challenge is to discover how to facilitate this change.