the social environment-1

Building a social environment onlineFour main areas 

• encouraging sense of community

o socialising into the community

o tasks and tools for the social environment

• role of the e-tutor

Basic principles

This Google Docs Community video illustrates some of the basic principles of online community 

Click image to view video.

“Being social” today...                                                     tomorrow, who knows... 

Click image to view video

Sense of community

Social presence has a positive influence on learning (Garrison et al., 1999) supporting sociability reducing anonymity sense of belonging netiqutte building group dynamic (Preece, 2001; Hockly, 2004)

The online social environment

Learning is a social process (Vygotsky, 1978) 

    online identity familiarising bonding connectedness

interaction trust

(Rovai, 2002; Salmon, 2000 ; Lave&Wenger, 1991)    

• positive interdependence - all must succeed

• individual accountability - everyone makes active contribution

• interaction - interact meaningfully / exchange information

• social skills - leadership /conflict resolution / communication skills (ensures effective functioning)

• team reflection - reflect whether team is functioning & make action plan

        (Kagan1985;Johnson & Johnson 1987; Slavin 1990)

Designing tasks5 principles of collaborative learning

Socialising tasks

• online jigsaw - post piece of info / every member posts reaction to all others / each member collates & presents to group

• online project - assign roles / divide up work / provide resources online / timeline

• "Hollywood Stars"- post name of film actor and/or character / others guess why person relates to them

• "What do You Do ?” - post three hyperlinks with clues about profession or interests / others ask questions to guess 

How do different technologies help us ?

create

provide access

contact

express

interact

Tools...• blog: personal online journal - often updated daily• glog (graphical blogs): blogs that include audio and

video• wiki : collaborative information website that includes

 work from many different authors• podcasts: collection of digital media files distributed

online• video sharing websites: users upload, view and share

video• social bookmarking: web based collaborative repository

of internet bookmarks• voxopop: share audio recordings of introductions with

other participants • glogster : digital poster sharing

Chatssynchronous communicationonline

   • text chat• audio or voice chat• public chat•private chat (Dudeney & Hockly)(How to teach English with technology, 2009)

Educational chat • free topic chats• collaborative, task oriented                     chats• Informative or academic      chats•Practice chats (Gonzalez)

Role of the e-tutor

• participant induction• guidance for online behaviour• encouraging bonding- similar interest groups• set up socialising area• socialising & collaborative e-tivities• encourage networking• enhance social presence• bridge social, cultural,

& learning environments (Salmon, 2000; Rovai, 2002)