Social learning What is it – and what’s the point?

Karen Melhuish

The school down the road…

• Kendal School has an app on their home page of its website that displays the Principal’s Twitter feeds, keeping parents and local community informed. Easily managed from a phone or home computer, one post on Twitter and it’s there for everyone to read.

• Mount Aspiring College: “Social networking with peers has been one of the big requests. Thus, we have relaxed our internet filtering rules for specific students, and allowed access to, for example, Facebook.”

• Willowbank School: Engaging the community through Facebook:

http://edtalks.org/video/engaging-our-community-through-facebook• Kaimai School: Principal’s blog: http://www.kaimai.school.nz/principal/

Your experience…

Consider the stories you have just heard – and your own experience.

Social media is…

Social learning is….

What is social learning?

“The social and the cognitive are not distinct domains in practice, but are integrated and embedded in task and activity design and classroom organisation” (Alton-Lee, 2003)

•Relate to othersRelate to others•Recognise others’ points of viewsRecognise others’ points of views•Participate in a shared Participate in a shared communitycommunity•Compare ideasCompare ideas

What is social media? …image/video-sharing…blogs…wikis…

>>>Go to Youtube: Social media in Plain English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5TI3gzx3JA

Social learning can be enabled by social media tools

What is social networking?

>>>Go to YouTube: Social Networking in Plain English http://www.youtube.com/user/leelefever#p/u/14/6a_KF7TYKVc

…Twitter...LinkedIn…Facebook…

Social learning can be enabled by social media tools

www.vln.school.nz

The Virtual Learning Network (MoE suite of tools) is a professional networking space

What do social learning spaces look like?• driven by the users and their concerns

 • focused on the user e.g. their profile of interests, passions• flexible spaces and groups• interactive dialogue• collaborative• facilitated by the community• content is secondary• often free to host; open shareware• frequent exchanges of information• integrated with other tools e.g. social media, email• simple to use, accessible

Your experience of social media?

• What experiences - if any -  have you had with these sites?

In terms of your own schools:

• What are the opportunities?

• What are the challenges?

Why social learning and social media tools go hand in hand

  Today, with the complementary nature of

sociocultural theory and collaborative learning tools, learning is viewed as fundamentally social and derived from authentic engagement with others in a community of practice

(Bonk & Cunningham, 1998 citing Kahn, 1993).

What does social learning look like?

Tools that allow collaboration: blogs, wikis, social network

Focus on NZ curriculum: Key Competencies, learning areas

Effective pedagogy that facilitates shared learning, co-construction, creating a supportive online environment, reflective thought – and part of teaching as inquiry.

Starting from and students’ learning and socio-cultural needs.

Mishra & Koehler, (2006). TCPK

So, what’s the point for schools?

What do we want for our students/staff?

If we can connect in some tiny way with a human that doesn't agree with us, then maybe we won't blow up the planet.

Nancy White, Us and Them: A Blog Conversation Survival Guide, SXSW 2006

Young people who…

“will seize opportunities offered by new knowledge and technologies…confident…connected…resourceful…effective users of communication tools…international citizens”

“can participate and contribute…relate to others…use language, symbols and texts”

New Zealand Curriculum (2007)

E-Learning in New Zealand schools

“Learning in an e-Learning-rich environment may make peer and collaborative learning opportunities easier,

thus supporting students’ cognitive, affective and social interactions. These ways of working also appear tosuit many New Zealand students, including Maori …and Pasifika ... These ways of working may lead to improved educational outcomes.”

Wright (2010)

Digital citizenship: A digital citizen …

• is a confident and capable user of ICT• uses technologies to participate in educational, cultural, and economic

activities• uses and develops critical thinking skills in cyberspace• is literate in the language, symbols, and texts of digital technologies• is aware of ICT challenges and can manage them effectively• uses ICT to relate to others in positive, meaningful ways• demonstrates honesty and integrity and ethical behaviour in their use of

ICT• respects the concepts of privacy and freedom of speech in a digital world• contributes and actively promotes the values of digital citizenship

(Netsafe: LGP website)

Principals and social media

Principals who have active and personal experience of social media are far more likely to be strong advocates for its educational potential, and for e-learning in general.

Many principals believe that there are possibilities within social media – but their schools do not have a strategy for its use.

EdWeb (2010)

Where to start?

Where to start?

• Active involvement in social networking is required for school leaders

• Models of good practice are needed to show the potential of social networking in education.

• School policies need to be more effective and based on real-world contexts. They should extend beyond whether sites should be blocked to incorporate students and community in authentic digital citizenship conversations.

EdWeb (2010)

How do you and your school…

• Share and respond to your school’s experiences?

• Connect with others like you?• Keep up-to-date with current thinking?• Connect to your wider school community?• Share “just in time” thinking?

You might…

Share and respond to your school’s experiences?>>> A school blog or wiki

Nelson School Central: http://www.nelsoncentral.school.nz/index.html

You might…

Connect with others like you?>>> Follow and share with other principals/schools

on Twitter>>> Join the Virtual Learning Network and find the

Leadership group

You might…

Keep up to date with current thinking?>>> Set up a feed (e.g. Google Reader, RSS)>>> Twitter>>> Subscribe to sites that are important to you

You might…

Connect to your wider school community?>>> School blog / wiki• Whangaparoa College - Ms Wilson’s wiki: http://mswilson.wikispaces.com/ -

look at the way she links to students’ blogs [http://mswilson.wikispaces.com/11ENG3+Blogs]

• Albany Senior High: Year 11 English: A co-constructed exploration of the film Gattaca: http://wikieducator.org/ASHS_English_-_Q_%26_A_by_Vikas_Swarup (using WikiEducator)

>> School Twitter feed / Facebook page

You might…

Share “just in time” thinking?>> Twitter>> Virtual Learning Network

Takeaways

Something you… • Learned today?• Do this week?• Explore this month?

• So by the end of this term you can…?

..and finally…

>>>YouTube: Social Media Addicts Association: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5TI3gzx3JA

References

• Alton-Lee, A. (2003), Quality teaching for diverse students in schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis. Ministry of Education.

• Bonk, C. J. & Cunningham, D.J. (1998). Chapter 2: Searching for learner-centered, constructivist, and sociocultural components of collaborative educational learning tools. In C. J. Bonk, & K. S. King (Eds.), Electronic collaborators: Learner-centered technologies for literacy, apprenticeship, and discourse (pp. 25-50). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

• EdWeb. (2010). School Principals and Social Networking in Education: Practices, Policies, and Realities in 2010. http://www.edweb.net/fimages/op/PrincipalsandSocialNetworkingReport.pdf

• Melhuish, K. (2011, March). Necessity is the mother of invention. CORE Education blog.• Ministry of Education (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum for English medium teaching and learning in years 1-

13. Wellington: Learning Media.• Mishra, P. & Koehler, M. J.(2006). Technological, Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A framework for teacher

knowledge. http://punya.educ.msu.edu/publications/journal_articles/mishra-koehler-tcr2006.pdf• Netsafe (2010). What is digital citizenship? Learn, Guide, protect website.

http://www.mylgp.org.nz/about/what-is-digital-citizenship/• White, N. (2006). Us and Them: A Blog Conversation Survival Guide, SXSW.• Wright, N. (2010). eLearning and implications for New Zealand schools: A literature review. Ministry of

Education.

Image / Video sources

• Background doc (social media logos): zitzsolutions: social media marketing.jpg‑ ‑• Slide 1: Relativity Corps (socialnet.jpg)• Slide 3: ‘Social network’:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Network_Sociality.jpg• Adams, S. (2010) Dilbert cartoons: www.dilbert.com• Commoncraft: Social Media in Plain English (leelefever):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5TI3gzx3JA and What is social networking? http://www.youtube.com/user/leelefever#p/u/14/6a_KF7TYKVc

• Slide 9: ‘Together we are’ by mommy peace [http://www.flickr.com/photos/shaughnessy/]

• Slide 11: TCPK [http://tpack.org/]• Social Media Addicts Association: http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=J5TI3gzx3JA

Social media and ‘web 2.0’ tools allow us to…

o connect with “people like me” in ways that we mutually agree on

o find ideas to share - and challenge

o dynamic, user-responsive space

o connected to other social media

The Virtual Learning Network (Groups) is a social networking space