Introduction on "Assessing Risks and Consequences of Incorporating Social Networking Into Learning Environments"

Introduction 30 pages (8869 words) Sources: 60

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Risks and Consequences of Incorporating Social Networking into Learning Environments

The pervasive adoption of social networking is changing the approaches, expectations, methods and patterns individuals and organizations rely on daily to communicate and connect with each other. The economic, pedagogical, sociological and technology-based factors are also changing how long-term learning is achieved, given student's early mastery of Web 2.0 skill sets and familiarity with social networks. In many instances, students' mastery of these skill sets and insights into how each social network they participate on vary in terms of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, comments, communication, collaboration and sharing far surpass those of their instructors. Compounding these factors is the hype that social networks receive daily, often based on anecdotal data, of increasing the effectiveness of long-term learning and serving as a catalyst of self-efficacy on the part of students. Between these two extremes of social networks being praised as a panacea for learning improvement vs. their limited effectiveness in being a true catalyst of long-term learning is the truth. The intent of this chapter is to intermediate between these two extremes and define a model that encapsulates the most solid foundational elements of research into social networking's positive effects on learning. The proposed model introduced in this chapter also takes into account the equilibrium that must be maintained for long-term learning to be achieved, balancing collaboration and cooperation. These two aspects of long-term learning are often cited in the studies mentioned in this chapter as the catalyst of what makes teaching techniques and strategies so effective when they are based on social networks. While these two attributes do not guarantee long-term learning and self-efficacy, they do contribute significantly to positive outcomes. The potential for social networks in the context of learning ironically have little to do with massive friend or follower counts, or the burgeoning users of these networks. Rather, the pivotal issue is trust. As social networks continue their proliferation, often achieving triple-digit gains in subscribers bases as Facebook and Twitter have throughout 2009 and 2010, the fundamental missing ingredient of these platforms being effective as learning platforms is the propensity of both students and teachers to trust them (Bernoff, Li, 2008). The lack of experience and vacillation that Facebook's management team has shown in the area of privacy controls and the unannounced beta testing of their beacon technology that tracks user's preferences without telling them are just two of many examples just from this social network. Facebook is still learning what trust is. So are many of the other social networking technologies. This acts not as a catalyst, but a constraint on the use of social networks in learning environments. Despite this experimentation with trust that is happening on many social networks, the collaborative and communicate aspects of these platforms continues to show potential for enabling greater learning and most importantly, creating self-efficacy in students over the long-term. Creating life-long learners using a Web 2.0 toolbox shows potential due to collaboration and communication processes being supported (O'Reilly, 2006), yet takes a very focused and deliberate personalized learning strategy. Analysis of this aspect of Web 2.0-based teaching has yet to be completed in detail; only a cursory analysis of social networks in education has been completed (Braender, Kapp, Yeras, 2009). The concepts of scaffolding and individualized learning programs (Najjar, 2008) when combined with both in-class and computer-based teaching, deliver significantly greater results than if a purely didactic, "drill and kill": mentality is used for teaching subjects which have a high degree of conceptual learning associated with them. The one unequivocal point from the analysis and study completed is that the use of highly didactic and inflexible teaching strategies that do not allow for student interaction with complex concepts is more ineffective than initially thought. The old paradigm of concepts taught only through lectures or using overheads is quickly giving way to more fluid, interactive and participatory approaches to learning, often with significantly more positive outcomes for both the instructor and students. Participatory teaching strategies supporting by interactive technologies, inclusive of but not entirely based on Web 2.0 technologies, predominates the most effective teaching strategies found during this analysis. Instructors and students both can welcome the end of the "drill and kill" mindset of teaching, where rote memorization and mechanized problem solving give way to more self-efficacy nurtured and strengthened through scaffolding strategies (Bereiter, 2002), all predicated on the selective use of information technologies including Web 2.0 and social networks, but not entirely based on them alone. The model proposed in this chapter takes into account the intermediating effects of teaching strategies with consideration of how the Web 2.0 Toolbox contributes to greater learning while also taking into account the critical success factor of trust. For long-term learning to occur, trust must be strengthened and nurtured through scaffolding-based strategies. The following factors must also be coordinated so that students attain autonomy, mastery and purpose, as these are the core components of transforming their mindset and perception to become lifelong learners.

Problem Statement

How students perceive the value of the Web 2.0 Toolbox and how these attitudes determine the level of credibility, trust and validity they assign to these collections of technologies and tools is the focus of this study. The risks and consequences of using social networks as a platform of learning are assessment, and a proposed model that seeks to define the equilibrium points between learning, self-efficacy and trust is defined.

There are several challenges however with measuring the perceived risks and consequences of the Web 2.0 toolbox. Web 2.0 technologies' key design objectives that are participative, not hierarchical or technology-driven, as is shown in Figure 1, The Web 2.0 Meme Map. The concept of the Web as a platform or operating system and participative use of data dominates the definition of Web 2.0 (Cronin, 2009). This complicates and makes more challenging the aspect of separately measuring the specific attributes or tools and their concerted, often synchronized use across a learning institution or organization. Differentiating between attitudinal perception of a given Web 2.0 toolbox component and its actual effectiveness requires a methodology that takes into account social learning as well.

Figure 1: The Web 2.0 Meme Map

Source: (O'Reilly, 2006)

Second, the benefits, risks and consequences of having social networking become integral to formal learning environments needs to take into account how effective their use is in the context of learner-centered pedagogical frameworks. This is different from the concept of individual scaffolding (Najjar, 2008) yet just as critical from the standpoint of creating a stable, trusted, yet agile and responsive learning network that learners can benefit from long-term. While social networks certainly deliver exceptional opportunities for collaboration and communication, they do not lend themselves to the development of learner-centered pedagogical frameworks (Boyd, 2007). As a result, this is a nascent area of attitudinal and empirical research as well. While there is certainly an architectural support for participation, how this aspect of learning is managed, and its effects on the attitudinal views of social networks, is also a nascent field of research. The connection between social networking's innate openness for communication and collaboration needs to be balanced with learner-centered pedagogical frameworks and support of an architecture for learning if insights into learner's attitudes are to be gained.

Third, students perceive the value of the Web 2.0 toolbox as a total solution, not looking at the value or performance of each individual element or tool in the set used. As instructors are often combining social networking tools and applications to attain a specific learning outcome, measuring the incremental benefits of each tool is needed. Measurement needs to encompass social learning or collaborative aspects in addition to those defined by the specific learning strategy. As students use more social networking tools from the Web 2.0 toolbox the accumulated expertise they have grows significantly over time

(Boyd, 2007), which makes the delineation of each tools' value more difficult to determine, either attitudinally or empirically. All tools in the Web 2.0 toolbox then create a combined experience effect or product a learning economy of scale that in total greatly benefit the student, yet are difficult to isolate form a contributory effect. The use of nominal and ordinal-based analyses to determine the relative value of each is a potential approach to solving this problem. Pareto analysis of the performance of each of the components in the Web 2.0 toolbox can also contribute to greater insights into the contributions of each.

Fourth, the benefits of informal learning using the Web 2.0 toolbox and applications is assessable through attitudinal surveys and studies of learner's perceptions of each Web 2.0's application value. The effectiveness of these specific applications however requires empirical analysis and cross-referencing to their relative perception of effectiveness. Learners may gravitate towards those Web 2.0 tools that are highly conversational and communicative in nature, for example Twitter, yet the value of this platform from a learning perspective may be far outdistanced by blogs and Wikis, two forms of knowledge management for example. In short,… READ MORE

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