Andrew Middleton
Sheffield Hallam University
Social media is becoming a critical part of the higher education learning environment. The paper draws upon a series of international case studies on the innovative practices of academics, students and other learners. While the interest in online social networking has shone a light on and demonstrated the value of interpersonal networked behaviours, the case studies challenge the dualistic discourse that positions social media as a distinct space. The studies confirm that social networking is better understood as a lived experience rather than a digital phenomenon. For example, they reflect the thinking of Wenger et al. (2011, p.9) who describe the importance of “participants who have personal reasons to connect” and the affordances of network structures for learning, such as “information flows, helpful linkages, joint problem solving, and knowledge creation” (ibid). This situated view of social media for learning helps to reveal a transformed future learning space. The research positions social media as a critical component of a new connected and hybrid learning space in which personal and personalised media establish a platform of self-defined learning space in which learning and teaching takes new forms. We will consider alternative user-driven, learner-centred spaces including unCollege (Stephens, 2013) and Philosophy in Pubs (PiPs n.d.), as well as changing behaviours in more conventional spaces.
Findings from an analysis of 30 case studies will be presented and mapped to the Social Open Learning Environment model of hybrid learning space (author, 2015). Interdependent and autonomous networking amongst communities of inquiry (Garrison, et al., 2000) supersedes hierarchical learning relationships in the emergent SOLE. The SOLE incorporates a heutagogical philosophy (Hase & Kenyon, 2015) and apprenticeship models of learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991) in which each learner is guided and supported in co-producing their own learning network and community of practice. This change is happening across previously distinct, albeit artificial divisions, usually described as binary associations including physical-virtual, formal-informal, and independent-social. The hybrid SOLE reflects the concept of learning ecologies and convergent thinking in the areas of open education, mobile learning, social media, personalised learning and the learner-generated context that challenges simplistic and outmoded notions of learning space towards establishing critical learning contexts and behaviours.
References:
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical Thinking and Computer Conferencing: A model and tool to assess cognitive presence. Retrieved July 15, 2003 from:www.atl.ualberta.ca/cmc/CogPresPaper_June30_.pdf
Hase, S. & Kenyon, C., eds. (2015). Self-determined learning: Heutagogy in action. London: Bloomsbury.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press.
author (2015). Smart, social, open and media enhanced learning: the power of the multiplier effect. OER15 Conference, ‘Mainstreaming Open Education’, 14th & 15th April 2015
Stephens, D.J. (2013). Hacking your education: ditch the lectures, save tens of thousands, and learn more than your peers ever will. New York: Perigee Books
Wenger, E., Trayner, B., & Laat, M. d. (2011). Promoting and assessing value creation in communities and networks: A conceptual framework. Heerlen, Netherlands: Ruud de Moor Centrum, Open Universiteit of the Netherlands