Learning with social media: an overview.
November 18, 2009
So a few days ago, I was a presenter for the future of learning in our NCT class.
IMO, it was a very eye-opening experience for both us presenters and the audience. While Mikh and Zam spoke about learning environments and learning in the past respectively, I presented about something ‘close to our hearts’ – learning through social media/technology, A.K.A. social learning.
“Social technologies, aka social media, are a new breed of technologies that have developed over the last few years that have changed the face of the Web and are having a big impact on all aspects of life – working, learning and playing” – Stolen from somewhere off the internetz
Simply, we have moved from web 1.0: the “read-only web”
to web 2.0:
- the “read-write” web
- Supports user-generated content, that is content created by “users”
- encourages the social aspect of the web
Essentially, social media + learning = social learning, it’s what happens when we apply Web 2.0, social technologies to learning. E-Learning (week? 
) 1.0 was all about delivering content, primarily in the form of online courses, produced by experts. E-Learning 2.0 (social learning) is all about people like me and you creating content in a variety of formats and sharing it via blogs, wikis, social bookmarking and social networks. This is going to be the new, collaborative and convenient in which we learn, be it in/formally.
I feel that social learning can create more powerful and enduring learning experiences through the use of online communities and networks, where learners are encouraged to co-create, collaborate and share knowledge and fully participate in their learning. I really hope this gives you people out there some food for thought. And when you digest that food, please tell me that I’m not delusional.
