2. You’ve heard of “safety in numbers.”
You may not have heard of “learning
in numbers”…though you’ve probably
already done it.
Working together has been part of the educational process since ancient Greece, if not before. But in to-
day’s increasingly collaborative world, where answers to information are mere seconds away, this approach
is being reinvented by active learners, for active learners. Ongoing improvements in personal technology
means to teach and learn.
LET’S GO MYTH-BUSTING.
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Debunking 4 Myths of Social Learning
3. Myth 1: Social Learning Is New
We all want the next big thing. But the next big thing is not
always the next new thing.
well-known theory of modern social learning, which
proposes that people can learn in a social context.
outcomes
in behavior
(for both the observed party and the learner)
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Debunking 4 Myths of Social Learning
4. reinforcement of knowledge that comes with the “human connection,” are as
valid today.
However, the advent of social networking technologies has helped create a
new breed of social learning. In today’s environment, instructors still act as
models, facilitators, mentors, and guides, but at the same time relinquish a
degree of their authority to the “learning community,” which includes stu-
dents in the classroom, remotely located students, and a huge variety of
resources that are as close as an Internet connection. In turn, each individual
in the network of learners actively shares both knowledge and challenges.
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Debunking 4 Myths of Social Learning
5. Myth 2: Social Learning Is the
Same as Social Media
Social media and social learning are as much the same as French fries and
French toast. In other words, they’re different (but both wonderful).
easy and motivate people to connect, share information, and develop relation-
ships. Yet they can also provide the means to wander aimlessly, discovering
people and information that may serve no value when it comes to learning.
guidelines on how to reach them (such as input from an instructor or lesson
plan) can be used to facilitate formal social learning. However, social learn-
-
ple, a group of students who get together to study for an upcoming test.
-
ing and social media exist separately, but social media can be used in sup-
port of social learning.
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Debunking 4 Myths of Social Learning
6. -
-
less social learning opportunities.
Researchers Baiyun Chen and Thomas Bryer found that online social tools
provide learners with “connections across boundaries and over time” and fa-
cilitate informal discussion and collaboration (key elements of social learning).
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Debunking 4 Myths of Social Learning
7. Myth 3: Social Learning Is Just for Fun
-
-
teractive nature of social learning exponentially
shared.
Both individuals and institutions reap real ben-
interactive nature of social learning exponential-
be shared and questions can be answered.
Duke University
Collaborative Learning for the Digital Age in The
Chronicle of Higher Education, she describes a course she offers at Duke
on a suggested reading list that included specialized journals, popular maga-
zines, and websites, but was to be “peer-led, with student interest and re-
search driving the design.”
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Debunking 4 Myths of Social Learning
8. Regular blog posts were also a requirement of the course, and much to her
surprise Davidson discovered “that the most elegant bloggers often turned
out to be the clunkiest and most pretentious of research-paper writers.”
Her experiences offers insight into how contemporary social learning frees
learners to better process content and better retain what they have learned.
When allowed to let go of the rules that accompany formal term papers, the
to interact with course content in ways that were more meaningful to them
than a traditional format “that invites, even requires, linguistic and syntactic
gobbledygook.”
Davidson, a professor of interdisciplinary studies at Duke University and one
to point out that social learning does far more than simply give license to
gossip with peers or surf online content. In fact, existing research indicates
when it will be evaluated by peers as well as teachers
less plagiarism, and generally better, more elegant and persuasive
prose than classroom assignments by the same writers
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Debunking 4 Myths of Social Learning
9. Myth 4: Social Learning Doesn’t
Have Broad Appeal
social learning is here to stay.
Social learning may be hyped, but that does not mean it is a passing trend.
Modern day
SOCIAL TOOLS ARE MAKING THE WEB “OLD SCHOOL”
than 62% (from 1 out of 13 minutes to 1 out of 8) between 2011 and 2012.
hours during the same period.
He attributes this to the fact that “the connected social web is alive, moving,
as universal reference, but hardly a personal experience.”
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Debunking 4 Myths of Social Learning
10. The connected social
which stimulate learning.
web is alive, mov-
ing, proactive, and TODAY’S ACTIVE LEARNERS ARE DEMANDING AND BENEFITING
FROM SOCIAL LEARNING
personal, while the Mashable Tech reported that after adopting a pilot social media learning
document web is just
-
an artifact — ments for no credit.
suited as universal
TWEETS IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE CLASSICS
reference, but
hardly a personal
must be in keeping with plot and character development.
experience.
— BEN ELOWITZ
Founder & CEO, Wetpaint greater insight into the material. Instructor Byron Grigsby, who is also the
school’s vice president of academic affairs, said, “(It’s) causing them to
think about the characters in different ways.”
A NEW BEDTIME ROUTINE
Fourth graders at an IDEAL-New Mexico
-
pated in for one hour, once a week at home. She found her students so ex-
cited to read with each other that after the hour long collaborative session
ended, they consistently asked the teacher for more group reading time.
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Debunking 4 Myths of Social Learning
11. Whether you’re just starting to explore
methodologies or looking to enhance
your current efforts, we want to hear
about your social learning experiences. D
C
of
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Debunking 4 Myths of Social Learning
