Social Learning

Comment

Comment by Bex Lewis on November 24, 2009 at 5:46pm

Interesting @SueWatling: "both staff and students can be reluctant to engage unless it offers a better way to do what they can already do". I think that's what technology needs to offer... it's not always the best way - but it's worth trying! Need those "ambassadors" for change, who can demonstrate the benefits, then we can start to reach a tipping point...

Comment by ILANGO PONNUSWAMI on November 18, 2009 at 10:03pm

I strongly feel that social media should be used more and more for making higher education meaningful and purposeful. I would like to learn from the members of this e-group and would be even interested in joining hands with them in promoting the use of social media in higher education.

Comment by Paun Cornelia on November 18, 2009 at 1:38pm

Dr. Paun Cornelia : I think that the use of social media for formal and informal learning it has an important role in education.
The organizers had a great idea by proposing to discuss this subject.

Comment by Paun Cornelia on November 17, 2009 at 4:14pm

Dr. Paun Cornelia : I wish to exchange educational experience in teaching activity between different educational systems.

Comment by Sue Watling on October 13, 2009 at 8:26am

Hi All - we find that using social virtual media can be similar to using institutional virtual learning enivironments - both staff and students can be reluctant to engage unless it offers a better way to do what they can already do. Starting up is usually ok - it's keeping the momentum and the motivation that has been the challenge. Am looking forward to picking up some ideas and strategies for ensuring continued participation.

Comment by Kevin Mobbs on July 7, 2009 at 12:46pm

Diane: Brilliant idea on the extra credit tweets. I will borrow that one. Thanks. -km

Comment by Kevin Mobbs on July 7, 2009 at 12:46pm

Jody: Thanks for your suggestions. That is exactly what I have setup to try this fall. We use WebCT which I plan to use for Admin (grades, quizzes, etc.). I have created a Ning with the purpose of keeping the students engaged in the course even as they are working on other tasks. It was my theory, which has been supported by presentations at the Ed-Media conference and some recent publications, that students would be more engaged in the familiar social environments than anything in WebCT. Getting them to open up in WebCT is like having a birthday party at the Dentist's office.

Comment by Chris Boyd Brewer on July 7, 2009 at 10:06am

Looking forward to finding out more.

Comment by Diane Mickey on July 4, 2009 at 2:34pm

My students are reading my "tweets" regularly. I tweet extra credit and their response has to be made within 24 hours. This keeps my course on their mind because they are constantly checking for information. Sometimes I will even give them the answer to one of their exam questions and delete it within 24 hours. Those who checked twitter will get the advantage on the next exam.

Comment by Jody Strauch on July 3, 2009 at 2:11pm

Kevin (and others interested): I just finished my first online class (a copyediting class) and used a combination of tools.

I used our online classroom management program as much as possible (grades, document uploads, just basic organization) but started a class community using Ning (just like this one). I enjoyed being able to see the students' faces and I used it as my "office hours" as students could do instant chat through Ning (of course most weren't there; they were up at 2 a.m. doing the class!).

The Ning community was also a great place to have class discussions on various topics (like ethics, case studies, etc.) I am now however researching some grading matrices for discussions, not something I thought about that much until my first online course.

I only had a blog as a place to post some practice quizzes I had created through a free online site (http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/) and found the blog environment the easiest for doing the test online. However, in retrospect, I think the blog might be a good place to tackle those concepts that the majority of students were having trouble with.

Hope that helps some as you start. The key is to being as organized as possible BEFORE the class starts. I was for the most part which was good so I could handle other problems that popped up and not worry about prepping so much.

Sorry this is long but was hoping others might get some inspiration from my pros and cons and maybe get some feedback myself on making improvements.

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