My Space is not YourSpace: The promise and pitfalls of Online social Networking

Presenters:

Alan Foley
Hal Meeks

links:

http://www.halmeeks.net/
http://www.alan-foley.net/

Summary

Online social construct such as Flickr, You tube, MySpace, blogs, and wikis represent forms of socil computing that are wildliy popular, but perhaps seem out of place in a distance education course. There are attractive aspects of these constructs: the level of engagement of the participants, the occasional deep discussion, the mixture of forms of literacy, and the simplicity of publication.

Do they fit in a learning environment?
Are online coursework systems "just as good"?
Social Constructs are not only a LMS
What can we learn about this.

Teaching and learning environment.
Tension between instruction designers and games.
Standard teaching models are based on "scientific" practices.
Models fail to consider social and cultural aspects of technology within society.

Teaching systems assume student learning interactions.
Distance education: once used to overcome phusical separation, now refers to the tools that are used. Shift is to the term "online education"

Style of learing - how technology shapes physical learning spaces
For example: Power Point (Classic form of education)
Tools reflect the student teacher relationship.
Roles in standard e-learing tools (e.g. LMS) often are static and defined.
Chat fomums outside of a course settings tend to be much more effective.
Online social constructs are disruptive both pedagogically and conceptually.
Disruption is a recurring theme in the study of the impact of the appication of technology on a field.
How do we fulfil the promise of not as good as , but superior?
We have to learn from the social dynamic.