Learning is social - so use social software for learning

29-September-2005

comments (1)
[ social software , ICT and learning ]
Web 2 and social software remove the anonymity of web based contributions and encourage the use of the internet not for interaction with computers - as in programmed learning - but interaction between people. Web 2 and social software allow people to develop and participate in communities of practice or communities of interest. This is a massive change and should herald a paradigm change in pedagogic approaches to e-learning.

I am going to post something much longer on this. But this will get me started on the theme.

For some time I have been bothered about a contradiction between the nature of learning - which I believe is inherently a social process - and the individual and anonymous nature of e-learning.

Last year I hammered out a series of (unpublished and unfinished) notes on the need to develop what I termed 'presence' on the net.

I am increasingly convinced that web 2 and social software overcomes this contradiction. Web 2 and social software remove the anonymity of web based contributions and encourage the use of the internet not for interaction with computers - as in programmed learning - but interaction between people.

Web 2 and social software allow people to develop and participate in communities of practice or communities of interest.

This is a massive change and should herald a paradigm change in pedagogic approaches to e-learning.

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Graham Attwell; 29-September-2005 15:31:43;

1 Replies (comments)

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1 Social learning

My experiences show that social tools like elgg.net provide both the learning and the social tools for the web. We have been using a combination of ELGG and Moodle with a healthcare region to provide both informal and more formal learning contexts and it's well-received by the participants. Other tools like skype or a two-way conferencing system would help (we currently use Marratech, but it's proprietary). I discuss some of this at www.jarche.com
Harold Jarche, 03-October-2005 02:43:34
Latest reply: 04-Oct-2005 03:08 by TRUJILLO2005; FROM. CHILE TRUJILLO,TECHNOLOGIES FOR LEARNING GROUP.