Social Media in Learning examples

MAKING SENSE OF SOCIAL LEARNING
Social Learning and 5 types of learning

Previous page: Formal and Informal Social Learning

On the previous page I identified 5 categories of learning where social media is being used:

IOL - Intra-Organisational Learning - how social media can be used to keep the employees up to date and up to speed on strategic and other internal initiatives and activities

FSL - Formal Structured Learning - how educators (teachers, trainers, learning designers) as well as students can use social media within formal education and training

GDL - Group Directed Learning - how groups of individuals - teams, projects, study groups etc - can use social media to work and learn together (Note: a "group" could be as small as two people, so coaching and mentoring falls into this category)

PDL - Personal Directed Learning - how individuals can use social media for their own (self-directed) personal or professional learning

ASL - Accidental & Serendipitous Learning - how individuals, by using social media, can learn without consciously realising it (aka incidental or random learning)

Below are specific ways that different types of social media can be used in each of the 5 categories. (Note in Section 2 of this guide you can find more detailed view of each of the different learning categories and how social media can be used)

IOL FSL GDL PDL ASL

BLOGGING

Senior managers can write blogs about their perspective on the organisation: strategy, etc, which employees can comment on
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Project teams can write blog postings about current initiatives that others in the organisation should know about - and comment on
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Educators can write course blogs to host an entire course ●

Educators can write course blogs to provide a chronological focus for assignments, a site for student interaction and discussion, where students can contribute thoughts and experiences, and provide additional information following classes that students find difficult ●

Educators can write course blogs that can be used to create a community of learners following learning events ●

Educators can write a daily blog to share a daily training tip, piece of vocabulary, etc ●

Students can write a student blog to reflect on their learning in the course (e.g. Learning Logs), and to comment on the other student blogs. ●

Students can use course (or personal) blogs to post ePortfolios ●

Individuals in groups can write (and read) postings in a group blog to keep others in the group up to date with what happening in the team, group, project ●

Individuals can read (and comment on) a range of internal and external blogs ● ● ●

Individuals can write their own blogs for general reflection on what they have read or heard about in order o make sense of things ● ●

Individuals writing their own blogs for philosophizing, providing opinions, or to record updates on their own activities ●

PODCASTING

Managers can create briefings and strategy podcasts for whole organisation use, and project teams can create project update podcasts ●

Educators can create course podcasts ●

Students can create their own course/classroom podcasts ●

Individuals can listen to course (and course-related) podcasts created internally or externally ● ●

Individuals can listen to a range of internal and external informational and instructional podcasts ● ●

Individuals can create personal podcasts for philosophising, providing opinion, or to record updates about their own activities ●

RSS FEEDS & READERS

Managers and project teams can share information/activity feeds with the rest of the organisation for employees to read in their feed readers ● ●

Educators can share course RSS feed so that students are kept up to date on activity in the course ●

Educators can share course-related RSS feeds so that students can access other related course information ●

Students read course and course-related RSS feeds in their RSS readers ●

Groups can read (internal and external) group-related RSS feeds in a RSS reader ●

Individuals can read a range of (internal and external) RSS feeds in a RSS reader to keep them continuously up to date with what is happening in their area of personal or professional interest, as well as for inspiration ● ●

MICR0-BLOGGING SERVICE

Employees can use a micro-blogging service to keep colleagues in the organisation up to date with what they are doing or working on ●

Educators can keep their students up to date with course news and information as and where to find it ●

Students can get a daily or more frequent training tip, piece of vocabulary, etc ●

Educators and students can use this as a backchannel during a live learning event ●

Groups can use micro-blogging to keep each other up-to-date using tags to keep group-related content together ●

Individuals can use micro-blogging as a backchannel to group events to add extra value to presentations or discussions ● ●

Individuals can keep up to date with activities, ideas and resources from others in their network (internal or external); to hear from thought leaders and to get inspiration ●

Individual can share their own activities, ideas and resources with others in their network ●

Individuals can ask questions and get immediate replies from those in their network - a performance support tool ●

Individuals can find out about things they would otherwise have missed or to learn completely new things ●

PHOTO SHARING

Organisations can share organisational photos, images and clip art for use in organisational projects, PowerPoints, etc ●

Educators can use public domain/Creative Commons licensed, or even commercial, photos in their blogs, PowerPoints or classrooms/workshops ●

Individuals can browse photo libraries to find new things ●

PRESENTATION SHARING

Presentations by senior managers, project teams etc can be shared with the whole organisation for comment and feedback ●

Educators can share their own as well as other user-generated presentations and embed them in blogs, websites, etc ●

Students can create and share their own presentations for courses, which others can comment on ●

Groups can create and share presentations for their group use ●

Individuals can locate and learn from user-generated presentations on many different subjects ● ●

Individuals can browse presentation sharing sites to find out about new things ●

SCREENCAST SHARING

Educators can create and share screencasts aka tutorials or software demos, to explain how a piece of software works or to carry out specific tasks - with or without narration ●

Educators can embed their own or other user-generated screencasts in presentations, blogs, websites etc ●

Groups can create and share screencasts for their group use, e.g to demonstrate how to use some software or carry out a process ●

Individuals can access and learn from user-generated screencasts on many different applications ● ●

VIDEO SHARING

Video recordings of senior managers' briefings and projects can be shared with the whole organisation ●

Educators can quickly create short instructional videos and share with their students ●

Educators can embed other useful, relevant and/or inspirational user-generated videos into course blogs, wikis, etc ●

Students can create their own videos and share them with the rest of the course as well as comment on (eg peer assess) those created by others ●

Students can locate and view course-related videos on video sharing sites ●

Groups can create and share videos for their group use ●

Individuals can browse video sharing sites for new things ●

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

All employees within an organisation can contribute to a library of internal (and even external) links relevant to different activities and projects categorised using specific tags.
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Educators and students can build a course library of relevant course links (to research, presentations, videos, etc) using a course tag ●

Students can search social bookmarking sites for resources (identifying the best by the number of times they have been saved) ●

Groups can create a group or project library of links using a group tag ●

Individuals can save, tag, share and easily find websites of personal or professional interest to them ●

Individuals can see what others with similar personal, professional or research interests are bookmarking ●

Individuals can browse social bookmarking sites to find links to resources that can help prompt ideas and creativity ●

COLLABORATIVE CALENDARING

Organisational dates can be scheduled and shared ●

Educators can create course timetables sharing relevant dates - assignment submission and other events ●

Educators can organise teaching schedules through their teaching timetables ●

Educators can share their timetables that show open office hours or for students to book appointments ● ●

Groups can schedule group/project meetings and events ●

Individuals can share their own personal diaries - for meeting or appointment planning ●

COLLABORATIVE MIND MAPPING

Educators can use mind maps for creating a visual organiser for teaching content for conceptual understanding with their classes or workshops ●

Groups can brainstorm collectively and visually, e.g. to develop solutions to complex problems ●

Individuals can create their own conceptual maps of content and ideas ●

COLLABORATIVE DOCUMENTS, PRESENTATIONS & SPREADSHEETS

Educators can share documents (articles, presentations, spreadsheets) they have created with their students for comment ●

Students can write, edit, brainstorm and compare points of view on a shared document ●

Students can contribute data (via an online form) which is collected in a spreadsheet ●

Students can contribute to a collaborative assignments, where each of their contribution is noted ●

Groups can work together on collaborative documents, e.g. agendas, strategy, project or bid documents, academic papers, presentations and spreadsheets ●

Groups can use online forms to create surveys and add data into a spreadsheet ●

Individuals can create documents and then share them for review (rather than editing) ●

COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACES

Educators can set up a collaborative class space, into which they embed videos, documents, presentations etc, and which students can interact with and contribute to. ●

Students can set up their own workspace which they can use for personal assignments and activities, and which can be peer- or instructor assessed ●

Groups can set up group spaces for specific projects to link to and store group resources ●

Individuals can set up personal workspaces to link to and store their own personal or professional resources ●

SOCIAL NETWORK/COMMUNITY

An organisation can set up a community or network of its employees in order for contacts to be established with colleagues, and easy communication and collaboration between colleagues (ask questions, have discussions, etc) . ● ●

A school/college/university can set up a social networking site for students to network, communicate and collaborate with one another across the institution. This could also be available to them as an alumni after they graduate. ●

Educators can set up a "class social network" or "learning community" for students to meet and communicate with one another - before, during and after the course ●

Groups can set up "communities of practice" for projects and teams (ask questions, have discussions) ●

Individuals can join professional networks to learn from other like minded people (ask questions, have discussions) ●

Individuals can join personal networks to communicate with friends and family, (ask questions, have discussions) ●

SOCIAL & COLLABORATION ENVIRONMENT

An organisation can set up a social and collaboration environment to provide all the social functionality described above - to allow employees to communicate, collaborate and share with one another ● ● ● ●

A school/college/university or other training organisation can set up a social and collaboration environment to provide all the social functionality described above to allow staff and student to communicate, collaborate and share both in formal class spaces as well as in study groups, project groups and individually ● ● ● ●

Next page: Examples of social learning in the workplace

Reading List:

Social Learning - (E-)Learning 2.0