Abstract
This paper presents two conceptual models that we have developed for understanding ways that social media can support learning. One model relates to the “social” aspect of social media, describing the different ways that people can learn with and from each other, in one or more of three social forms: groups, networks and sets. The other model relates to the ‘media’ side of social media, describing how technologies are constructed and the roles that people play in creating and enacting them, treating them in terms of softness and hardness. The two models are complementary: neither provides a complete picture but, in combination, they help to explain how and why different uses of social media may succeed or fail and, as importantly, are intended to help us design learning activities that make most effective use of the technologies. We offer some suggestions as to how media used to support different social forms can be softened and hardened for different kinds of learning applications.
Highlights
Social Systems for LearningSocial media allow people to learn from and with one another in many different ways
We present and relate perspectives on social technologies for learning: the first concerns the social forms that such technologies support; the second deals with the nature and structure of those technologies
There is not just a vast amount of information available on the Internet as a whole but enormous numbers of people that we do not know, yet who may teach us, support us, and help us to solve our problems. This is poorly charted territory: we know a great deal about how intentionally formed, purpose-built groups can assist our learning, but we know far less about how it can happen in the kind of collections of people linked together through social media, on the web and through mobile apps. To help understand this and as a means of bringing conceptual order to guide more effective use, we have found it useful to think of social media as supporting varying mixtures of three basic social forms: the group, the network and the set
Summary
Social media allow people to learn from and with one another in many different ways. Typically, neither teachers nor learners are provided with much conceptual training or support for either understanding or making the design decisions so that they can anticipate and channel the effects of. Sci. 2014, 3 social media on learning They are left to their own devices and whatever support can be gained from their learning networks to use or create learning technologies that perform the work of helping people to learn. We have written about each of these perspectives separately in the past [1,2] and found them useful as distinct tools for understanding social systems. Together, they provide a consolidated lens for examining our practices, and a means to think about how to use and create social technologies to support learning and teaching in different social learning contexts
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