Rethinking sociocultural notions of learning in the digital era: Understanding the affordances of networked platforms

Aslı Ünlüsoy,Kevin M Leander,Mariëtte De Haan

doi:10.1177/20427530211032302

Aslı Ünlüsoy, Kevin M Leander + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1177/20427530211032302

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Abstract

Understanding the affordances that networked platforms offer is a good place to start rethinking our notions of learning. The article discusses how social connectivity has changed, arguing that networking and networks have become foregrounded in how we perceive and experience our (digital) social worlds. Our aim is to understand the nature of networked structures, and the networked practices that these have enabled, to shed light upon how they ‘work’ for learning. While making use of the concept of affordances, the article discusses a selection of four affordances of digital networks (visibility, scalability, flexibility and persistence) and argues how these impact upon opportunities to learn through social media. The article finally critically reflects on how sociocultural theories of learning need expansion and revision, given social changes involving the rise of social media, but it also shows how this perspective leads the way in pointing to new challenges for theorising learning.

Highlights

There is a wealth of literature on learning in the 21st century covering a wide range of issues from how ICT could be implemented in education to skills that are essential for a new generation of learners
Creating more insight into how this might work is of key importance for the learning sciences, as we start to realise that many of our theories are still based on learning in environments and settings that deviate fundamentally from these digitally networked practices
Our contribution to this question is inspired by analyses of the socio-technological affordances offered by networked platforms

Summary

Introduction

There is a wealth of literature on learning in the 21st century covering a wide range of issues from how ICT could be implemented in education to skills that are essential for a new generation of learners. We are still figuring out how these socio-technological changes relate to our development and learning as individuals and as societies more fundamentally, and how we should rethink earlier concepts of learning and instruction considering these changes. In this conceptual review article, our aim is to understand the nature of networked structures as the fundament of social media, and the learning practices that these structures have facilitated, to shed light upon how they work for learning. The key argument we will defend in this article is that understanding the affordances offered by social media is a good place to start rethinking concepts of learning

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