Networked Learning Environments Research Articles

Construction and Application of Interactive Network Learning Platform in Information Age

With the development of Internet technology, network learning has become an important form of learning in today's society. Network learning is inseparable from the network, and interaction is an important part of online learning, which has a very important position and role in the development and application of network learning platform. In this paper, network learning environment lacks substance interaction and network learning community ignores teaching based on literature research and network investigation of network learning environment. And this article proposes the method that contains substance navigation strategy based on question, establishment situation animation and giving the positive appraisal which can solve the problem that network learning environment lacks substance interaction, proposes the method that contains controlling jurisdiction of debarkation, establishing hierarchical system and Inviting the expert to seat guests which can solve the problem that network learning community ignores teaching.

From deconstructive misalignment to constructive alignment: Exploring student uses of mobile technologies in university classrooms

Becoming increasingly ubiquitous for students are the various uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) within their wireless and networked learning environments. Many students use ICTs during lectures or tutorials for tasks unrelated to class learning activities, thus providing a potential misalignment with the intended learning outcomes. A sample of undergraduate and postgraduate psychology and business students were surveyed to determine their frequency of mobile ICT use in the classroom and the students' motivations and rationale for undertaking those activities unrelated to classroom learning. The survey contained quantitative items (categorical and Likert scale response items) and qualitative items requiring responses to open ended questions. Students indicated that using ICTs in ways misaligned with lesson learning outcomes, was related to the course content delivery mode, the promotion of passive or active learning, being domestic or international students, learner maturity, and the need for supporting course information. Understanding how and why students use mobile ICTs in classes can inform the redesign of classroom activities, to actively involve those technologies to assist in constructive alignment with the learning outcomes and enhance the student learning experience.

A drawing learning support system based on the drawing process model

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore a support system for beginners in drawing in a networked environment. Learners can receive advice and assessments from art experts without time and/or place constraints by using the proposed system. The authors investigate the possibilities of online supporting drawing learning. Two key factors are introduced: a digital pen as a drawing tool and a drawing process model (DPM). Design/methodology/approach – The major difference between an offline drawing class and an online drawing class is the availability of instruction during learners' drawing. The instruction for the learners' drawing process is more important than instructional comments for his/her work. Therefore, quick and personalized feedback from a tutor is an indispensable function for a networked learning environment. In this study, the learner's drawing process that is recorded by a digital pen is reused in order to replay and refer his/her drawing process. To generate an evaluation for the drawing process automatically, these data are also reused in the system the authors propose. Findings – The paper provides three findings. One is the DPM to capture learner's drawing features. Second is a drawing learning support system based on the DPM. And third is a feasibility study of the support system in a real art school. In this study, the learner's drawing process is reused in two evaluations. One is the tutors' evaluation, and the other is the system's evaluation. For the latter, the authors implemented the automated evaluation function based on the DPM. This model consists of three types of parameters. They are the drawing step, the drawing phase and the features of the drawing strokes. Research limitations/implications – Because of the art school curriculum, the authors cannot examine the learning effectiveness deeply. So the research results in this paper may lack generality. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed approach further. Practical implications – The paper includes implication for the skill learning support based on the ICT. Originality/value – This paper fulfils an identified need to capture and support how drawing behaviour can be done.

Ecological Design in Network Learning Resources

In the rapid development of information technology, education, change of social background, the word "ecology" is more and more get the favor of education researchers. Ecological network learning environment to the learner and learning environment as a whole, focus on the interaction between learners and learning environment, attention generated in the learning process, focus on formation and maintenance of network learning ecology, is considered to be adapt to the future development trend of network learning environment. Ecology "based on" ecological learning "and" learning "learning ecosystem" supplies "as keywords to retrieve relevant literature, through to classify the literature, comparative analysis, think: the ecological network learning environment research comes from WebX.0, mix (a surgeon - up), the development of cloud computing and other technical and support; ecological psychology, Theory of complexity theory, uniform for ecological design of the network learning environment provide direct theoretical support.

Lost in transition? Making sense of space:time configurations across workplace and educational boundaries

Transitions are part of the experience of Higher Education. These include beginnings, endings and also frequent transitions across physical and online settings, particularly for those on professional programmes where continual movements between work-based placements and university environments are commonplace. This paper argues that such transitions can be regarded as chronotopic movements. A chronotope (Bakhtin, 1981) is a space:time configuration where time and space are dialectically related and where such relationships help to make transitions meaningful. Rather than seeing space as a container and time as immutable, chronotopes allow us to understand how spatiality and temporality can act as resources in learning (Lemke, 2004). Networked learning can also be understood chronotopically through shifting and evolving forms of digital and physical space that are constructed through time and changes in culture. The paper draws on findings from a study of third year medical students on clinical placements going through daily transitions between clinical and educational settings. Students were transitioning between different cultures and practices involving new ways of working, access to and use of technology and where the culture of clinical specialisms heavily influenced both available tools and practices. Networked technologies helped students create stability, as they were learning whilst on the move and needed to transport work with them. Moving between different settings and contexts was very time and resource intensive and assumptions were made by tutors about the ease of transitions. Students constructed new artefacts, in response to the need to manage and make sense of multiple resources and types of information. Working across boundaries and in new space:time configurations was also found to involve frequent adaptations of roles where student agency and resourcefulness were critical. Digital media are culturally situated tools and artefacts, forming part of students' identity performances (Holland et al, 1998) as they moved between different specialisms and settings. The paper concludes that networked learning environments helped in managing the fluidity and changes of space and time when working and learning across changing contexts. Chronotopes acted as resources to help students make sense of their education and manage the continual changes of culture and identity, contingent on agency and available tools and artefacts. Networked learning environments offer distinct and dynamic chronotopes, allowing new forms of practice and discourse to emerge which are critical for students' sense making when transitioning between contexts and cultures.

Networked Environments That Create Hybrid Spaces for Learning Science

Networked learning environments that embed the essence of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework utilise pedagogies that encourage dialogic practices. This can be of significance for classroom teaching across all curriculum areas. In science education, networked environments are thought to support student investigations of scientific problems, including the collection and processing of data, and construction of explanations and conclusions. Student engagement that involves thinking about and questioning key scientific processes and ideas is argued to address the challenges of making school science more relevant. In this article, examples from two studies are presented where New Zealand teachers employed networked technologies, including Moodle (a learning management system) and Wallwisher (an online notice board). These examples illustrate how face-to-face classroom teaching practices can be complemented with online learning practices. The CoI framework was used to examine how the social, cognitive and teaching dimensions of online student communities were similar and yet distinct to the face-to-face communities they belonged to. Findings showed that the CoI framework helped to unpack how networked environments created hybrid spaces where classroom interaction possibilities were extended, and new layers of knowledge construction added in support of students' growing authority and accountability for their learning.

Development of a self-study and testing function for NetPowerLab, an IP networking practice system

It is important for beginning network engineering students to frequently practice setting up fundamental IP networks according to predetermined procedures. To provide an IP network learning environment, we have been developing NetPowerLab, a hands-on IP network practice system that uses virtual machines. Here, we report the development of a self-study support function consisting of three tools: practice problem making, automatic scoring, and learning activity management. Teachers can create practice problems using the practice problem making tool. The automatic scoring tool compares the configuration files created by students with those created by teachers. This tool displays results as a percentage of correct answer and provides details about incorrect items. The learning activity management tool allows students to review their learning activities and enables teachers to assess student learning activities. The self-study support function allows students to engage self-guided training and testing. The proposed system was evaluated experimentally in a classroom environment. The practice problem making tool was also evaluated by teachers. The results indicate that the self-study support function performed sufficiently.

How groups cooperate in a networked geometry learning environment

This paper presents a small group computing environment in which four students each control a different point in a geometric space, such that as a group they collectively manipulate the vertices of a quadrilateral. Prior research has revealed that students have considerable difficulty in learning about the interrelationships among quadrilaterals shapes. In this study, we investigated how a designed environment can help support students’ learning in this area. In particular, in a case study of two student groups, we used the notions of appropriation and objectification to explain how students learned from one another different ways of using the technology and of explaining geometric concepts to progress in their geometric reasoning. When the students did not attain a shared focus of attention, they were not able to appropriate others’ approaches to using the technology or explaining geometric concepts. In one group, although some individuals demonstrated learning gains, when the coordination among the group members fell apart, not all the members were able to benefit. On the other hand, another group which demonstrated more group-oriented behavior—listening to one another, sharing the same focus of attention, engaging in coordinated actions—was able to benefit as a whole and did better overall on individual assessments.

Foreign Language Acquisition: Fostering Social Justice and Internalization within Web 2.0 environments

In the field of mobile teaching the winds of change are coming from the “Steve Job Galaxy” confirming the vision Illich described in Deschooling Society (1971). The success of mobile learning is primarily due to easily searchable databases. Therefore a Copernican Revolution is on the go and will revise the way educational contents are accessed. In this paper we discuss a specific aspect of this the radical shift: collaborative teaching through globally networked learning environments. Within educational institutions, collaboration means the ability to harness ideas, resources and educational practioners from across boundaries. While it is clear that collaboration is acknowledged as a required win-win practice for any business organizations, in the field of education the most important outcome brought by Web 2.0 tools is social justice, in terms of equity in mobility and cross-cultural experiences. Therefore this paper describes practices aimed at fostering social justice within a language learning framework. Internet-based tools are analyzed in terms of hardware and software requirements as well as in terms of second language acquisition theories and cognitive approaches. In sum, this paper is aimed at serving the innovative teacher in the exploration of collaborative teaching in a Web 2.0 context.

Anatomy and Histology as Socially Networked Learning Environments

An exploratory study to better understand the "networked" life of the medical school as a learning environment. In a recent academic year, the authors gathered data during two six-week blocks of a sequential histology and anatomy course at a U.S. medical college. An eight-item questionnaire captured different dimensions of student interactions. The student cohort/network was 48 first-year medical students. Using social network analysis (SNA), the authors focused on (1) the initial structure and the evolution of informal class networks over time, (2) how informal class networks compare to formal in-class small-group assignments in influencing student information gathering, and (3) how peer assignment of professionalism role model status is shaped more by informal than formal ties. In examining these latter two issues, the authors explored not only how formal group assignment persisted over time but also how it functioned to prevent the tendency for groupings based on gender or ethnicity. The study revealed an evolving dynamic between the formal small-group learning structure of the course blocks and the emergence of informal student networks. For example, whereas formal group membership did influence in-class questions and did prevent formation of groups of like gender and ethnicity, outside-class questions and professionalism were influenced more by informal group ties where gender and, to a much lesser extent, ethnicity influence student information gathering. The richness of these preliminary findings suggests that SNA may be a useful tool in examining an array of medical student learning encounters.

Teaching Reform in the Network IT Environment

[Purpose] The paper aims to explore instructional design of the structure under the web-based environment, as well as the similarities and differences with the traditional instructional design; with its teaching resources，methods and students' ability to develop design strategies. [Method]Through the introduction of systems analysis and experimental control and from the network hardware environment, resources, environment and cultural environment the network learning environment design is brought forth. [Results]The results show that the network environment, information technology, instructional design, which are based on the learner and the teaching process for the study, aims to achieve a good learning environment, to organize the various elements; to form an ordered system; particularly to emphasis on learning characteristics and learning needs analysis of the measurement, to focus on the design of learning environments and “communication-oriented” classroom activities. [Conclusions] This instructional design under network information technology environment is a very important significance for a variety effective learning activities, for students to stimulate motivation to learn.

"소셜네트워크 학습환경에서 학습자의 심리적 특성이 학습성과에 미치는 영향"

본 연구는 개방과 협력을 강조하는 소셜네트워크 학습환경에서 학습자의 심리적 특성이 학습성과에 미치는 영향을 설명하고자 실시되었다. 학습자의 성격유형, 자기조절학습능력, 인식론적 신념을 심리적 특성으로 고려하였으며, 동기수준, 소셜네트워크 학습환경 만족도, 학업성취도를 학습성과로 포함하였다. 국내 4년제 대학에 소속된 총 78명에 대해 오프라인 수업과 함께 페이스북을 활용하여 다양한 학습활동을 한학기 동안 진행하였다. 학습자의 심리적 특성과 학습성과에 대해 수집한 자료를 분석한 결과, 성격 중 외향성과 개방성은 소셜네트워크 학습환경 만족도에 긍정적 영향을 보였으며, 자기조절학습능력 중 인지조절과 행동조절이 학업성취도에 유의미한 영향을 나타내었다. 인식론적 신념 중 학습능력과 학습속도에 대한 믿음은 소셜네트워크 학습환경에 대한 만족도에 부정적인 영향을 갖는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 학습능력은 선천적인 것이고 학습과정은 점진적이기 보다는 빠르게 일어난다고 믿는 학습자들의 경우에는, 소셜네트워크 학습환경에 대해 만족도가 낮다는 것을 보여준다. 본 연구 결과는 외향적 성향, 동기조절과 같은 정의적 영역의 기제, 그리고 선천적이고 즉각적인 지식 획득과정에 대한 신념을 가진 학습자에 대해서는 소셜네트워크 학습환경의 구현과 활용에서 교수자들이 더욱 주의를 기울일 필요가 있음을 시사한다.

Two frameworks for preparing teachers for the shift from local to global educational environments

The research outlined in this paper is based on the convergence of two conceptual frameworks that guide the transfer of knowledge and skills from traditional teacher education, which focused on teaching in single classrooms, to open networked learning environments that include both inter-institutional teaching and learning and local and global community engagement. Through these frameworks, schools can be extended in terms of time, space, organisation, and capacity. This will be demonstrated on the basis of New Zealand research in inner-city urban environments and Canadian research in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. There are implications for the professional education of teachers from schools that have the capacity to engage with global learning environments including new ways of relating to learners, learners’ parents, networks and communities. Several of these implications will be analysed in the conclusion of the paper and should generate discussion that will inform current and future research.

A Study of the Predictive Relationship Between Online Social Presence and ONLE Interaction

Open Network Learning Environments (ONLE) are online networks that afford learners the opportunity to participate in creative content endeavors, personalized identity projections, networked mechanism management, and effective collaborative community integration by applying Web 2.0 tools in open environments. It supports social interaction by integrating User-Generated Content, Participatory Web, digital identities, social and networking linkages, and collaborative learning community to allow learners manage and tailor their social presence. The purposes of this study were to assess the predictive relationship between online social presence and overall ONLE’s social interaction and examine the predictive relationships between online social presence and four dimensions of ONLE’s interaction (i.e., cognitive, social, networking, and integration). The results of this study did not support the role of online social presence as a predictor for overall ONLE’s social interaction. Although social presence can serve as a predictor for networking and integration dimensions, social presence cannot serve as a predictor for cognitive and social dimensions. This study suggests CMC and ONLE have different dynamics in social interaction. ONLE focuses on “social and “networking” linkages to transform online learners into “network learners” to project their ideal and preferred “network social presence” rather than online social presence.

The Effect of Virtual versus Traditional Learning in Achieving Competency-Based Skills.

Background: By rapid developing of the network technology, the internet-based learning methods are substituting the traditional classrooms making them expand to the virtual network learning environment. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of virtual systems on competency-based skills of first-year nursing students. Materials and methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 86 freshman nursing students were recruited. Nursing Fundamentals and Skills (including theoretical and practical credits) was decided as the teaching course. The theory and practical contents were taught in one group by conventional method (face to face teaching, demonstration on moulage) and for another by virtual simulation and interactive multimedia. The two groups were the same for the content being taught, the instructor and the final evaluation. Paired t-test and independent sample t-test was used for statistical analysis. Results: In theoretical exam, the mean score in virtual teaching group was higher than traditional group (P<0.001); however, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the result of objective structured clinical examination. Conclusions: Using virtual systems is beneficial in enhancing student learning. Both traditional and virtual methods can be used in teaching skills in nursing students; however, it seems that combination of the two can facilitate knowledge transfer.

Teachers' experiences of using Learning Technology in Pakistan

Advancements in learning technology, such as computers, mobile devices and the Internet, have extended correspondence with faculty members, facilitated administrative activities and encouraged linkage and connections with other students beyond normal university office hours. Education technologists are exploiting the benefits of technology to transform teaching methods in universities and promote interaction and collaboration; aspects important to Networked Learning. Despite the extensive use of learning technology, limited research has been conducted to understand how faculty members experience use of learning technology within their pedagogical practices; and much of the existing literature is primarily located within the context of culturally western universities. This study aims to address this gap by illuminating the phenomenon of teachers' experiences of using learning technology within their teaching practices at Hazara University (HU) located in Mansehra, Pakistan. Adopting an interpretivist paradigm, phenomenographic approach was used to understand and describe qualitatively different ways people perceive or view a particular phenomenon. The analysis elucidates five conceptions of using learning technology; these were identified as 'retaining attention', 'professional skills development', 'information enrichment', 'connectivity' and ' omnipotential'. Retaining attention was described as the least complex; whereas the omnipotential category is relatively most sophisticated and is inclusive of other conceptions. The meanings (what aspects) of these categories are related to the how aspects or variations that are 'prior exposure of technology', 'research-informed teaching' and 'perceived scope of technological use'. The relationships between what and how aspects of the phenomenon of the use of learning technology, are summarized and presented in a tabular form. The paper suggests that to make a smoother transition into networked learning environments, academics may be better prepared to 'overcome the alienation and otherness of online spaces' and be actively involved in networked learning environments when they experience learning technology onmipotentially. To further elaborate on this, omnipotential experience shall be analyzed using the framework of intentionality to better understand the conceptualization of the acts and their interrelated intent of the teachers that facilitate their meanings of omnipotential use of learning technology. This is an area which could prove insightful for future research in this field. The findings contribute to the extant literature and provide different ways of looking at learning technology by locating this research in a different cultural setting. This research offers new conceptions of learning technology within face-to-face pedagogical practices that may help guide the design of networked learning programmes and also course designs.

A networked learning-informed investigation of introducing blended simulation based medical education in a UK National Health Service context

Simulation Based Medical Education (SBME) has received a lot of attention in the past few years for providing medical students and practitioners near real-life opportunities to practice and improve their clinical and non-clinical skills (Issenberg &amp; Scales, 2008) in a relatively risk-free environment, learn from their errors and encounter rare clinical events that they might not experience in an actual clinical environment. SBME has been introduced in medical context as a result of changes in providing health care services, reducing working hours for medical staff, ethical issues in using patients for educational purposes, and reducing unnecessary risks. These changes have resulted in limited patient contact for educational purposes. It has been predicted that SBME "in all its forms will be a vital part of building a safer healthcare system" (Department of Health, 2008, p.55) in near future. A networked learning (NL) approach to blended SBME has been introduced in an innovative NHS simulation centre (SC) in North West England in 2011. This new model replaces existing face-to-face briefing sessions with on-line resources. As per existing practices, following introductory briefings, students and facilitators will continue to engage in simulated clinical procedures and then collaboratively debrief their experiences. SBME attempts to create an authentic context with student-to-student, student-facilitator, and even student-simulated patient social interactions. Student-simulated patient social interactions are mediated by clinical staff 'speaking through' high fidelity mannequins, providing feedback on students' skills, communications and emotions. With the introduction of blended learning students will also have the option to participate in continued reflection in a NL environment. The focus of this on-going case study is to investigate the teaching and learning experiences, perceptions, and challenges that learners and facilitators may confront in the NL environment and provides the opportunity to focus "on the connections between learners, learners and tutors, and between learners and the resources they make use of in their learning" (Jones, et. al, p. 90). Blended SBME has been designed to provide students with flexible and collaborative learning opportunities to prepare themselves for the simulated scenarios, but results from a pilot study suggest this transition may prove challenging in terms of disrupting existing Trust teaching and learning cultures. As situated learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991) and experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) theories underpin SBME literature, both will be examined and critiqued in the NL context over the two-year course of this study.

What did the Romans ever do for us? 'Next generation' networks and hybrid learning resources

Networked learning is fundamentally concerned with the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to link people to people and resources, to support the process of learning. This paper explores some current and forthcoming changes in ICT and some potential implications of these developments for networked learning. Whilst we aim to avoid taking a technologically determinist stance, we explore the potential for future practice and how some educational and pedagogic practices are evolving to exploit and shape the digital environment. We argue that we can change both the ways in which connections between people (learners and other learners; learners and tutors) are made and the nature of the resources that learning communities (particularly distributed communities) can engage with. In doing this we draw on two strands of work. Firstly, we draw on the ‘IBZL Education' a UK Open University initiative to develop new scholarship in the context of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) through which educators are encouraged to think about technological change in the next five to ten years and ways in which we can intervene and shape these developments. We use problem-based learning as an example of a learning experience that can be difficult to implement in a networked learning environment. IBZL identified two broad strands of significant technological development. 'Superfast' broadband networks that are capable of supporting novel applications are being rolled in the UK (and elsewhere). Also, boundaries between the real and virtual worlds are becoming blurred as in the ‘internet of things' where, for example, RFID tags enable information about the real world to be brought into the virtual one. We use the term ‘artefact' to describe designed components, whether entirely digital, such as a computer forum, or material, such as a tablet PC. Networked ‘hybrid' technologies of virtual and material components have may great potential for use in education. Secondly, we illustrate how these changes may be beginning to happen in distance education using the example of TU100 My Digital Life, a new introductory Open University. . TU100 Students use an electronics board in their own homes to work on a programming problem in collaboration other students through a tutor-led tutorial in a web conferencing system. We also note some of the evident complexity that establishing such resources as part of wider infrastructures of networked learning would be likely to involve.

Emerging Technologies and New Learning Ecologies

The emergence of networking technologies and social media is changing the way we work, collaborate and learn. This has resulted in new forms of learning practices, more participatory ways of creating and representing knowledge and new global learning networks. In the current era, learning and educational practices are becoming more open, digital and networked. Open and networked technologies provide the opportunities for online learning to offer kind of more open and flexible online learning opportunities which can bring together such a greater number of geographically-dispersed learners to experience kind of networked and collective learning mediated by online and web applications. Such open and free learning opportunities for instance are the growing interest in offering open online courses in higher education nowadays which attract many people. This paper discusses the learning activities and experiences of the participants of some open online courses who are coming from different parts of the world to online networked environments and integrate various tools and digital application in the process of their learning and interactions. This paper presents the preliminary findings of a research in progress on leaning ecologies in web 2.0 and emerging technologies and personal learning environment (PLE). The main research question for this paper is: what is the nature of learning in open and networked learning environments and what learning activities and experiences result from participating in these environments? The findings are based on an online survey, semi-structured interviews and public online contents of the participants in open online courses. This study adapted a virtual auto-ethnographic method to get involved more closely to the culture and phenomena of learning in such open online environments in which researcher was able as a learner to participate in the various activities of the courses, interact with participants to explore the processes of learning and interaction. For the purpose of data analysis and understanding the nature of learning and interactions in such open and networked environments, by reflection on socio-cultural theoretical frameworks such as social constructivism, communities of practice and connectivism, we used a rhizomatic approach to learning in networks and communities (Cormier, 2008, Engestrom, 2007, Tella, 2000) to look at different emergent and multi-directional learning activities take place in the context of such open environments and to explain how open-digital-networked technologies are used by participants of open online courses.

Symposium 5: A Social Media Networked Learning Ecology Perspective

Learning Technology Professionals (LTPs) use social media as a networked learning environment (ecology) for their own professional learning. This is done through reading and contributing to blogs, wikis, Twitter, Facebook, social bookmarking, etc. The various elements of social media and the connections (people, information, resources) that link them together make up the networked learning ecology. Specifically, this research draws from the literature on learning ecologies (Barron, 2004, Brown, 2002, Frielick, 2004, Nardi and O'Day, 2000, Siemens, 2008b), networked learning (Banks et al., 2004, Goodyear et al., 2004, Jones et al., 2008, Steeples and Jones, 2002, Wasson et al., 2003), and on the growing amount of literature on social media in education. The individual concepts (social media, networked learning, learning ecology) of a SMNLE have been researched in the context of elementary and higher education, but there seems to be much less research in how these concepts individually apply to professional development and learning. Furthermore, the joint concept of a SMNLE has not been researched. In addition, there seems to be little if any research in the conception held by LTPs of the relationships, connections and links that exist in their SMNLE. By researching the conceptions of connections that LTPs hold, this research aims to add to the current body of research and provide insight into the experiences of those that are pushing the envelope about social media technologies involved in connecting with learning. The phenomenon I plan to research is that of the relationships within the networked learning ecology of LTPs. The phenomenon will be researched by looking at the variation in conception and perception of these connections by LTPs. In order to investigate the variation of meaning and ways of understanding the connections in their social media based learning ecologies, a phenomenographic approach for this research is being used. This allows for a description of the range of the perceiving and experiencing the phenomenon of learning ecology connections that LTPs experience. By using a phenomenographic approach, the research will be able to show how learning technology professionals conceive and perceive of the connections within a networked learning ecology.