Social Learning
and
Social Networking Sites
Chi Ben
Graduate Student
Department of CIS
Table Of Content
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What is Social Learning?
Why go Social?
Social Networking Sites (SNS) categories
How to build an SNS?
Social Learning
• "Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention
hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their
own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most
human behavior is learned observationally through modeling:
from observing others one forms an idea of how new
behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded
information serves as a guide for action."
-Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory, 1977
• People learn from each other, by observing, learning and
imitating others’ behavior.
Basic Social Learning Concepts
• People can learn through observation.
• “Bobo doll” studies
• Mental states are important to learning.
• Learning does not necessarily lead to a change in behavior.
Table Of Content
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What is Social Learning?
Why go Social?
Social Networking Sites (SNS) categories
How to build an SNS?
Why Go Social?
• K. Walsh1 summarized 7 ways in which “social learning
applications” can play an impactful role in education:
• Engagement
• Using social media and networking tools require students’ active
engagement
• Social Learning
• Present social learning refers to socialization occurs via “social”
computer tools, instead of face-to-face social interaction
• Use time outside of class better, so you can use class time better
• Content delivery outside of the classroom
Why Go Social?
• It provides opportunities for writing and writing assessment:
• Teachers can choose to include grading of writing quality as part of
the rubrics they develop for grading social media based assignments
and class work.
• Encourage dialogue, reach more students
• No face-to-face contact, student feel more freedom to express
• Help students get ahead of the professional curve
• Social media business positions
• Build connections
• A bonus reason: many of social networking tools are free
Table Of Content
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What is Social Learning?
Why go Social?
Social Networking Sites (SNS) categories
How to build an SNS?
SNS Categories
• General: Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Skyrock, Renren
• Blogging/Micro-Blogging: Twitter, LiveJournal, Tumblr
• Photography: Flickr, Fotolog, Fotki
• Music: Douban, Last.fm, Buzznet, Mog
• Video: Youtube, Yahoo Video, Youku
• Professional: LinkedIn, HR.com, XING
How To Use SNS For Teaching?
• Use Facebook 2
• To connect to students, or their parents
• To leave homework, reading assignments
• In place of Blackboard, students are already familiar with FB
• Use Twitter 3
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As class chatter
To get instant feedback
To follow a professional
To offer resources
• Use Youtube
• To host instructional videos
Table Of Content
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What is Social Learning?
Why go Social?
Social Networking Sites (SNS) categories
How to build an SNS?
An Easy Way
• Use a social networking site provider
• Wall.fm, Ning.com
• Create an account, do basic settings, you are good to go.
A Not-so-easy Way
• Open Source software
• Elgg, Mahara, Dolphin
• Hosting service
• To deploy the software package
• Do some not-so-straightforward settings
• You are good to go
Again, The Easy Way
• Wall.fm and Ning.com
• We will try them in a few minutes
References
• 1. http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/06/7-reasons-toleverage-social-networking-tools-in-the-classroom/
• 2. http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/03/facebook-inthe-classroom-seriously/
• 3. http://www.emergingedtech.com/2010/02/100-ways-toteach-with-twitter/
Thank You
• Questions?