CS9832
Introduction to social media

social media are different from visual
media

Databases
• DYNAMIC Flow of information and data
– RSS feeds, digg, digglab
– Blogs: Youngpupil.com
– Wiki: written for and by children
– Online educational communities are flourishing
• Free resources

Participatory Culture (Jenkins)
 Peer based production and consumption of media
 Facilitate users’ participation
new tools and technologies
enable consumers to archive,
annotate, appropriate, and
recirculate media content.
 Mediate human relationships
Do It Yourself (DYI) media
allows Individuals and
groups to participate in
conversations
Educators are exploring the impact of this
participatory culture on education

Social Bookmark Research
• Blogs to share ideas
• Delicious to share research
• Teachertube to share content

Social media = folk culture
– Folk Culture respond to the need of people to be
active
social participants in the creation of their culture
(Nolan and Bakan, 2009)
• To share
• To create (Janick, 2009)
• To perform (McLuhan, 1967)
Their own stories, experiences and knowledge
– The network is a public sphere
• Creation and participation to public discourse and
culture

Social media are forms of living
libraries
Informal Learning Environments
Where people are part of
self organizing
informal
communities
and
institutions

Informal Communities of interests
• Peers are learning within informal social networks
based on their interests.
• Learning happens by informal sharing of
experiences (Freire, 1978) with members of
communities of interests.
• Social Constructivism:
Peers learn from their own
and other's experiences
and social contexts
(Vygotsky, 1978).
• Cancerland

Learning within Informal Communities of
Practices
 Constructionist learning driven by discovery and
experimentation (Papert, 1992).
Lived
experiences
+
Action
create
learning.

Some forms of Intelligence become
collective
Connective Intelligence (de Kerckhove)
Collective Intelligence (Levy)
In both cases:
Culture and knowledge results from
•Conversations between peers
•Activities between peers
Knowledge is the result of
•Lived experience = expertise
•Authentic and personal narratives
•Co-creation by peers
•Peers interests’

Open Source
• Open source software
• Schoolforge
• Open Source Education Foundation Website
• Free books
• Operating system