What is the potential for the use of social media and mobile devices in informal, professional, work-based learning?

What is the potential forthe use of social mediaand mobile devices ininformal, professional,work-based learning?– John Cook, LTRI, London Metropolitan University– Norbert Pachler, Institute of Education, University of London CTLT, University of British Columbia, Monday 16th April 1

Structure Initial typology of informal workplace learningCase study: online people tagging in work-based context Conclusions

Talk based on: Cook, J. & Pachler, N. (2012). Online People Tagging: Social (Mobile)Network(ing) Services and Work-based Learning. British Journal of Educational Technology. Final draft available on request, email: john.cook@londonmet.ac.uk

Social media and mobile devices are under-researched in work-basedlearning!The very notion of learning in the work place is contested. Work-basedpractice may be a better phrase? 4

Initial typology of informal workplace learningOur typology of factors in Social (Mobile) Network(ing) Services and Work-basedLearning are represented textually below in Table.The derivation of the main nodes was made after going through the literaturevariously over several months and coming back to the simple focus presented byEraut (2004, p. 269)„Factors affecting learning in the workplace‟ calling them Context Factors and Learning Factors. 5

Initial typology of informal workplace learningLearning in workplace viewed as response to complex problem or taskEmbedded in meaningful and authentic cultural contexts Factors affecting learning in the workplace (Eraut, 2004) 6

Initial typology of informal workplace learningThe key elements of the critical literature review were added to the Learning FactorsnodeThis required because Eraut‟s body of work deals with face-to-face learning.In this sense we have extended Eraut‟s work.Finally, it became clear that a specialized node for people tagging factors was needed(given we wanted to apply the typology to a case study).Thus the Learning Factors node is generic, and hence includes branches surroundingpersonal learning networks, whereas the People Tagging Factors is very specific. 7

Initial typology of informal workplace learning (top 2 levels)1. Contexts Factors a. Work process with learning as a by-product b. Learning activities located within work or learning processes c. Learning processes at or near the workplace2. Learning Factors a. individual self-efficacy (confidence and commitment) b. acts of self-regulation c. cognitive load d. personal learning networks (group or distributed self-regulation)3. People Tagging Factors a. efficiency gains b. cost reduction c. expert finding d. People tagging tacticsTable: Factors in work-based Social (Mobile) Network(ing) Services 8

Initial typology of informal workplace learning (Learning Factors)2. Learning Factorsa. individual self-efficacy (confidence and commitment) (Eraut, 2004, p. 269) i. feedback ii. support iii. challenge iv. value of the workb. acts of self-regulation (Dabbagh and Kitsantas, 2011) i. competence (perceived self-efficacy) ii. relatedness (sense of being a part of the activity) iii. acceptance (social approval)c. cognitive load (Huang et al., 2011) i. intrinsic (inherent nature of the materials and learners‟ prior knowledge) ii. extraneous (improper instructional design) iii. germane (appropriate instructional design motivates)d. personal learning networks (group or distributed self-regulation) (Rajagopal, et al., 2012) i. building connections (adding new people to the network so that there are resources available when a learning need arises); ii. maintaining connections (keeping in touch with relevant persons); and iii. activating connections (with selected persons for the purpose of learning) iv. aggregated trustworthiness (perceived credibility) = social validation + authority and trustee + profiles (Jessen and Jørgensen, 2012) 9

Towards a typology of informal workplace learningKey questions How can we scale up meaningful learning activities of • individuals and groups so they become linked together • building confidence, commitment, performance & progress? Amplified by SNSs and mobile technologies? Mediated by scaffolding and bridging activities? 10

Case study: online people tagging in work-based contextMATURE EC Framework 7 project: http://mature-ip.eu/ • Social network tools amplifying learning in the workplace • Seen by EC as „flagship TEL project • And by users at Career Guidance Services UK as „Facebook for the workplace‟ 11

Collaborative tagging • gather information about people • inside and outside organizationTag each other • according to topics they associate with that person“Who knows what?” 12

Typology applied MATURE caseAim: to test of typology as analysis tool when applied to a case. Does it revealanything missing?Briefly, from a qualitative analysis we claim that the typology is readily applied to theMATURE case study.The mapping of the nodes and branches in our typology, as mentioned in the text inthe case study, is summarised by alist of „indicators‟.These indicators refer to the node-branch names of our typology and can be seen asone way of assessing the current status of a project or initiative in terms of the factorsfrom our typology that are found present or missing in a specific case. 14

ConclusionsThe purpose of this paper was to attempt to answer the question: what, if any,potential is there for the use of social media in informal, professional, work-basedlearning?We conclude that the potential is considerable although, as we have shown above,there is need for further work.The analysis of the MATURE example has, we claim, proved productive and wesuggest that the typology we developed has the potential to provide a fruitful tool forfurther exploration of the field.For example, on the basis of our analysis, we can see certain gaps in the sense thatof some indicators were absent in the MATURE case analysis 15

ConclusionsOn this basis we claim that learning factor indicators that would seem to be areaswhere future work on computer-based scaffolding could be needed are:individual self-efficacy (2a),self-regulation (2b)personal learning networks (2d).Thus the purpose of our critical review, typology and qualitative analysis using a casefrom the literature have been to provide a frame to assist our understanding of social(mobile) network(ing) services in work-based learning.Rather than provide a definitive map of the field, our model provides an explanatory,analytical frame and as such a starting point for the discussion of attendant issues. 16

Thank you!John Cookjohn.cook@londonmet.ac.uk@johnnigelcookNorbert Pachlern.pachler@ioe.ac.uk 17

http://www.londonmet.ac.uk	2526
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What is the potential for the use of social media and mobile devices in informal, professional, work-based learning?

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