The Social Side Of Social Media: : technology or collaboration?

Elaine Tay & Matthew AllenDepartment of Internet Studies
Curtin University of Technology
The social side of social media: technology or collaboration?

Social media – overview
the affordances of the social
the return of constructivism
networks of knowledge
Social media –in action
The context – NET205
Assessment – the primary focus
Lessons?

Social Media: the affordances of the social
Social media affordances are not built into technologies: simply incorporating such technology into units of study does not ensure successful adoption; how and why matter.
Social media can be preferred as a term to Web 2.0 because it situates technological development online in the cultural and social practices of users and not a tech-oriented paradigm of better versions

Social Media: the return of constructivism (1)
In education, several writers have enthusiastically promoted social media (often as Web 2.0) because of its apparently decentred epistemology, openness to co-creation of knowledge, participatory culture
Eagerness matches that of other commentators who ascribe democratising power to the knowledge-effects of social media
Parallels, curiously, with 1990s asynchronous discussion and the centrality of student learning and constructivism

Of course, constructivism is not unique to social media, nor necessarily inherent to its use... But an interesting example of technology as the language of change
In fact we might consider that social media de-emphasises social constructivism by increasing the indirectness of dialogue between learners who know engage in more parallel, individuated knowledge construction
Highly sceptical about overly fetishised expectations of Web 2.0 and the ‘final’ achievement of successful constructivist learning

That said, the relative openness of some forms of social media enable them to be imbued with participatory, collaborative potential, as much by the actions of teachers who establish this ‘new’ form of learning and assessment in contrast to the old: whatever the abstraction, learners experience social media as more collaborative and thus more likely to involve a constructivist process.
But note: it is the social engagement required from collaboration which makes it constructivist; the technologies work because of that requirement

Social Media : Networks of Knowledge
Social media involves, simultaneously:
Enabling knowledge creation by students
The organising of knowledge, whether their own or others
The networking of those activities to and with other actions and people
Therefore well suited to courses which specifically seek to promote learning in networks of knowledge, whether or not the subject matter is specifically associated with the Internet

Social media in action: NET205
Net205 is Internet Commerce and Consumers:
2nd year unit, mix of off- and on-campus students; trialled only through Curtin in 2009; will be OUA also in 2010; includes graduate students (new area of study)
Diverse mix of students from several courses; different motives, attachments and expectations; wide range of preparations and abilities, visible among small class
Subject matter of unit is basic economic principles of the Internet; serves also as a key unit for developing group work in course overall

Net205 redesigned to achieve:
synergistic learning (learning two things at once)
Greater independence in student work (cf. First year)
Higher-order cognitive skills (reviewing, assessment of self)
Collaborative skills in small teams, with online participation
Avoidance of anxiety for students about group work
Scaffolding of processes to manage the development of greater student-centred learning

In keeping with other aspects of LINK, the key foundations of the design were:
assessment, with the primary assignment (a group project) being used to determine secondary supporting assignments and arrangement of curriculum and instruction
involvement of web 2.0 / social media tools with an emphasis on knowledge networking
final outcome to involve a degree of public online presentation (the contribution to the Internet itself)
But the specific focus was on preparing for, and doing, group work

Social media in action: assessments
Assignment One: review of social software for collaboration
“a review of no more than 1,000 words of a single Web 2.0-style application that aims to provide users with a collaborative space, a knowledge tool, or a publication outlet”
wiki was mechanism for writing the reports
‘parallel play’; in private; work in progress
Deliberately linked to main assignment, but marked independently for early feedback
Involved initial interactions between group members in selecting software to review
Exploration of ‘independent’ collaboration; confirmation of specific basic skill (wiki use); ground-setting for main ass’t.

Assignment Two: group report - specific and directive question; yet no clear instructions on how to answer
Question was: “What is the fundamental economic basis of Internet commerce?”
Groups had to work together produce single outcome for real publication
Openzine.com selected as the ‘outlet’ for publication
Sources of information, ideas provided...but not ‘this is how you do it’
Clear question, but no process – non-direction for process stimulated group interaction and simulated real-world uncertainty
Whole of class review: groups provided informal assessment / feedback to their peers and were able to compare results, before publication
Motivation from publication; putting clarity and uncertainty together to generate innovative solutions and more authentic learning; groups also co-operated with each other via feedback

Assignment Three: essay
Question was: “To what degree is there a free Internet? Discuss”
Purely individual, and after group work
Makes the group assignment work, because individuals knew they would be also tested on their own abilities and knowledge
Essay designed to focus and drive learning by review and reflection of content, not assimilating new ideas
Contrast to group: vague question, deliberately, but process clear
Traditional assignment makes other, innovative assessment work; essays are authentic forms of intellectual expression in Humanities; use of assessment still driving learning, integrated with other assessments

Social media in action: lessons?
Hard to draw firm conclusions, but...
Groups worked with whatever was at hand, or made sense to them for collaboration; the technology of the meeting worked for some students; those very 1980s (Web-zero) technologies of chat and email worked for others; few made use of the tools we had hinted at.
Successful completion of the project was hampered by limited time management ability or, perhaps, conflicts in getting groups to share common time commitments (easier to just leave it all to last minute); ‘collective individualism’ of 5-part (separate) report.
Public presentation worked – but mostly to frustrate students into choosing a different, more easily used mode of expression than the one chosen.

From this, we conclude
Social media successes in higher education might depend on the tools to hand, that make sense for the task, and educators might be best to avoid specifying technologies: instead specify processes.
Technologies for group collaboration, to the extent they can be used by students in a relatively offhand manner, do not of themselves solve the issues of group collaboration
Strong scaffolding (instructions and clever design) can simply move, to a ‘higher level’, the subtle negotiation in which students engage to mould the course to suit their preferences

But we also conclude...
Wikis are simple and easy to use in higher education for all sorts of writing / reading tasks (and no, our students were not code-geeks or ‘tech savvy’).
Giving students very limited information about assignment requirements actually reduces arguments and concerns about ‘how long’, ‘what should I do’.
Assignments motivate engagement with materials: rather than having students read just a few topics, for their essays, the structure motivated them to access all readings, because all were presented as relevant to the whole assessment process from group report, to individual essay

Paper and curriculum to be available at:
http://netcrit.net/writingmore information about link at:
http://altc-link.wikidot.com Thanks to the ALTC:http://www.altc.edu.au

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The Social Side Of Social Media: : technology or collaboration?

by Matthew Allen on Jan 30, 2010

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The Social Side Of Social Media: : technology or collaboration? — Presentation Transcript