This document summarizes research on using a social network as a learning space for GCSE re-sit students in further education. Data was collected over two years from four groups totaling over 100 students. The social network was used as a blended mobile and classroom activity. Student participation in the network was mapped to a continuum of engagement with four levels: 1) sustained mobility and orientation, 2) situated and habitual residence, 3) community endeavor, and 4) self-determination and self-efficacy. Interventions were made to increase student agency and momentum of use. Challenges included creating participation thresholds to increase engagement while avoiding risks of disengagement like silence, resentment, and apathy.

1. A Continuum of Engagement from an Anatomy of a Social Network
as Situated Learning Space
University of Hull PhD candidate
@howardscott75
howardscott75@hotmail.com

2. The problem reframed as
opportunity
 GCSE re-sit students in FE, leaving school
 The need for FE to innovate – FELTAG
 Provision and Access; staff expertise
 Sporadic lessons and time-intensity
 Need for dignified education
 Act on ‘Agency’ – ability of students and staff to act
upon the world positively

3. Situated Publishing: a case study
 Two year data collection of four separate groups
(Population. 100+ students) of FE English GCSE re-sit
 Data drawn from social network site as an affinity
space blended between mobile and classroom activity
 Content (posts) used to create analysis of learner
affordances and participation:
 An Anatomy of a Social Network in a fixed period
mapped Learner’s mobile experiences (posts,
communication types) to a Continuum of Engagement

4. 1. Sustained mobility - orientation 2. Situated and habitual residence
Affordances of Student Agency
3. Community endeavour
4. Self-determination and self-
efficacy

5. Interventions
community responses
Goals via
enhanced
engagement
Agent Momentum of use
Blended use
‘Post work here’
‘Open-
publishing’
‘Polls/surveys’
More orientation to space in
‘first’ instance; more mobile
access; more proactive
students sharing own
resources
‘increased
confidence’;
community
support
(among
adults)
Direct Messages
for feedback - *
‘Limited
response’ –
muted
communications
Open questions in discussion
threads
Limited
reflection–
sustained by
more engaged,
prominently
adults
Collaborative
work
Increases participation; ensures
some engagement thresholds are
met (first post)
Participation Threshold

6. Agen
t
Teacher
viewed as
gatekeeper
Community
as separate
other
Notification
Threshold
Creates
Profile
threshold
Perceptions and
experiences:
•Anxiety
•Shyness
•Suspicion
•Low-confidence
•Low-
expectations of
affordances
•Anti-social
element
Peripheral threshold
Disengagement
risks:
Silence
Resentment
Inhibition
Apathy
Fatigue
Self-Exclusion
Isolation
NEET?
Learning space - publicPersonal space/life-world - private
Institutional-
suspicion
Learner may:
•Avoid seeking
support
•Avoid community
participation
•Forget password
•Neglect to check-in
• Feel ‘saturation’
•Resent

7. Enhanced Engagement v SMF
We see... They see...
Visibility Surveillance
Publication Ambivalence
Peer-support Divergence
Affective-cohesion Anti-social media
Self-regulation Saturation of notifications and
content
Self-determination Automation
Mobility Disorientation
Social Individualism

8. Negotiating thresholds
 No one size fits all approach
 A central hub (Moodle, VLE) as resident orientation base
to cluster other multimodal forms from
 What ecology best supports sustained engagement?
 Less inclusive; more exclusive to HEUs
 Lack of breadth and depth in resources/activities
 Lack of ownership, student investment
 Pedagogical design strategies needed
 How to make the ‘intrapersonal’ interpersonal?
 How to inculcate autonomy, when these are highly teacher-
centred activities? Increased enculturation?