This document discusses the relationship between social networking and institutional learning. It notes there can be tensions when social media practices overflow the institutional framing of learning. Students may use tools like Facebook and QQ for both social and educational purposes like communicating in groups. However, there appears to be disconnects between students' digital networks and official institutional systems. Students do underground work to replicate course content and discussions onto social media platforms that is largely unseen by the institution. While students engage in scholarly use of social media, there is little overlap between this and the technology used for educational purposes within their courses.

1. 1
John Hannon
Matthew Riddle
Thomas Ryberg
Networked Learning Conference
Edinburgh
7-9 April 2014
Assembling university learning technologies
for an open world: connecting institutional
and social networks

2. 2
Questions
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maslens_Inland_Sea_of_Australia.jpg

3. Landmark, 2004
Charles Robb
Social networking /institutional learning

4. Social networking /institutional learning
misalignments/disruptions/tensions
http://www.athenstransport.com/2014/02/social-media/

5. misalignments/disruptions/tensions
Social networking /institutional learning
“deep misalignments and paradoxes in the context of
traditional education” (Ravenscroft 2012, p. 177)
What is especially important is that these strong boundaries
between academic and social tools appear to be as a result of
students‟ preferences and choice (Czerniewicz & Brown 2010: 147).

6. Framing “puts the outside world in brackets”
Overflows are “the inevitable corollary of the requisite
links with the surrounding environment” (p. 248)
What happens to learning when social networking overflows the
framing of institutional learning?
Framing and overflows (Callon 1998)
The „greyness‟ of networks
A weakness in ANT: discerning values/trajectories in a network
“the price of the proliferation and the deployment of networks
are uniformly grey” (Latour, Harman & Erdelyi 2009, p. 47)

7. 7
Questions
1. Framing & overflows: What happens when social media
practices overflow the institutional framing of learning?
2. Consequence: To what effect – are overflows productive or
disruptive; trivial or non-trivial
Latour refers to “the values to which informants cling so
doggedly” (2013: 64).
3. Values: What values are brought to frame and set boundaries
for a network of learning?

9. 9
Focus Group: Melbourne campus

10. 10
Focus Group: Melbourne campus
Interviewer A: My first question; how did you use the iPad mini?
Student 1 Female: Facebook
Interviewer A: Facebook? What did you use Facebook for? For fun, or for work?
Student 1 Female: Um both, because we had for like um uni groups and stuff so it was good to communicate
with um but yeah and fun.
Interviewer A: And what, so how did you set up those groups, for your group work, on Facebook?
Student 1 Female: I think they were set up before we got the iPad, so then it was more just communicating
in groups.
Interviewer A: Did you just send messages? Or did you send files? Or share information? Arranged
meetings?
Student 1 Female: Yeah messages and arranged meetings and stuff.
Interviewer A: Did anyone else use it for their group work for their classes?
Student 2 Male and Student 4 Male: Yeah.
Interviewer A: Was it the same, was it Facebook as well or other ways?
Student 2 Male: Yeah Facebook and emails.
Student 3 Female: And I use QQ, it's a similar way we communicate in China. Yeah but we also can use it
on iPad so many Chinese people use that one.
Interviewer A: Did you use for your group work? Did the other members of your group use that too?
Student 3 Female: Yeah yeah yeah we did.

11. 11
Focus Group: Albury/Wodonga

12. 12
Focus Group: Albury/Wodonga
Field notes:
…It was not apparent from this group that
there was much social networking going on
on the devices -- in fact there was little
discussion of social networking at
all. Instead the students were more focused
on face to face interactions, and it was quite
evident from the way they interacted that they
were quite a well knit group.

13. 13
“Hi all - Here are links for our Facebook group and Dropbox – find
Moodle postings in our Facebook group”
“Dear lecturers – please upload your slides to moodle or send them
to me and I’ll put them in our dropbox”
“Read the postings from course forum here in Moodle or in our
Facebook group”
• Not surprising students use Facebook, but seems Moodle content
is replicated to Facebook by “Gardeners” – parallel living
• Doing underground work which is largely under the radar of the
institution and teachers
Examples based in messages sent to Moodle
forums – the institutional LMS for all AAU
Thomas

14. • Disconnects or gaps between students’
digital ecologies and institutional
systems
• Occasional “overflows” where the
“underground work” becomes visible
• Example: Underground negotiations
and activities erupt as concerted
actions in Forums
• “Although the widespread use of
social media reflects how Web 2.0
technologies have become
embedded in our lives, there are still
significant challenges in harnessing
these and their related practices for
learning and education.”
(Ravenscroft et al., 2012, p. 181)
• Students engaged in scholarly use of
social media, but little seems to overlap
with institutional / educational / course
related use of technology (and social
media)

15. 15
Thank you
John Hannon
Matt Riddle
Thomas Ryberg