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Social Learning Theory and Social Media: Exploring Personal Learning Environments for Professional Development
The document explores the integration of personal learning environments (PLEs) and social media through an iterative design model for professional development. It discusses how learners set goals, seek information, and engage with networks, while highlighting the importance of feedback and community in achieving learning objectives. The findings indicate potential challenges in participation and suggest future steps for enhancing training and community trust among participants.
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Social Learning Theory and Social Media: Exploring Personal Learning Environments for Professional Development
- 1. Social learning theoryand social media: Exploring informal Personal Learning Environments (PLE) for professional development (using an iterative design model) Alexis Smith Macklin, PhD, The Senator John Heinz History Center, asmacklin@heinzhistorycenter.org IACIS 2013 International Conference San Juan, Puerto Rico, October 2-5, 2013
- 2. What is aPersonal Learning Environment? • Mash-up of distributed services designed to track interactions • Generally built on Web 2.0 tools • Learner-driven
- 3. The Facilitator (the learner;the network; an expert) The Learner (YOU) The Network (like-minded people; a professional community)
- 4. The Learner Iwant to learn how to crochet . . . 1. Set a learning goal 2. Look for information (an expert/facilitator) to help gain knowledge or insight to support the learning goal 3. Find a community (the network) to hone my skills, share my expertise, gain more insight, refine the learning goals
- 5. There were over10 million hits on YouTube for CROCHET
- 6.
- 7. After many failedattempts – and returns to YouTube videos for more explanation – I finally accomplished the goal and posted the end result on Instagram Feedback from the network
- 8. Research Question Does aniterative design model for a PLE, using social media as a delivery system and social learning theory as a conceptual framework, motivate self-selected participants to • receive and share information, • exchange ideas, and • gauge knowledge acquisition?
- 9. Communication Interaction Reflection Evaluation Facilitator Network Learner Facilitator Learner Network Learner Facilitator Sets initial learninggoals Establishes initial framework for information intake and exchange Curates information Initiates discussion Identifies contextual, social, and task support for engaging in the network Provides feedback and guidance Network Identifies shared learning goals of the group Adapts framework for information intake and exchange to specific needs of the group; engages in group discussion Curates additional information Facilitator Network Synthesizes and analyzes information Sets benchmarks for success Identifies contextual, social, and task support for shared goals Provides feedback and guidance Learner Personalizes learning goals and benchmarks for success, while interacting with the group Organizes information to support personal learning goals; curates goal specific information Identifies contextual, social, and task support needed to accomplish personal and shared learning goals Evaluates progress
- 10. The Design ofa PLE • Promote motivational strategies (Deci & Ryan, 2000) • Enable self-direction, reflection, knowledge- building, and autonomy by providing options and choice (McLoughlin & Lee, 2010) • Provide enough guidance and support to achieve the determined goals (Jonassen, 1999; Wolters & Rosenthal, 2000)
- 11. Social Learning Theory– the quick version • Goal Setting • Self-efficacy • Collaborative learning • Motivation
- 13.
- 14. Self-selected Content The teachers’content included these topics: • Finding primary source materials and activities for my students • Creating themes for primary source use and inquiry based learning • Aligning activities to state standards • Assessing learning outcomes The volunteers wanted: • The oral history process – more than just the interview • Setting goals for your project and selecting the people to interview • Selecting a setting and equipment • Developing a project management system • Conducting background research
- 15. What they toldme . . . “It’s hard to remember to participate.” “I don’t know what’s required of me.” “I’m not comfortable sharing that much information online.” “I don’t know who has access to this blog. I don’t want to put myself out there.”
- 16. Next Steps • Spendmore time training participants to use Web 2.0 tools for learning • Spend more time creating a sense of community and building trust • Create more incentives to motivate and sustain interest long-term
- 17. Unraveling the secretsof the PLE . . . Thank you! For questions and copies of my paper and presentation: asmacklin@heinzhistorycenter.org
Editor's Notes
- #3 An informal way of supporting these groups is through Personal Learning Environments (PLE), which are “mash ups” of distributed services designed to track the activity of a community and connections with others to share and edit content (Casquero, Portillo, Ovelar, Benito, & Romo, 2010). The difference between the PLE and other online learning environments is that the learners are co-constructing the system including choosing what information resources to use, what content to produce, and how to disseminate it (Wilson, 2008). These learning environments are generally built on externally hosted Web 2.0 tools and support collective information and knowledge management.
- #4 In this proposed model the facilitator initiates the learning process. This might be an expert in the field, a teacher, the community itself, or an individual learner who is interested in gathering relevant materials on a given topic and initiating a discussion about what was found. The learner and the network respond to the initial information intake – and, voila – we are learning! For example . . .
- #5 I wanted to learn how to crochet.
- #6 I turned first to You Tube to find the experts who could demonstrate the process. With more than 10 million hits – I need an expert who can help me narrow down the choices . . . What are my real learning goals – I want to make a granny square. Google, through my initiation, has actually become the facilitator for my learning process narrowing down choices with relevancy ranking . . . Cause you know I’m not going beyond the first page to find what I’m looking for – before I move on to the next search. In this case – I realized quickly that the returns where too many – and I really wanted to learn how to do a granny square.
- #8 Full disclosure – this is actually a photograph of my friend Kimberly’s end result – mine wasn’t this good. This is an example of a simple PLE. The PLE is intended to be an informal learning experience in that the learner sets his or her own goals and objectives, and directs the outcomes accordingly (Cofer, 2000). In the context of professional development, informal learning is used to describe learning independent of an instructor-led program, books and manuals, or mandated curriculum. Marasick and Watkins (2001) describe the process as learning that grows out of everyday encounters in a given context, which is often intentional but not highly structured. This may be a workplace challenge, a problem that needs a solution, or some personal information need to be fulfilled. The actions to resolve the need are what constitute the learning process. A simple context, therefore, may only involve one person, whereas more complex situations will benefit from having interactions with others who might have more experience, a different perspective, or more expertise to provide additional insight.
- #10 This study of personal learning environments and social media is based on the following assumptions: that knowledge is socially constructed (Bandura, 1977; Vygotsky, 1978; 1986); that people use social media to share their ideas about real-world situations and topics of interest, and that it has the potential to be a powerful learning tool (Greenhow & Robelia, 2009); that motivation to learn is found in learning experiences that are shared, meaningful and relevant (Lave & Wenger, 1991); and that learning is an iterative process of testing and refining ideas (Dewey, 1938; Lesh, 2002). Figure 1 demonstrates how those assumptions might be manifested in the instructional design for the PLE using social learning theory and social media tools to deliver, organize, and assess Information exchange in the learning process. Most other models of PLEs that I looked at where hierarchical and linear . . . But that wasn’t my lived experience. So, I wanted something that reflected the iterative approach that I took to learn how to make those lovely granny squares.
- #11 The literature and my own personal experience leads me to believe that the design of any PLE should include the following. In theory, this should lead to self-regulation in the learning process as it pertains to a learner’s control over his or her own learning process, including directing cognition and motivation to achieve a learning goal. What’s missing in the design is building a sense of community . . . This will be important to come back to when I talk about my results.
- #12 Noted theorists – Bandura, Schunk, Zimmerman, Vygotsky – determined that self-regulated learning requires that the learner have a sense of his or her own ability, be able to reflect on the learning process, evaluate his or her own progress, and be motivationally and behaviorally active participants in that process. So, I worked with these big themes to see if I could come up with a model that would work – in a short period of time and on a very limited budget.
- #13 This proposed model looks at the interconnectedness of four instructional design components – that would – in theory – create a successful PLE using social learning theory. Goal setting through communicating an information need; information curation through interacting with a network of learners; scaffolding and creating learning support systems through reflection and synthesis of information; and assessment through testing and evaluating new ideas and receiving feedback and guidance.
- #14 MalinkaIvanova does a great job of demonstrating how social media is used to gather information, communicate ideas, and create new content. I found her work late in my writing of this paper, but will refer back to it in my revisions. She talks about the Web 2.0 tools as the “start pages” designed to provide a personalized place on the Internet where learners can mash up data, information and knowledge – any time – any where. In my study – the start pages are the dedicated blogs I used to initiate discussions and posting of content.
- #15 This study evolved out of an immediate need to support teacher enrichment activities and volunteer training – in a way that was cost effective (i.e. free) and easy to access. The teachers and the volunteers participated in 90 minute workshop to introduce them to relevant content and social media delivery systems. Invitations to the workshops were shared with the museum’s database of more than 2,500 teachers and more than 600 volunteers. From that pool, 48 teachers signed up for the workshop on primary source use, and 20 volunteers signed up for the workshop on conducting oral histories. The workshops concluded with the participants identifying additional topics they would like to explore that were not addressed, or not addressed fully, during the 90 minute introductory session. Based on feedback received, the facilitator organized two PLEs to cover the following topics over four and six weeks respectively.Boththe teachers and the volunteers set learning goals for themselves; identified areas of interest and self-assessed their current level of comfort in with the various tasks associated with the selected content. They seemed to be very motivated . . . Until the online content was presented and they were expected to join in the discussion.
- #16 And they wouldn’t interact. They were reading the content and email me directly – but they were not engaging as a community. When I polled them to find out why – I got the following responses. This was disappointing because they all seemed to be excited about participating – until it was time to do so. The short answer to my research question is that the PLE does not support engagement and exchanges of ideas – unless, perhaps, there are more incentives to do so. Kush, Williamson, and Argote (2012) found that without incentive to participate, people will soon forget that they committed to the group and the learning experience. As Dabbagh and Kitsantas (2012) indicated, motivation is a critical factor for engaging participants in the PLE. In this study, self-selection to the group was not enough of a motivator; learners seemed to also require external rewards for their contributions in order to participate even at a perfunctory level. Researchers who study motivational strategies indicate that learning activities should be designed to be intrinsically interesting so that learners can assign value to that activity to motivate them until the task is completed (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The learning process, therefore, must initiate activities that result in a goal that the learner feels is valuable. The PLE is completely optional, so there is no course to complete. This lack of structure was confusing and uncomfortable for most of the participants. Without a sense of structure, Valtonen, Kacklin, Dillon, Vesisendaho, Kukkonen and Hietanen (2012) found that people are less motivated to participate. There is also the issue of not having personalized the learning goals (Zimmerman, 2000). In this case, the participants expected that the facilitator would provide the content and direct the outcomes. They had a great deal of personal discomfort being responsible for their own learning. A result of their study showed personal connection with others was essential for meaningful interactions using social media as part of the learning environment. Ala-Mutka, Punie, and Ferrari (2009) confirm that trust and prior interaction is a factor in how much information is shared in an online learning experience. They noted that restricted environments such as invited blogs and learning management systems like Blackboard increase participants comfort level for sharing and disseminating knowledge.