E-Learning by Design Ch.8 Social Learning

AlexEhabKirstinXiaofei

• Social learning involves learning by interacting with other people.

• Those people may be peers, classmates, others in the same profession, experts, such as teachers.

What is social learning?

Social learning improves learning, retention and group effectiveness through collaboration with others in a remote setting.

Learning as and from group

• Feedback from other learners in the form of open discussions.

• Dialog with an expert.

• Consensus among group members on how to proceed in a task.

• Collaboration on a single project.

The varieties of social learning

• Not just using social media.

• Not just social networking.

• Not just administrative uses of social media.

• Not just for news.

What is not social learning

The goal is to engineer social processes rather than to configure tools or create content. Most of the "content" of social learning is created by learners (and those they interact with) as they discuss, share, critique, and collaborate. There are many possible settings to engage and begin a collaboration, from face to face discussions to real time document sharing and editing.

HOW DO WE "DESIGN" SOCIAL LEARNING?

• Decide where and when to use social learning.

• Define target learners.

• Clarify objectives.

• Decide where expertise will come from.

• Decide and enforce prerequisite skills.

• Decide what forms of social interaction best teach

The role of the designer

• Write the rules.

• Set and clarify grading criteria.

• Monitor and guide social learning.

• Specify requirements for technology used.

• Design templates and procedures for learners to create content.

• Specify social learning components in other forms of learning.

The role of the designer

• Social learning cannot teach all subjects.

• It is not effective where learners must learn large amount of information.

• Nor for getting started in a field where learners do not yet know the structure to productively interact with experts.

• Social learning is not effective where learners must be educated to specified standard, such as for certification or licensing.

Limitations for social learning

The best use of social learning is for lifelong learning. Social learning helps learners build a network of professional contacts who can support them in the future.

Social learning naturally sparks professional friendships with peers and experts. It establishes communities of practice that may endure long after the end of an individual course.

Build a network to support the learning in the future

• Basic communication and thought skills

• Attitude of openness

• Spirit of cooperation

• Basic knowledge of the field of inquiry

• Competence with social-media tools

• Work ethic

• Something to contribute to the group

What is required of learners

• Tutoring interaction

• Presentation pattern

• Question-and-answer pattern

• Post-and-comment pattern

• Collaborative-document pattern

• Group-discussion pattern

• Small-group pattern

• Panel-discussion pattern

• Symposium pattern

• Ask-expert-community pattern

• Ask-peers pattern

PATTERNS OF INTERACTION

• Capability

• Instant communication

• Classes of tools

• Page

(See notes below)

SOCIAL CAPABILITIES OF SOFTWARE

• In social learning, learners teach each other.

• social learning may need outside help.

• This help comes from a facilitator.

• The facilitator may have a little of instructor, teacher, or professor.

• The actions of facilitator differ from those of teaching.

• The facilitator's role is to help a group of learners learn socially from each other.

Facilitate rather than teach

• Set up groups.

• Explain the goal and rules.

• Lead the group to become a team.

• Monitor for problems.

• Model and encourage desired behavior.

• Let the team learn from its members.

• Intervene where necessary to ensure effective learning.

Duties of the facilitator

Intervene in cases of bad behavior

• Bad individual behavior

• Bad team behavior

• How to intervene

• See notes below and page 457-463

Establish a code of conduct

• Group evaluation of individuals

• Rating of posts and messages

• Group test

• Group task

• Question pool

• Evaluation to criteria

• Applications of skills

Ways to assess learners

• Share what you learn

• Back channel for presentations

• Brainstorming activities

• Team-task activities

• Role-playing scenarios

• Comparison activities

• Group-critique activities

• Face-to-face communication remotely

Use Proven Social Activities

• Design discussion activities

• Ensure learners have necessary skills

• Moderate discussion activities

• Perform message maintenance

Encourage meaningful discussions

• Meet the requirements of a successful team

• Shared goal

• Right size

• Expertise or access to it

• Authority to question and innovate

• Time to form and operate

• Ability to reach consensus

Promoting team learning

• Difficulties in team formation

• Required steps of team formation

Form a team from individuals

• Consolidate interpretations

• Refine the goal

• See the big picture

Align goals of team members

• Forego traditional icebreaker activities

• Explicitly reveal individual

• But not too much information

• Have team members learn about each other

Learn who can do what

• Coordinator

• Compromiser finder

• Devil's advocate

• Group-process monitor

• Morale booster

• Discussion moderator

• Journalist

• Summarizer

• Theory-former

• Theory-tester

Adopt team roles

• Clarify the objectives

• Supply written instructions for all activities

• Ensure the team members collectively have the expertise necessary to accomplish

• Make the activities challenging and fun

• Allot enough time for team processes to work

Design activities for teams

• Require collaboration to accomplish the goal

• Require an observable result that can be objectively evaluated

• Make internal teamwork visible for analysis

• Fairly evaluate individuals

Design activities for teams

• Listen objectives

• Analyse the faults

• Strive to synthesize

• Learn from failure

• Raise valid concerns

• Admit to emotions

Engage in open inquiry

• Social learning involves learning by interacting with fellow learners, the teacher, experts, and other professionals

• Social learning occurs in a wide variety of forms, but some processes are common, namely, discussions, feedback, collaboration, and learner-created materials

• Use social learning to teach collaboration and to tackle difficult subjects that lack established criteria

Summary 1

• Engineer learning by sequencing patterns of interaction that create situations where learners from each other and experts.

• Before picking software for social learning, list the social capabilities you need, such as targeting, filtering, and broadcasting messages, holding synchronous and asynchronous discussions, sharing created materials, voting, and managing collaborative teams.

Summary 2

• Facilitate social activities to encourage teams to take responsibility for their own learning. Monitor and intervene to correct bad behavior

• Discussions are the lifeblood of social learning. Provide technology, procedures, and guidance to produce productive conversations

Summary 3