Can social media be harnessed effectively in formal learning?
One of the more striking insights this week was provided by Wodzicki et al. (2012) in how social media and web 2.0 tools have added new paradigms to learning, enhancing learner-centered designs by involving them in the environment-creation process. It is of no doubt that usage of technology in our daily lives have increased exponentially over the past decade and harnessing its strengths to create better learning experience should be given serious thought, especially since social media sites are vastly underutilized in terms of knowledge exchange (only 10.9% in 2012!). As derived from the studies in the paper, it also seems that given the platform, only a minority of the representative population are actually interested in using social media for knowledge exchange purposes, clocking significantly low percentage of study-related activities. From my own experience, I also feel that even in learning, social media tools are more effective in informal learning rather than formal learning.
The article highlights an important consideration that got me thinking - is it even possible to use social media in formal learning contexts? How can we employ them in classrooms? My own experiences have thought me that employed under a formal classroom environment, or under a self-directed study paradigm, social media tools might instead prove a detriment as while it does improve the connectivity between the learners, it also plays host to a lot of distractions that detract from the actual learning experiences. What do you guys think?
You raise some very interesting, and I think, important questions Kelvyn. In the wake of COVID, a lot of employers have seen the financial benefit of allowing employees to work from home - no more expensive office space, happier employees that no longer have to deal with transportation or other work-related expenditures. Some have suggested that social media would effect the productivity of WFH employees, but that doesn't seem to be the case. From an educator perspective, I wonder how the pandemic has changed minds about what and how much students can accomplish at home versus in-person. Does social media serve as a distraction, or can web 2.0 tools be harnessed to improve student performance. It will be interesting to see future studies that examine this period and what we can learn from it.
ReplyDeleteSurprising Working From Home Productivity Statistics (2021). (2021, June 2). Apollo Technical LLC. https://www.apollotechnical.com/working-from-home-productivity-statistics/