Social Networking Technology in Education

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[edit] Descriptions, definitions, synonyms, organizer terms, types of

[edit] The Changing Web

Social networking tools (sometimes referred to as Web 2.0) are web sites, web applications, or other online tools that allow users to create their own web experience and participate in communities by sharing and creating content collaboratively. In short, the whole concept of web 2.0 involves object creation and community. The amount of pages and websites on the internet has reached a critical mass, but now the focus is on using the data and enabling users to find ways to aggregate it, use it, view it, and rebroadcast it in their own useful ways. But the focus here is not on the individual user, but the communities that can grow by sharing these discrete chunks of usable knowledge.

Information evolves rapidly now as opposed to the 20th century. Access to the knowledge needed to complete a task is more important than what knowledge is currently possessed. A common analogy that can be employed here is the preponderance of customer comments and product reviews on ecommerce websites today. This is an example of an ad-hoc community forming around the knowledge of whether a product is of good quality or not. Users often anonymously share their experiences with the product, where they bought it, how much they paid; and prospective customers can learn from the community in determining their own buying decisions. In Web 2.0 users have these tools and more in which to share knowledge. They can build encyclopedias and share the jobs of author, reviewer, fact-checker, and publisher.

[edit] Why Education?

Downes (2005) discusses Web 2.0 technology and the development of what is called E-Learning 2.0 highlighting of the changing roles of the student and teacher. The success of the learner-centered model of instruction and the more rigorous demands placed on educators and technology professionals to go beyond the traditional textbook and the drill-and-kill methods and meet the needs of technology-savvy students at the halfway mark. Students prefer greater autonomy in their educational endeavors and the focus shifts to active learning, where the learner decides what is relevant and guides his or her own progress. This progress involves not only discovery though, but also how to develop the connections to deeper learning should it be necessary for him or her to go there.

[edit] Connectivism as a Learning Theory

Connectivism is not a learning theory that seeks to break down constructivism, or even psychological methodologies. In George Seimens' own words, "Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn. Learning needs and theories that describe learning principles and processes, should be reflective of underlying social environments" (2004). What connectivism does is address learning theory in the context of technology and how it has changed the way we learn. Use of computers in organizations and schools together with the barrage of information we receive from media and people we meet or know is called together. The strength of the connections we form between what we know, whom we know, and how we know it; learning is experiential and cumulative, changing all the time. "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today (Seimens, 2005).

Principles of connectivism:

  • Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
  • Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
  • Learning may reside in non-human appliances.
  • Capacity to know more is more critical than what is currently known
  • Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
  • Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
  • Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent of all connectivist learning activities.
  • Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision. (Seimens, 2005).

[edit] Learning 2.0 Technologies and Connectivism

"Learner-to-learner connections characterize Learning 2.0" (Cobb, 2008)
"Learner-to-learner connections characterize Learning 2.0" (Cobb, 2008)
The “small pieces, loosely joined” concept sheds a new light on learning content and practice and how it can be purposefully used, deconstructed, reformed, and rebroadcast by learners and shared across learning communities: whether these groups are classrooms, coworkers, a group of enthusiasts, or any other functional grouping. Learning takes place in the forming of connections between different information sources or nodes, and the act of learning itself is not only developing an understanding, but enhancing the capacity to know even more (Siemens, 2004). Learning isn't about the nodes as had been explored before, this assumes that the learner is passive and somehow absorbs the knowledge object. The focus in connectivism is on creating connections, helping children pull from different experiences (classroom, home, playground, friends, internet, chat, life in general) to learn and reach a new comprehension of that particular unit of knowledge. This doesn't necessarily need to be mediated by technology, a mentoring program set up by Maricopa Community College put young children and senior citizens together and John Seely Brown observed that the short time spent with the seniors helped reinforce what the teachers were trying to impart (2002).

[edit] Social Networking = Connectivism?

But, since this is about technology, we should take the example of experiential learning, sharing, and helping students to explore and form connections into the world of social computing. Social networking technologies should be discussed in the context of connectivism since it forces us to look at the application of such technologies in the classroom. It doesn't take into account what is trendy or buzz-worthy, or which company has enough venture capital to sustain itself long enough to get users. In the next section we will discuss and contribute to the different applications of these tools in education.

[edit] Application in classrooms

Note to all users: I encourage all to submit links to this section 
so we can create yet another searchable resource of examples.  Make 
sure to include the full URL! For Wiki editing pointers, see 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page  Of course,
it is a wiki, so edit anywhere you'd like

[edit] Examples of Learning 2.0 Technologies

Implementation of learning technologies very far and wide, even those somehow involving "social networking" all the way to ones that utilize tools for collaboration. The end goal, we should all remind ourselves is to make something that stimulates our students minds and helps them to make connections with others, and not just technology.

[edit] Podcasts

A podcast is a recording, visual slideshow, or video that is webcast or delivered through a form of RSS syndication. It can be downloaded directly from a web site or automatically fetched from the Internet through newsfeed readers. In this project, we will focus on iTunes, but there are many other newsfeed readers available. Podcasts have seen increased use in educational settings. While they are not an invention of Apple, the huge popularity of the iPod has encouraged widespread use of podcasting as a form of content delivery.

Podcasts are easy to create, since at the most basic level, a podcast is an audio file that lives online. Podcasting also can incorporate the use of RSS technology to create a subscription link to the podcast content. That is, you can subscribe to a podcast series, and your podcast reader will automatically download any new editions of the podcast that are posted.

A cottage industry has evolved around amateur newscasting and today many popular radio shows, conference keynotes and presentations are “podcast” as an alternative form of content delivery rather than just reading web pages. The portability of podcasts lets the audience take your content on their commute, or home to review in the comfort of their living rooms.

Two outgrowths of podcasting have made their rounds on the internet, these are the enhanced podcast, and the video podcast (or “vodcast” in some circles). Enhanced podcasts make the use of the album artwork window in programs like iTunes to show graphics that are synchronized with the audio. Video podcasts are primarily short video clips that can be viewed in the same way. Currently iTunes is one of the few podcast clients that support enhanced and video podcasting.

Suggestions of use in educational settings (adapted from Cobb, 2008):

Helpful Podcast Links:

[edit] Blogs

Blogs have become wildly popular as a social technology primarily because they were built to allow their users to easily update them and they have brought the act of web-publishing to the average user. Blogs, a shortened word for "web log", also have built-in RSS support which allow users to easily subscribe to them via newsfeed readers.

Blogs have contributed to the internet by providing an automated platform for generating content either via an installed content management application like Wordpress or Drupal, or through a blog hosting service such as TypePad or Blogger.

Suggestions of use in educational settings (adapted from Cobb, 2008):

  • Postings to supplement events or on-demand learning (classroom announcements or notes "home" to parents)
  • Journaling for learners and personal learning environments (PLE)
  • Group projects to co-produce content
  • Blog networks for trainers and/or students

Helpful Blogging Links

http://www.myhaikuclass.com (allows password protected sites--great for elementary students)

  • Edublogs--a division of Word Press designed for educators. No email accounts needed to set up users (they tell you how work around it) and it can be password protected.

http://edublogs.org/

[edit] Content/Media sharing/Mash-ups

Th proliferation of media on the internet has reached a point where anyone with access to a computer and reasonable experience with the internet can upload and post images, audio, video and contribute the sea of media. This climate is perfect for gathering together different artifacts and remixing them into new forms and multimedia. Applications exist out there which enable this remixing activity. The typical Google Maps interface was revolutionary when it came out, with the use of AJAX and visible pushpins to make the process of identifying locations and annotating them on a map more familiar to everyday web users. Google Earth added another layer of "coolness" by offering a complete 3D model of a globe you can grab and spin to the other side of the world and zoom in on buildings in another country. Even more impressive is the ability for users to create their own collection of pushpins on this globe, fill with pictures from other web 2.0 sites like flickr, blog clippings, or wikipedia. This collection of digital media from different sources, layered on top of each other in a meaningful way is the core concept behind the term "Mash-up."

Depending on age or ability, cell phone pictures, essays, Wiki entries, MySpace friend links, and YouTube video can be combined by students and referenced via pushpin links on Google Earth locations. These digital collages can be limited by subject (i.e., local flora and fauna) or broadened to present a wide spectrum of everyday life in the region to make it even more personal to the kids. All of these elements combine create a location-based digital collage. These all can be saved as a file and emailed anywhere to be viewed on a machine with Google Earth.

The addition of a group networking layer would turn this technology-enabled “map and pushpins” into an opportunity to communicate with global pen pals in a uniquely visual and location-aware way. Coordinating classes located in different areas can pair up with each other and spend multiple class periods collecting digital artifacts about their own location (city, state, country/region, whatever...Google Earth's zooming capability allows for this flexibility). Each week, the classes trade Google Earth export files and load them into their computers. The partner classroom’s pushpins will load and create sort of a “Google Earth webquest” or tour of the region, to see the landscape, buildings, view pictures taken by the students, and read and respond to blog posts linked from these pushpins. This would provide the needed collaborative element. It comes full-circle this way, a location-based conversation about international topics (excerpted from Melone, 2007).

Suggestions of use in educational settings (adapted from Cobb, 2008):

  • Digital collages
  • Digital versions of what "I did last summer" with Flickr photos
  • Digital storytelling with new technologies
  • Adding elements to traditional Web-Quests

Helpful Mash-up and media sharing links

[edit] Immersive environments

"Snaggle Reinsch" Second Life avatar
"Snaggle Reinsch" Second Life avatar
Immersive environments take the community aspect of web 2.0 to a new, innovative extreme. Applications such as Second Life, Croquet, or World of Warcraft feature interactions visualized in a three dimensional world that has terrain, structure, and space. User presence is represented by avatars, or three dimensional virtual characters that can be customized with clothing and different physical attributes. Some of these worlds feature economies and currency and are built on a theme (as in the game World of Warcraft). Second Life is a more free-form world where users can buy land and create virtual homes or objects. Programming can be attached to these objects to create interactions. The draw to virtual environments is the freedom to assume a different personality. Users can fly or teleport to new locations, bookmark them for later, chat with other users from anywhere within the world.

Suggestions of use in educational settings (adapted from Cobb, 2008):

  • Create a distributed multimedia historical world for your class

Helpful Immersive Environment Links:

[edit] Social bookmarking/tagging folksonomies

My tagging cloud in del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/cleo5678 More popular or frequent keywords appear big and bolder in this visualization
My tagging cloud in del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/cleo5678 More popular or frequent keywords appear big and bolder in this visualization
Enables users to essentially create online bookmarks. Users pick the search terms or "tags" that they wish to assign to each link, image, file, or any universally locatable media. In the open concept of social bookmarking, any user can browse and search for other users' tagged search terms and thus conduct research using a grassroots, collectively assembled taxonomy (or folksonomy). The examples below are just a short list of popular sites, many vary by focus and features...they can be news based, lists of blog entries from around the internet, video playlists...all of these can be tagged, organized into folders, and every "use" enhances the popularity of that link. Tagging heuristics also exist on media sharing sites such as Flickr and YouTube.

Suggestions of use in educational settings (adapted from Cobb, 2008):

  • Creating bookmark lists or required reading for a classroom
  • Building link lists for a common research pool for an essay writing assignment
  • Creating annotations on websites to created a guided tour for your class (with http://www.Diigo.com)

Helpful social bookmarking links

[edit] Wikis

From Wikipedia's own description of itself, a wiki is a site that is designed to be built by its users, allowing anyone to visit, contribute, interlink, edit content .

  • A wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki Web site, using only a plain-vanilla Web browser without any extra add-ons.
  • Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link creation almost intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target page exists or not.
  • A wiki is not a carefully crafted site for casual visitors. Instead it seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape Wikipedia: Wiki definition.

A wiki is a software platform and sites such as Wikipedia and WikEd use the Wiki software to allow users to generate content. While blogs are usually of a one to many context, wikis lend themselves towards communities of users and are often used for populating knowledge bases.

Suggestions of use in educational settings (adapted from Cobb, 2008):

  • Collaborative knowledge from member experts ("Write your own encyclopedia")
  • Collaborative management of educational resources (School Library resources)
  • Teamwork and group projects (workspace to collect notes and information)
  • Event support and continuation
  • Online book discussions
  • Online Peer Editing/workshopping by posting student essays on wiki.
  • Online Class Notes/lesson plans-can include links to handouts and online resources for students.

Helpful Wiki Links

[edit] Social Networking

Social Networking Site, or "community" websites have changed the face of the internet within the last five years. Different site vary on functionality and focus, but for the purposes of this WikEd entry we use the following definition. Social networking sites are online communities where users join and provide basic personal information about themselves to create a profile. This profile can be customized by the user to personalize the profile web page with pictures, videos, links and bookmarks, even small applications. These profile features can be shared with other users with similar profile information (be it demographic or via chosen "groups"). Users can join groups and networks of other users who have similar interests or common information in their profiles. Users can also create personal connections with other users. Chat, asynchronous discussion, or direct messaging is user to communicate with other users or groups.

Some networking sites are free-form and allow users to be creative with their profiles. The profile can become a vehicle for self-expression, such with MySpace or Facebook. Users are encouraged to share media and focus on how many buddies or friends (other users) they can link with and distribute content too. Other social networking groups are designed to bring users together around a shared interest, whether it is professional (as in finding a job, or sharing research) or personal (support groups, location-based networks).

Suggestions of use in educational settings (adapted from Cobb, 2008):

  • Create an online space for a school club or classroom: Ning (http://www.ning.com) is a site that allows customized social networking sites. It has huge capabilities for use in classroom settings. How amazing would it be to set up a myspace-esque site for sophomore pre-AP English, etc.
  • Utilize existing "scholarly" groups and have students share lessons online
  • Create an advanced eportfolio of student work that can be shared with parents

Helpful Social Networking Links:

[edit] Evidence of effectiveness

Social networking is still a young concept and the research pool is growing. (Most of the items I am referencing were created this year.) The question here is, how can this be harnessed successfully in education to its fullest potential and how do we measure this? Judging the effectiveness of a learning technology is like trying to aim at a moving target. The technology changes weekly, as does our use of these technologies. The driving factors seem to be rate of adoption, ease of use, acceptance by the institution for a technology to be successful. It can also be dependent on whether the company providing the service manages to stay in business in a turbulent economic climate, or if they manage to keep their level of service at a point where customers or users remain happy. But if we assume that our online service stays online, how do we judge its effectiveness? Dr. Cheryl Bullock of the CTER program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign outlined three criteria for a certain technology to be an successful learning tool.

  1. It must be accessible to all students, whether they are in a live classroom or halfway around the world, regardless of visual, motor, or auditory disabilities. A website, in this example, must be coded for accessibility so that screen-readers can translate the website and modern computers and browsers can render the page in a way that is appropriate for the user.
  2. The tool must have a demonstrable measure of learning effectiveness that can be shown empirically. Educators should not expect to simply expose students to a technology and have a magical transformation of learning. It must be applied to the context of the class or lesson and somehow support the learning outcome that was originally prescribed for the lesson.
  3. The students should display some satisfaction with the tool which in turn motivates them to use it. (Bullock, 2005)

[edit] Collaboration

Accessibility of social networking technologies goes beyond the mechanics of Section 508 compliance of the websites for users with disabilities. Social networking is a great democratizer in that it levels the playing field and allows people to get in touch with each other, given consent from both parties involved. Users can search for discussions, people, and media by tags or interest and an ad-hoc community forms around whatever the subject of interest is.

Communication is a collaborative activity at its most basic definition (Clark, 2001). Enough mechanisms are in place to replicate the multi-faceted notion of "connecting with someone" beyond just sharing an email address or passively reading an article. The evidence is there supporting the power of group learning and increased options for visualizing communication and electronic feedback. The advantages of online discussion, featured in many online tools such as learning content management systems and sites such as MySpace and Facebook. [T]he synchronous approach does not allow for extended consideration of the papers under discussion, and it is difficult to assess how well the students who are not presenting the paper had read and critically evaluated the assigned papers. A threaded discussion format allows the students and the faculty to comment on the submitted responses. Participation by all students can be required and assessed. For example, each student may be required to select the responses posted by two other students and to write a brief commentary on the other students’ answers....This simulates a peer-review process and allows the instructors an additional opportunity for assessment of student knowledge and understanding (Jenkins, et al, 2008).

[edit] Is it Effective?

Written collaboration tools in Bloom's Taxonomy (Weaver, 2005)
Written collaboration tools in Bloom's Taxonomy (Weaver, 2005)
Research is still being accumulated on the true learning effectiveness. Educators and researchers see the potential, and in his stage of adoption educators are still scouring the web for case studies and examples. A common theme is that it is all in the application. A blog might not be the best group workspace or collaborative tool since the focus is on the user's reflection or reporting. Comments from other users take a secondary role. A wiki's flat structure and group editing capabilities would be a wiser choice in most situations for example. To highlight the importance of application, Educause Learning Institute's 2008 Horizon Report assessed the future of the web and its impact on the K-12 scene:

"Students working on research papers often do not fully realize what it means to be a scholar. Of the network of activities that scholars are involved in—writing, researching, interacting with peers and colleagues, presenting at conferences and symposia, and so on—only a small part is apparent to a student doing research. Every idea, paper, experiment, and artifact is, in reality, attached to a person or group of people who helped bring it about. Imagine the impact of tools that place those people and relationships at the center of any research inquiry: concepts clearly linked to people; connections between those people and others clearly indicated; a much more complete picture of the topic would emerge, more quickly than is possible with current tools. Simply changing the organizing principle—from products or concepts to people and their connections—will change the kinds of results that are revealed (The ELI Horizon Report, 2008)."

[edit] Popularity

(Morgan Stanley, 2008)
(Morgan Stanley, 2008)
The vast popularity of social networking tools, attests to its sustainability as a technology. The Morgan Stanley firm's recent report on Internet Trends (2008) cites a one year growth in "Social Networks" of over 60% as compared to other internet sectors. Blogging has all but replaced traditional web page creation for the average internet user, and everyone can easily upload photos and video straight from their mobile phones to the internet. They can then tag the file and make the file searchable on many different sites, syndicating itself every time someone references it. The viral aspects of social technologies and the "grassroots" appeal endear users to these sites and bring them back.

[edit] Community of Mind

While this definition is helpful in judging local implementations of social networking technologies, we must also, in the spirit of connectivism, look to its portability. Part of the measure of success of newer social technologies in education is not only evidenced by their local effectiveness, but also by how their rapid spread and use/reuse/remixing draws educators together into a community. A successful social networking/learning tool will also grow beyond its borders and encourage adoption and reuse at other schools...hopefully bringing along some best practices and lessons learned along the way as its use is honed and refined, or changed completely.

While it may be considered a "bandwagon" to some, the fact that these new technologies are introduced to us through the very medium that is used in the classrooms everyday (computers and the internet), and that educators were so quick to take early advantage points to their validity as learning technologies.

Dede (2000) points out that the success of the dissemination of innovations through education is supported by that very innovation's adaptability. There should be enough "meat" in the innovation for other practitioners to take it up and run with the idea...hopefully creating some innovation of their own. This is remixing of knowledge transfer in turn promotes adoption.

  • Emerging information technologies enable a shift from the transfer and assimilation of information to the creation, sharing, and mastery of knowledge.
  • Dissemination efforts must include all the information necessary for successful implementation of an exemplary practice, imparting a set of related innovations that mutually reinforce overall systemic change.
  • A major challenge in generalizing and scaling up an educational innovation is helping practitioners “unlearn” the beliefs, values, assumptions, and culture underlying their organization’s standard operating practices.

So while technology today enables rapid syndication and sharing of knowledge, the tools need to be there for the educator to adapt it into something they can use. However, promoting these tools still requires a bit of evangelism and a cultural change so that institutions can be more receptive to newer ideas...outside of the core group of early adopters.

[edit] Critics and their rationale

[edit] ...on Connectivism

Critics of connectivism as a learning theory cite that connectivism is more of a pedagogical stand and not a new philosophy (Verhagen, 2006). Connectivism as a method is useful to educators in that it can help them to choose those pedagogies (and tools) that will bring results: achieving learning outcomes. Creating an online mashup may have more pizazz than a Powerpoint presentation and encourage student motivation. But the end result remains the same. The ideas present in connectivism serve to shed light on new tools for teaching, and the actual conversion of input and knowledge into "learning" still exists within the individual. Connectivism is a semantic difference in language from constructivism or collectivism; and serves to illustrate how the raw materials for learning are gathered, and not necessarily how they are integrated.

Others such as Bill Kerr (2006) in his blog posting "A Challenge to Connectivism" as [learningevolves.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/challengeConnectivism2.ppt his ensuing presentation], reject the notion of learning as a unit hat exists in a flow between the individual and outside entities...other theories cover these relationships, i.e. network theory and collectivism, and connectivism is just another "-ism."

Author's note: Granted, yes, these critics have a point...however I would ague that if it takes a new viewpoint or "ism" to point educators to more varied tools by which to meet their goals. If the students are exposed to more possibilities and resources in creating and sharing a mashup presentation versus emailing a Powerpoint to a teacher. We don't need to necessarily tack on an "-ism" to encourage adoption, but if it helps to call it Web 2.0, connectivism, social tools, then I say "Great." Post it and tag it!

[edit] ...on Privacy

Kathryn Montgomery, author of Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet mentions in a ComputerWorld article reporting on the fall of the Beacon advertising system on Facebook, "The thing that concerns me is that these are mostly young people who are living in these online worlds....They enter into these interactive social networks because they want to connect with friends and to express themselves. I don't think they are even aware that they are being lured by these sophisticated and highly manipulative marketing practices" (Vijayan and Havenstein, 2007). It is common practice for companies to sell information to third parties. Everyone that has installed software or created a login account on a commercial web site has agreed to this use of their information. What Facebook and many other online services are currently doing is learning how to track more and more of their users' online behavior. Facebook's Beacon ad system utilized cookies to track user behavior and shopping habits even after they left the Facebook site, and then rebroadcast this information as status updates to user networks. From there information can be sold, scraped, or mined to the nth degree for marketing companies. This is why any program steeped in technology should take into account privacy concerns of the users (especially students) and turn privacy concerns into opportunities to teach digital citizenship and awareness of their online behavior.

[edit] Alternative explanations due to Diversity considerations

If anything social networking tools and technologies have brought diverse cultures closer together. The reach of social applications is international according to ValleyWag, with both MySpace and Facebook taking the lead in use, but certain applications are more popular in some countries than others. Other trends Valleywag noted:

(from Valleywag, 2007)
(from Valleywag, 2007)
  • Orkut leads in the Indian subcontinent, as well as Brazil;
  • Facebook is stronger, internationally, than Myspace, with surprising strongholds in the Middle East;
  • hi5.com is the most international of all the social networks, leading in Peru, Colombia, Central America, and other, scattered countries such as Mongolia, Romania, and Tunisia;
  • both Bebo and Skyblog follow colonial patterns, the first strong in smaller English-speaking countries such as Ireland and New Zealand, and the latter in Francophone countries;
  • and Friendster, the original social network, leads all across Southeast Asia.
  • Fotolog, a photo service defeated in the US by Friendster, has re-emerged as the dominant social network in Argentina and Chile

(Valleywag, 2007).

It seems that these technologies can put us and our students in direct touch with others from around the world.

[edit] Signed “life experiences”, testimonies and stories

I am encouraged to see a new line of thought out there that takes into account a learner's activity as a contribution rather than an end-goal. Whether this activity is posting to a wiki or blog, or helping choose classroom rules of conduct with a crayon and sheet of paper together in a group, these are activities that benefit the group as well as the individual. What are the activities and behaviors that promote learning here? They are, simply put, working together, building on personal experiences and others' experiences, offering them up as a means to conceptualize and connect new ideas and identify with them. Also, though, in tune with connectivism, we can see benefits of learners integrating and connecting this knowledge to preexisting their lives: the oldie but goodie "teaching for transfer" idea... but this time it's through collaboration and making new, discrete connections between people, ideas, concepts...things that the student may have experienced, heard of, learned about, or read somewhere. It hopefully gets all wrapped up in this amorphous thing called comprehension, the interconnectedness of all this accumulated knowledge.

What does this offer beyond what has already been written and discussed for decades? Not only does connectivism involve the acquisition of knowledge through newer means in and out of the classroom, but also how incoming knowledge is screened to reject extraneous, incorrect, or inappropriate information. "How can we help students learn and adapt with all of the distractions nowadays!" is a common complaint I hear among the other teachers with me in my grad school class. Connectivism asks us to embrace the noise and help students selectively pick what is of value...but now we are forced to address digital literacy, online censorship, privacy. This was coming anyway, you knew that already. Dave Melone 00:45, 5 May 2008 (CDT), from [04/15/2008 withaq.net blog posting]

This year I helped several teachers with using online reources for their classroom. An after school club currently has a blog site that they use to discuss topics assigned by their club moderator that are designed to encourage them to think and act like gentlemen. A fifth grade class used a blog initially to connect with their teacher who had to be absent due to a family emergency. They now use it to discuss a multitude of topics. A first grade class created a blog site after finishing their research and reports on rainforest animals. I then used Audacity to record their reports as well, and posted them on the same site as "podcasts". The blogs are password protected and only family and friends with the password can add comments. The podcasts are open so that anyone can listen. In all cases, the teacher, students, and parents loved the ability to interact and present their work to a more global audience.

For myself, the result has been an exploration of so many sites that another teacher and I are hoping to present a workshop at ICTE in November showing the features of all these different sites and putting them into a format that will allow teachers to see at a glance which ones will fill their needs. Hopefully this will save them all the hours we've spent trying to find the "perfect" site, which of course changes from project to project! 

                        --S. Sheahan

[edit] References and other links of interest

For other helpful link, please see my del.icio.us page. The materials that inspired me in this WikEd piece are tagged 490: (http://del.icio.us/cleo5678/490). Below is the "official" works cited list.

Brown, J. S., (2002). Growing Up Digital: How the Web Changes Work, Education, and the Ways People Learn. United States Distance Learning Association. Retrieved on December 10, 2004, from http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/FEB02_Issue/article01.html

Bullock, C., (2005), Evaluating Technology in the Classroom. Retrieved from e-Learning @ University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, CTER Program: http://cter.ed.uiuc.edu, Real Audio file.

Cobb, J. (2008). Learning 2.0 for Associations. Retrieved February 7, 2008 from http://blog.missiontolearn.com/2008/02/learning-20-ebook-free/. Technical report/eBook.

Clark, H. H. and Brennan, S. E. (1991). Grounding in communication. In L. Resnick, J.M. Levine, and S. D. Teasley (Eds.) Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition. Washington, DC: APA. 127-149. Retrieved May 5, 2008 from http://robinhooding.com/papers/ClarkBrennan1991-v2.pdf

Dede, C. (2000). The Role of Emerging Technologies for Knowledge Mobilization, Dissemination, and Use In Education. Commissioned by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved May 5, 2008 from http://www.virtual.gmu.edu/EDIT895/knowlmob.html

Downes, S. (2005). E-Learning 2.0. eLearn Magazine, Retrieved March 1, 2008, from http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1

Kerr, Bill (2006). A Challenge to Connectivism. Blog, Retrieved May 7, 2008, from http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/2006/12/challenge-to-connectivism.html

Jenkins , S. L., Iyengar, R., Diverse-Pierluissi, M. A., Chan , A. M., Devi , L. A., Sobie, E. A., Ting, A. T., Weinstein, D. C., (2008). Using Web-Based Discussion Forums as a Model of the Peer-Review Process and a Tool for Assessment. Science Signalling. 1, Retrieved on March 19, 2008 from http://stke.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/sigtrans;1/9/tr2?etoc

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