Social networking can be defined in many ways, depending on our experiences. While keeping up with friends and established relationships is important it is but one form of social networking. For the purposes of this blog, the meaning extends to tools and processes that we use to engage in learning. A blog can be used for communicating our thoughts and ideas to others, but it can also be a form of collaborating with others to engage in learning about something we are interested in. A social bookmarking site (delicious, or diigo) can be a place to save your bookmarks and access from any computer you happen to have available. And it can also be a place where you share topics of interest with others, and find others who are also sharing information they have discovered that you may want to learn about. There are many examples of this type of learning taking place through social networking tools and processes. Kai Pata describes the affordances (Pata, 2009) of social networking which lists many types of activities that can be implemented through social networking tools.
The learning affordances are activities that we each participate in any time we do research or any type of study. The difference in digital tools is the efficiencies we gain, and the advantage of social learning – collaborating with others to affirm and expand our process of learning.
This blog will be a conversation about the affordances of social networking for learning. There will be information about tools and processes, experiences of learning through social networking, reports of others who are writing and sharing about social networking in learning, and other directions that participants of the blog wish to suggest.
Pata, K. 2009. Modeling spaces for self-directed learning at university courses. Educational Technology & Society, 12 (3), 23-43.