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 * Group A:** Workspace: 6-A-1: Social Networking and it's Importance for Successful Informal Learning

**List the reasons why Group A thinks social networking is important for successful informal learning:**
I think users feel free to ask questions and seek help in social networking, where they might otherwise hesitate to take a risk. ~Joy

Social networking is a part of the daily life of many students so when asked to use this method in school, they are familiar with it and they see how it relates to their "real life." They see informal learning as a real world application and therefore it is authentic learning.~Stacy

I also think that when you use social networking with informal learning, it actually helps the teacher to grade the work done by each group member. By looking at the history on the wiki page, the teacher can see who edited the page and what was added by each user. This is more quantitative compared to a group making a poster. It is very hard to figure out who contributed to the poster where using a wiki or blog, it can actually be easier. ~Stacy

Social networking builds communication skills and develops teamwork and collaboration among students. ~Stacy

Stacy, I like the grading idea! I think it is successful to the net generation because it also makes things simpler. News is streamlined and comes to you. Information is filtered by content. Even the way we communicate is simpler- acronyms, phrases,ect. ~Joy

How are we defining social networking? It looks like Stacy is defining it broadly to include wikis, while I thought social networking was more narrowly IM and texting and platforms like Facebook and My Space. Thoughts? - Diane

Using my narrow definition above, our readings would support allowing texting in school so kids could access information when they want it. (Jay Cross). But this also means a huge makeover of our educational system: i.e. evaluations would not be derived solely on tests of facts (that kids could easily Google or text their friends for the answer) but rather evaluation would include changed behavior (Digenti), the reach of an individual's social network (or the reach of the student's sources in a project). Perhaps evaluation could even include a tally of how many other people the student asked to gather information. - Diane

I’ve done numerous sessions of teaching adults (in church administration) and I often begin with this tenant: “We know more together than any one of us knows alone.” And try to set the tone that I am not the expert but the facilitator of the knowledge…. I also feel this lets me off the hook of having to “know everything” that might come up, but when asked a question I can often redirect it back to the class/audience…. “ what do we know about this?” This seems to fit very well with the concepts of informal learning – it isn’t based on a predefined body of knowledge but emerges from the interaction of people. I wonder if teachers could assume this posture in a classroom as well, if kids had access to social networking tools to add to the group knowledge. - Diane

I think social networking can be wikis as well as IM's, texting, Facebooking, and Myspace. I think one of the major concerns when we use social networks in the classroom is whether it is used responsibly and for educational purposes. Wiki's are a way educators can manage the group and keep track of student participation. On the other hand, Myspace, texting, and Facebook are not as easily monitored by a teacher. We have to trust students to stay on task, which is very hard when we know learners like to multitask. To many students it is okay to work and socialize with their friends. The challenge is to make the conversations about what students are learning. One way I've done this with texting is by only allowing students to use phones when they had a specific task or purpose. ~Joy

Diane, you are absolutely right, our testing measures for students will need to change in the future. Our current testing practices are designed to measure student achievement, if every student learns the same way. Since we know our students do not learn the same the testing also has to change. I think this is why we are seeing a shift to project based learning versus standardized assessments. I wonder how social networking can be used to assess student learning formally? Could social networking replace our traditional tests? ~Joy

//I agree that wikis are an excellent way for an instructor to monitor group as well as individual progress on an collaborative assignment. This year I've been working on several class wikis and the interaction always starts slowly, as in "what are we doing here? do you know? do you?" and gradually a leader emerges and takes a little more control over the final product, almost as an editor. However, one thing troubled me in the grading of several of these wikis, in that the instructor actually published the number of times each person entered the edit mode on the wiki and assigned a grade accordingly. To me this was misguided...what if I more effectively used my time more than another student and went to edit the wiki a hundred times less? This really did not seem like an accurate reflection of the quality of effort each person put in to the wiki.//

//I think the main advantage to informal learning through wikis as opposed to Facebook, texting, etc, is that it can be presented and monitored as a nominally-structured educational experience. A wiki is controlled through invitation only; the other means of social networking are too open to intrusion from unwanted parties and misuse for other purposes. Just because the learning is informal doesn't mean it has to be completely unstructured; I think it is the responsibility of the teacher as coach and facilitator to keep the informal learning group on task and focused on working toward a goal. -- Laurie R//