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Group A: Workspace: 6-A-1: Social Networking and its Importance for Successful Informal Learning


List the reasons why Group A thinks social networking is important for successful informal learning:

Fran Smith

• Social networking sites never sleep. In theory, students have 24-hour access to news and views from their most trusted sources—their friends.
• Social networking is a non-judgmental platform for asking unfiltered questions of your peers. In that regard, it’s a safe haven for teens.
• Social networking allows for quick responses from multiple respondents. The Net Generation thrives off immediacy.
• Social networking has built-in motivation. Students are familiar with them on a personal level; therefore, incorporating them into academics will be a smooth and fun transition.

KellyC

• Informal learning is based on the social interactions with others. Using social networking, such as Instant Messenger, to communicate about homework or projects can lead to sharing of ideas and increased learning.

• Gamers are masters of informal learning and they want immediate information delivered in an informal manner. Social networking allows that to happen.

• Social networking is important for successful informal learning because interest and information between students is almost instant..

• Conversations and discussions through social networking can be recorded and looked back on. It requires little space, no equipment other than the computer the student uses, and the transcripts can be available to others almost instantly.

• Blogs allow students to share thoughts and make it available to others around the world.

KellieAD

• I think the quote from the online article is right on target when it says, "Peter Senge of the Society of Organizational Learning states that all knowledge is generated in working teams. He sees working and learning as inseparable. Through forming relationships, knowledge is diffused. He alludes to the image of the village square, where people hang out in a social space. That social space is the setting in which social relations are reinforced, trust is developed, and informal learning takes place. In sum, informal learning is that which allows the tacit knowledge resident in a group to emerge and be exchanged, sometimes by serendipity, sometimes in the course of accomplishing a specific project, through the construction of spaces that support learning."
• I think the social networking space can be online, in an office, a classroom or the village square as described in the article.
• People tend to be social beings, learning through social interaction is desirable to learners.
• Knowledge gained through informal learning or in social settings gets filed into long term memory more readily than formal learning.

Debbie B.

• Using social networking for informal learning does not limit the topics and information that is shared and learned. There is not a predefined body of knowledge.
• The article by Dori Digenti pointed out that a social space is a setting where people 'hang out'. They build social relations and when trust is developed, informal learning takes place. I thought this was a key piece of information because a safe learning environment is important even in social networking.
• Learning is part of the interactions between people, therefore, social interactions are primed for informal learning.
• Social networking breeds informal learning because people will gravitate toward the groups that have similar interests and learn about subjects together while 'googling' on the information superhighway.