Social Media Applications for the Support of Collaborative and Community-Based Learning - Coursework Example

A Commentary on Social Media Applications for the Support of Collaborative and Community-Based Learning Submitted) ABSTRACT New pedagogical theories have brought about a change in the learning transaction, which now places emphasis on collaborative and group-based learning. This type of learning, based on constructivist theory, is thought to benefit the learner in several ways. Recent advances in technology have enabled the creation of virtual environments under which this type of learning can occur. Specifically, social media applications are currently being used to facilitate collaborative learning. Research and theory has shown social media to have numerous advantages for collaborative learning, including the creation of a network of peer support, enhanced opportunities for communication and knowledge-sharing and the facilitation of multimedia as methods of instruction. Pitfalls involved in this centre primarily on the lack of non-verbal cues and the possibility for inappropriate content and misinterpretation of communication. Based upon the authors own experience of using social media applications in collaborative learning, such as ThinkBinder and Edistorm, it is found that the theoretical potential of these applications in support of collaborative learning is largely realized, particularly in the areas of peer-support, diversity of communication methods and convenience. Disadvantages surround the lack of non-verbal cues. It is recommended that the inclusion of another form of media, such as podcasts, may have enhanced learning even further. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………….. ..4 2. LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………………………..5 2.1 The Premise of Collaborative Learning…………………………………………...5 2.2 Defining Social Media……………………………………………………….……6 2.3 How Social Media Supports Collaborative Learning………………………...……7 2.4 The Disadvantages of Social Media in Collaborative Learning………………….11 3. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE……………………………………………………......13 3.1 Class Activities………………………………………………………………..…13 3.2 Discussion ………………………………………………………………...….....14 4. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………19 5. REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………….20 1. INTRODUCTION Communicative and collaborative technologies such as social media applications are becoming increasingly important in both the workplace and in educational environments. As Gordon (2006) suggests, organizations and educational institutions alike are increasingly adopting online collaboration tools as platforms where data, information, and knowledge about a particular topic can be shared among employees, students or team members. Many such social media applications are relatively new tools that are used to promote collaboration and learning as well as enhance knowledge sharing. By their nature, these tools have increasingly facilitated the development of virtual teams and enabled community-based learning. This facilitation is not solely due to the technical features offered by these applications, but also by the network of peer support and degree of learner control they enable. In analyzing the potential and pitfalls of social media applications in support of collaborative learning, it is vital to first outline the theory behind collaborative learning and the necessary environment and conditions which must be present if collaborative learning is to occur. This essay will then review the literature concerning social media as a means of supporting collaborative learning, including suggestions about possible disadvantages. It will conclude by assessing the personal experience of the author within this context and relate this to the theories and research discussed. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 The Premise of Collaborative Learning Learning is a complicated and multi-dimensional process. It has generated major theories about how is it successfully accomplished, the major ones being rooted in the theories of behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism. While the theories differ in objectives, methods and results, they all fundamentally engage in the same experience; they attempt to change something in the learner. Collaborative and community-based learning are both rooted within the principals of the constructivist approach. The principles behind the theories of behaviourism and cognitivism, are rooted in objectivism; that the world is a shared reality, and external to the learner. Alternatively, collaborative and community-based learning are both rooted within the principals of the constructivist approach. The assumptions behind more traditional learning theories, are rooted in the premise of objectivism, in that, the world is a shared reality, and external to the learner who does not act upon it, but instead is acted upon by the environment. However, constructivism shifts the focus of instruction from the passive transfer of facts to the active application of ideas to new problems (Ertmer and Newby, 1993), where the learner produces their own unique reality (Jonasson, 1991). Within this approach, learning is defined as a change in meaning and occurs through group dialogue and collaborative problem-solving, and always within the context to which it is relevant. The primary role of the instructor then, is to design authentic learning experiences which are conducive to the development of problem-solving skills and critical thinking. They must promote collaboration with others to show multiple perspectives, and to encourage the student to arrive at individual opinions (Jonasson, 1991). It is this collaborative and group-based learning environment which is extremely relevant to this approach. Within this collaborative context which aims to offer a varied approach on instruction, new technological innovations such as social media applications, can be a useful tool. Research shows that deep and meaningful learning experiences are best supported by actively engaged learners who are presented with opportunities to engage in critical and creative reflection, discourse, dialogue and collaborative debate (Garrison and Vaughan, 2008). Transformations brought about by electronic communications and digital networks have had a huge impact on the educational transaction. The vast and varied resources offered by the internet, and its enormous capacity to support numerous interactive formats (White et al, 2003), enable a negotiation of content and activity, while also allowing an increase in autonomy and control (Anderson, 2008). Using collaborative methods, particularly through computer-based applications, has been shown to support this type of learning (Garrison and Vaughan, 2008). The essential components of this framework must include an effective and sustainable community of inquiry (COI). The model of a COI within an online environment, put forth by Garrison and his colleagues (2000) is grounded in a critical, collaborative learning community enabled by a range of technical applications such as social media. 2.2 Defining Social Media The use of social media within the context of collaborative and group-based learning has become a popular and commonly used practise. Social media centres on mobile, web-based applications which are designed to create an interactive communicative environment which can be used by individuals or group, for any purpose (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). There are a huge number of social media applications currently in existence and there are many types and categories within this such as chat forums, social networking sites, blogs, wikis and podcasts. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) have categorised social media types into collaborative projects, content communities, blogs, virtual gaming environments, social networking and virtual social worlds. The categories of most relevance to group-based learning are blogs, social networking sites, collaborative projects such as wikis and content communities. These types of applications allow a group of learners to generate and share content, various media files and links, collaborate on projects and communicate online. Shirky (2008) outlines the fact that social networks facilitate the creation of groups and the exploration of new ways of learning. Collaborative learning through social media is also thought to encourage cognitive independence and social interdependence simultaneously (Garrison and Anderson, 2003). In several studies such as Garrison et al (2000) and Slattery (2006), on the use of computer mediated communication within the educational sphere, the collaborative learning framework has been utilised as a successful model. In this regard, attitudes, perceptions, and experiences are an important aspect to be evaluated when establishing the effectiveness of group-based learning. Hillyard et al (2010), found that student’s past experiences in group-based learning programs in the past has a great impact on these student’s future attitude towards this type of learning environment. The potential of social media in the support of collaborative and group-based learning is something which is being increasingly researched and harnessed. Many educational professionals recognize the importance of integrating social media into the educational premise and to recognise the opportunities provided by the use of social applications (Sutch, 2012). 2.3 How Social Media Supports Collaborative Learning Social media platforms enable a range of communicative methods including both synchronous and asynchronous systems such as written text via chat forums, blogs and wikis; and oral and visual communication between people via podcasts and VoIP systems such as Skype. The possibilities for file and information sharing even across geographical boundaries, and the convenience and inexpensiveness of such activities make social media platforms a valuable resource for education in many ways, not only in their fundamental ability to create an engaging and interactive community of inquiry and social presence. Social media provides unique opportunities within education for communication and content-sharing not only between learners but between teacher, institution and learner. Such channels of communication are a relatively new idea within the education system, and have changed the roles of learners, teachers and institutions in terms of the learning experience. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are being increasingly used by teachers to communicate with their students. Social media can also be used to extend educational outreach and to create educational networks and communities of inquiry (Wartella, 2012). Much research has been done in recent years on the potentials and pitfalls of using social media to support collaborative learning. For example, Gunawardena (1995) examined social presence theory and the implications for “analyzing interaction, communication, collaborative learning and the social context of computer-mediated communication”. It was found that Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) was perceived as an interesting and stimulating educational medium by participants. The research also found that the sense of a learning community and support network, was what made participants view certain CMCs as social mediums. Another study by Helou and Gillet (2012) examined the use of the social media platform GRAASP within a collaborative learning context. The platform was used as a resource base for knowledge and multimedia file sharing, and as a general communication site for higher education students. It was found that the participating students were generally satisfied with the features offered by this platform to enhance knowledge management and collaborative activities, both technically and socially. In other similar research, Minocha (2009) identified the educational objectives for using social media to be primarily focused on offering new ways of learning, giving more control to students (thereby making them active participants in their education within the vein of constructivist theory), supporting group-based learning and collaboration, enhancing reflection and critical thinking and fostering social interaction. In the many case studies examined by Minocha where higher education students were engaged in collaborative learning via social media sites, the benefits of social media were found to be in the areas of retention, collaboration, socialization, learner engagement and an enhanced sense of control for the student over their own learning experience. The integration of multimedia and the interest and novelty provided by social platforms is also very beneficial within an educational context (Hoffman, 2012), as learners appreciate new ways of receiving and sharing information. In addition, using social media has been said to enhance a form of cooperative learning (Paulsen, 2008). Much research in comparing virtual learning environments to social media environments has indicated that a virtual learning environments lack a deep engagement between students and teachers (Anderson, 2009), which can be enhanced using social media (Bickford and Wright 2006). Other studies have found that creativity is enhanced by using social media applications within this collaborative learning context. Peppler and Solomou (2011) researched the element of creativity using a design based approach. Using the social media application Quest Atlantis, 85 student participants were analysed in terms of their chat room contributions and also via screenshots of interactions between participants. Findings illustrated both the rise and spread of creativity in this environment, and the social nature of this creativity. At a more technical level, the advantages of social media platforms which mostly enable collaboration are the presence of several asynchronous or synchronous communicative technologies, which provide effective means of communication and information sharing. Of these, the most commonly used are chat forums and blogs, which were used extensively by the author’s fellow classmates. A weblog or blog can be described as a frequently updated website consisting of dated entries arranged in reverse chronological order (Farkas, 2007). Structural features of the modern blog which make them very effective for communication include dated entries, archives, permalinks and reverse-chronological postings. In a 2004 analysis of blogs, Herring et al (2004) separated blogs into sub-categories, but they can all be seen to serve the same purpose. The advantages of using blogs for communication and collaborative work, identified by MovableType.Org (2007), include the fact that they are simple to operate. Blogging requires limited technical knowledge so no team training is needed and varying levels of individual technical skill within teams is therefore not a relevant issue. This simplicity makes blogs a suitable medium for an open forum, a closed discussion, or information sharing within a team or organisation. They are also cheap, feature update notifications, and they can be ‘owned’ and moderated. The author of the blog sets the tone and topic of conversation and expectations about behaviour. Blogs can make sure a team’s conversation online is productive and stays on topic. The author can also set permissions over who can create and edit content. For team collaboration, this means that only members of the team can access the blog. Blogs provide an effective and structured way to garner feedback, and for collaborative learning, this is perhaps the greatest advantage of blogs. The other common feature of most social media platforms is chat tools. Chat tools are a form of synchronous communication between two or more internet users. Groups often find that chat tools can be the most convenient and practical form of synchronous communication. The advantages of using chat tools and instant messaging services for communication and collaborative work include the fact that they are cheap and easy to use. People may also retain more information when they use chat tools to debate online. However, people can find that “ the constant flux of oral talk may make expression so easy to achieve that (they) may actually stop reflecting on what they are trying to communicate. Researchers have found that “(with) text…learners may…think more carefully about what they are (going) to say” (Enriquez, 2008). Using chat tools can also decrease the anxiety in users who are communicating with a secondary language (Satar, 2008). 2.4 The Disadvantages of Social Media in Collaborative Learning Though there have been found to be huge areas of potential and effective features in the use of social media in supporting collaborative learning, research has also been done about the pitfalls and disadvantages of it. For example, though many postulate that educational professionals should exploit their pupils’ existing ICT and social media knowledge through using them as learning environments (Leach, 2002) others such as Mazer et al. (2007) have suggested that social networking sites can allow for content which is inappropriate due to the informality which is associated with them. This can lead to the exposure of negative or offensive content, and breaches of privacy and trust (Griffith and Liyanage, 2008). Social media sites have also been accused of enabling social and educational misconduct such as plagiarism and harassment (Anderson 2009). Kreijns et. al (2003) researched the two primary areas in which social media has been criticized within the context of collaborative learning – namely “ taking for granted that participants will socially interact simply because the environment makes it possible and neglecting the social (psychological) dimension of the desired social interaction” (p 335). They postulate that social interaction is vital in creating collaborative learning environments, but that it is incorrectly assumed that learning will take place purely because a social media platform is used. They also describe the problem of restricting social interaction to cognitive processes. Similarly, Hallett and Cummings researched the area of social interaction in a 1997 study, in which they found that interaction among students did not occur naturally. In addition, there has been concern among some professionals that the degree of freedom and control for the learner, offered by such applications has the potential to be disadvantageous (Christensen et al, 2008). Some are of the opinion that “Higher education will face a challenge: when learners have been accustomed to very facilitative, usable, personalizable and adaptive tools both for learning and socialising, why will they accept standardised, unintuitive, clumsy and out of date tools in formal education they are paying for?” (Weller, 2009, p. 184) Due to the convenience and control such applications facilitate, this inevitably shifts the expectations of learners concerning more traditional learning environments, which may negate them altogether. Although such control and convenience is an obvious advantage to learning, in the long term, what this means for the future of traditional systems is uncertain. Other general criticisms of social media applications focus on the lack of non-verbal cues and face-to-face interaction between students. 3. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 3.1 Class Activities As a user of social media for personal and entertainment purposes, I was quite excited and interested to see how using such platforms in a purely educational context could benefit learning, when my class was assigned to use several applications as a way of supporting collaborative and group-based learning. During my course, the class explored the social media platforms ThinkBinder, SpringNote, Edistorm and Twitter in terms of their potential for collaboration. As part of this task, two students were assigned to be managers and responsible for each particular application. I was responsible for ThinkBinder which is a social media platform that incorporates several communicative and collaborative features such as chat forums, wiki pages, file-sharing, video chat and an interactive white board. In this way, it combined features of both synchronous and asynchronous technologies in a very useful and effective way. The professor chose a number of articles for the class to discuss every week, and we were required to read the articles and use one of the applications to discuss and reflect upon it with each other. I used ThinkBinder to upload the articles and share them with my fellow classmates. Each student had an individual account for this platform which allowed them to download any files which were uploaded. ThinkBinder features a virtual whiteboard, chat room and video chat which was used by our group for discussion, asking questions, commenting and offering feedback. When group members finished reading the articles, they posted about their reflections and thoughts on the material using this platform. In class, we were then required to access our group page on the application and the professor examined each of our individual and collective contributions. All students were then required to discuss the material uploaded via the application, including comments on what each student had contributed. SpringNote was used in a very similar way during this task, however it does not have the same features as ThinkBinder such as the presence of an interactive whiteboard. Using Edistorm and Twitter was also beneficial to our class activities but in relatively minor ways when compared to ThinkBinder and SpringNote. Edistorm was used as a supplementary Wiki page, in which each student wrote their contributions on the platform, which were collected at the end of the activity. Specifically, this was used to collect questions from all students in relation to possible interviews in the future. Twitter, a form of micro-blog, was also used to share ideas in this way and to make suggestions both inside and outside of classroom time. Compared to both SpringNote and ThinkBinder, both of these applications were used quite lightly, as ThinkBinder in particular served the needs of the class well. 3.2 Discussion Based upon my own experience, I believe that social media applications have huge potential in supporting collaborative learning. As the discussed theory and research suggests, I found that the peer-supported group environment had great appeal and was very useful to me, as I have often found it more difficult and isolating to study alone. Through some applications such as ThinkBinder and SpringNote, I was able to meet my fellow students and discuss anything that related to the session. These applications allowed me to upload video and articles, and this was relavant to the tasks we completed. I noticed that other students benefitted from features such as the whiteboard and discussion board, chat room,video chat and text, which allowed better and very convenient interaction. When the students accessed the applications they started talking ,discussing and asking about the articles immediately, and left their reflections and thoughts for others to see. I agree with the theoretical premise that these applications are very good for brainstorming and distance learning, as well as sharing files, images and video. I found them easy to use, requiring very little technical knowledge and I found some novelty in using the features within them, such as the whiteboard. I have also found these applications are very worthwhile for learning in general. ThinkBinder in particular was extremely helpful in collaborative activities, as it allows the user to discuss and interact about any problem on the whiteboard, in a very easy and effective way. In addition, users can create their own groups, and invite anyone to join the group and share their thoughts. I believe this reflected the theory and research behind creating a COI very well, as all members were like-minded participants with a shared goal and objectives. This focus definitely promoted a sense of community within my tasks, which I found appealing. In terms of technicality, although the applications offered very useful features, I did discover some drawbacks. For example, ThinkBinder does not accept all file formats and sizes, which I discovered when attempting to upload multimedia files. I found this to be frustrating and it highlighted to me that such heavy reliance upon technology was perhaps not always advisable. On the other hand, some technical features of SpringNote were a welcome surprise to me, such as the font editor, which allowed the application to function as a word processor among other things. The multi-functional and variety of features within these applications were of great benefit to my tasks and I was impressed with the extent of the collaboration they allowed. I also enjoyed the fact that I was able to trace others contributions, check recent updates, comment and offer feedback. As described in the benefits of blogs and social media applications in general, I found such features to be of significant benefit to collaborative learning in terms of speed of interaction and information transmission, the organization of content and the ease of providing feedback. I also found Edistorm to be a good tool for collaborative learning as it provides an environment in which students can share ideas, brainstorm, collect information and vote on random issues. At the same time this application was used for different activities where each student shared their own questions in order to use them in the interview task. Though this application requires a membership fee after one month, the benefits are worth the money, though there are many similar applications which offer the same features for free. While the benefits of the social media applications used within class were numerous in terms of collaboration, communication, convenience, information sharing and file-uploading, I do think there were a few aspects to them which were disadvantageous. Other than the few application-specific negatives already mentioned, from my experience, there are a few drawbacks to using chat tools and blogs such as Twitter in general. First of all, in terms of chat tools, I believe this medium suffers due to the lack of face-to-face communication and non-verbal cues, which ‘communicate up to (seventy percent) of any message, and can easily get lost in text-only tools’ (Brown, 2007). Sometimes, misconstrued phrases can not only confuse, but they can also unintentionally offend others, which I had to be mindful of in many chat room sessions. There is also the issue of lag time, due to differences in internet connection. Though this did not affect my class activities, it has been a problem I have encountered in the past. Also, sometimes a class member would submit a message that did not fully convey what he or she meant to say, which inevitably sparked confusion or debate among the rest of the group. The use of chat tools can also be difficult for those who are self-conscious (Fetterman, 1996), which materialised with one of my friends who expressed this concern. I also believe that the idea put forth by Kreijns et. al (2003) that students will not necessarily interact socially just because the feature is presented to them, is very relevant. Personally, I did not engage in social interaction outside of the context of task-related discussion and activities. However, I did not find this to be a hindrance to my performance or enjoyment of the tasks. I also felt unsure at times about how to express my ideas. On the one hand I felt that I should write in a very formal and professional manner, but as some students engaged in very informal and casual interaction, this made me feel quite confused as to what style would be more appropriate. Similarly, I find there to be pitfalls to using blogs such as Twitter in a collaborative learning context. Though blogs are relatively simple to set up, they do require a level of commitment to maintain, in terms of regular postings and updates, as well as ensuring that all comments are reviewed and addressed. For the purposes of team collaboration, this requires a regular and thorough monitoring of the blog and the managing of potentially huge numbers of comments. Similar to chat tools, blogs can also lead to misinterpretation, lack of understanding, or mistrust in the content. The quality and accuracy of exchanged information has been shown in prior research to have a significant effect on user understanding and perceived effectiveness of communication (Daft and Lengel, 1986). With blogs, this may not be achieved due to the informal nature of the tool. In retrospect, I believe that the addition of an audio-visual platform such as a podcast, may have added more interest and novelty to the tasks. Podcasts are an asynchronous form of communication that enable a person to record and download audio or video files onto their computer or mp3 player via an RSS feed, which allows software to search for new podcasts in a series when a subscription has been made (Harvard, 2011). The potential of podcasting as a versatile communication tool is exploited across a wide variety of industries. For example, podcasts were initially most popularly used for the distribution of talkshows, audiobooks and in musical entertainment (Hammersely, 2004). Now they are also being used extensively in education (Lee, 2009), (Violino, 2007). Podcasts are easy and inexpensive to make, and there is a degree of mobility in the ways in which podcasts can be heard and/or viewed. For example, once they have been downloaded they can be replayed on a portable mp3 device, and listened to in the car on the way to work (Maged, 2006). This differentiates them from a blog, for example, which can only be read from a computer or smart-phone. Podcasts are also effective in reaching large audiences and are quick and easy to make and prepare. Podcasts can also can aid those who are primarily auditory learners (Maged, 2006). This advantage could also help those in a work environment who are more comfortable processing information through auditory means as opposed to visual. It could also aid those who are visually impaired. 4. CONCLUSION Though social media platforms do offer many benefits in the support of collaborative and group-based learning, there are some pitfalls involved in these technologies. In the vein of constructivist learning theory, it is becoming increasingly relevant and important to create learning environments which are more user-centric, interactive, collaborative and meaningful. Collaborative learning allows students to engage in critical thinking, discussion, debate and a peer-supported environment. The features of social media platforms suit this context quite well, all the while allowing for a social presence to be easily infused within the learning environment. The convenience, inexpensiveness, ease of use and interesting features incorporating multimedia of social media applications yield massive potential within this context. They allow the locus of control to shift onto the learner, rather than the instructor, which empowers the student to be an active agent within their own learning experience. Such an empowerment is a benefit to learners who can control how, what, where and when they learn due to such applications. From my experience, applications such as ThinkBinder and SpringNote offered very effective ways in which my class could communicate and collaborate. Their convenience, ease of use and integration of communicative methods allowed for collaboration and information sharing in a very accessible and easy manner. However, I believe there are flaws in some of the features particularly in chat rooms and blogging, primarily due to lack of non-verbal cues. Though I do not believe another platform to be more suited to our class activities, I do think there are areas for improvement such as the establishment of clear rules of conduct and examples of what interaction styles and tones are acceptable. 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