The Economist has been hosting a series of debates. The first focused on technology and education, the second on university recruiting, and the third and final debate is on social networking (great to see Ewan McIntosh in the debate - I always appreciate seeing edubloggers involved in discussions outside of blog community).
The discussion has attracted numerous responses:
Will Richardson: "Often in my presentations I ask how many folks are teaching MySpace or Facebook in their schools. Not teaching with MySpace, but teaching the literacies of networking through the lens of a SNS. Rarely do more than a few hands go up"
danah boyd: "In their current incarnation, social network sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace should not be integrated directly into the classroom...I have yet to hear a compelling argument for why social network sites (or networking ones) should be used in the classroom. Those tools are primarily about socializing, with media and information sharing there to prop up the socialization process (much status is gained from knowing about the cool new thing)."
In a related field - a recent JISC Report on the Google Generation (.pdf) questions the commonly held assumptions that the younger generation are adept at searching and finding information online.
I find this discussion on social networking and the attributes of younger learners fascinating. We are at a transition point. For years (almost a decade) we have seen steady growth in interest in blogs, wikis, and other social technologies. This growth has occurred mostly within a small camp of early adopters. Now, as the use of these tools has grown to a level educators are not able to ignore, serious scrutiny is applied. When I dialogue with edubloggers, there is a sense of "hey, we're talking about possibilities and trying to see what opportunities can arise". But now formal research is rapidly picking apart much of those informal conversations and assumptions. As I stated in September "if a revolution is to have life and permanence, the passion and rhetoric must give way to (or at minimum, be augmented by) logic and research". I think we are at that point now.
I am in the process of planning a course for this semester on New Communication Technologies and Organizational Life. I am really having a problem finding anything on the skills needed, especially on social networking tools, and how it impacts an organization. I think we are at the point that online learning was 10 years ago where there needs to be research that goes beyond the debate of should we have it or not, and explains what works and what doesn't, and the impact it is having on education, organizations, and society.
Posted by: Virginia Yonkers at January 17, 2008 1:48 PMHi Virginia - I agree on the research emphasis. We have a bunch of hype and rhetoric without a clear understanding of what students actually do with these tools. While it's always fun to speculate, in order to foster change, we need a clearer understanding of the situation.
Posted by: George Siemens at January 18, 2008 12:04 PMHi Virginia, George,
You make a good point about requiring more research in the area...I'd make two points...
1. I think the question has moved from why we should or shouldn't use educational technologies, to HOW do we evaluate its use.
2. I think the emergence of online socially-oriented technologies has also not only forced us to re-examine teaching and learning but also educational research.
I'm in the process of co-authoring a paper about the benefits of participatory evaluation, as an example, and have been reading a number of works that look at ways and means to evaluate educational technologies, of which the following are indicative I think...
Jelfs, A & Kelly, Patrick (2007) 'Evaluating electronicresources: Personal Development Planning resources at the Open University, a case study', Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32:5, 515-526 (outlines observational techniques as enhancing evaluation outcomes).
Sheard, J. & Markham, S. (2005) Web-based learning environments: developing a framework for evaluation, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 30(4), 353-368. (highlights a developmental evaluation approach and a multi-disciplinary evaluation team).
Goodyear, P., Salmon, G., Spector, J.M., Steeples, C. & Tickner, S. (2001) Competencies for online teaching: a special report, Educational Technology, Research and Development, 49(1), 65-72. (which can translate well to learners).
I thought this might help to further the conversation...
Marg
Posted by: Marg O'Connell at January 23, 2008 3:54 PM