Social networking and web 2

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Supporting learner experiences

Web-based technologies allow learners to develop their capabilities, identities and communication skills in a way that is highly relevant to C21st living and working - and these encourage and support open and public practice and can support authentic and challenging learning experiences. They support showcasing and interaction directly with employers as well as the development of an academic profile and reputation. These technologies support choice for learners who are digitally aware and who understand the potential for formal and informal learning. The use of web-based technologies and social networking tools has been widespread across the projects, reflecting their ubiquitous nature. Issues around ownership and control have emerged as important, both in terms of control over their formats or continued existence and in relation to using them in formal educational contexts. In trialling this kind of software projects adopted flexible approaches and had to use alternatives if their first choices did not deliver as expected. Integration of these with institutional technologies was an important aspect as projects felt the need to present seamless experiences for their learners and also wanted to maintain the links to the institution that VLEs offered.

‘For those students working remotely from the institution, the use of social media and personal and mobile technologies that have been effectively contextualised and scaffolded have demonstrated the potential to enhance both student learning and the student experience of learning.’ (MoRSE)

Summary of social networking and web 2.0 tools used by the Curriculum Delivery projects

technology	uses	projects
Facebook	Content sharing, community building	Atelier-D, INTEGRATE
Ning	Networking spaces	KUBE, Atelier-D
Wikis	Community building, sharing content, peer interaction	KUBE, MoRSE, INTEGRATE ESCAPE
Blogs	Reflection	ISCC, MoRSE, INTEGRATE
Elluminate	Videoconferencing	Atelier-D
Megameeting	Videoconferencing	COWL
Skype	Videoconferencing	COWL
Twitter	Micro-blogging	MoRSE
Geo		MoRSE
Compendium	Knowledge mapping	Atelier-D
Flickr	Image sharing, tagging, peer interaction	Atelier-D, MoRSE SpringboardTV
Googledocs	Document sharing, collaborative work	Atelier-D
Voice boards, riffly audio hosting	Assessment feedback	Duckling, COWL
Cloudworks	Community building, networking	Atelier-D
Googlewave	Communication for distant tutors	Atelier-D
Googlemaps	Twitter map mashups for GIS data	MoRSE, INTEGRATE