Education and 2nd Generation Social Media

Teaching Technology in 2nd Generation Social Media

Presented at Ryerson, Oct. 24, 2008Alexandra Bal, Ryerson University, Canada

Introduction– New media faculty– Focused on teaching research and technology

● We needed to over come a series of problems–Overload of technologies–Speed of change in software getting constantly faster.

–How do we teach technology in a meaningful way with long lasting effects

–Adress interdisciplinary

Change in approach

– Teaching should be about HOW to learn technology

– Not learn a specific technology

– Why?

Change in Media Contexts

– New media technologies = mediated communication – Mixed realities: Mediated Ecologies

● technology systems = hybrid systems ● Adaptability of students to different environments

– Ability to grow with the technology– Ability to constinuously learn -> Research– Ability to invent new modes of creation and

productions

How do we learn?– Resources

● Reading Information

● Doing● Making● Using software ● By working with peers

– Social Networks● By asking questions and talking with

– Peers– Professionals– Teachers

Formal Learning (In class)● Problem based education: Simulate problems and let

THEM figure out how to solve them

● Focus on student’s learning styles ● Help them develop strategies to do technology based

research● Strategies to search the net● Strategies to explore technology● Help them develop a social learning network● Ability to evaluate their own learning ● Develop their own methodology● Media literacy

Informal Learning (in-outside of class)

– Encourage a peer to peer community– Social media become important

1st Generation Social Media

Web 2.0 technologies, Mobiles, etc.

- Facilitate users’ participation - Mediate human relationships

- Facilitate peer to peer culture knowledge and experience sharing activities

- Cartesian mind-body relationship: Virtualization of intellectual processes (Shinkle, 2007)

2nd generation social media

Human relationships is mediated and actualized within spaces

Collaborative activities of physically co-present peers

Geographically dispersed and virtually embodied peers

Potential Active Learning Tools

Constructionist: Children learn by doing and making in a public, guided, collaborative process including feedback from peers, not just from teachers(Papert, 1992).

They explore and discover instead of being force fed information. Source: http://jeremyfain.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/visualization.jpg

Learning within Communities of interests

Students are learning within informal social networks.

Based on their interests.

They share experiences with members of communities of interests.

Social Constructivism:

Learning from their experiences and social contexts (Vygotsky, 1978).

Learning through reflection on doing instead of didactic learning(Dewey, 1939).

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/olpc/2784915332/in/photostream/

Learning within Communities of Practices

Lived experiences + Action

Students co-construct meaning and experiences via co-construction of cultural artefacts (Ito, 2008).

Source: http://bp3.blogger.com/

Learning within social constructionist environments

Experiential learning happens within self organizing mixed-

realities learning communities.

Source: http://marianina.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/Socialnetworkingvisualisation.jpg

Simulated Educational Spaces

Simulation Role Playing Duplicating real spaces Evaluating the use of spaces with peers • http://www.virtualsuburbia.com/

Educational experiences

– Peer based experiences: cancerland– LOl Architects– School of Architecture and Design at Australia's

RMIT University – http://slurl.com/secondlife/RMIT/60/206/32

Conclusion

Professional are using social media- http://studiowikitecture.wordpress.com/

Because buildings are so expensive to build and modify in the real world, rarely are students and staff able to actively participate in the creation of the physical spaces they use. In a virtual space, however, the tables are turned. Anyone can easily prototype their idea in 3D, walk through it, and share it with others. Given these new opportunities, why not let the students, staff and public community who actually use these classrooms design it for themselves? Who better, in fact, to offer insight to improve a occupied space, than the people that use it on a daily basis?