Jun 13, 2015
Today’s lecture
• General introduction
• A personal history of computer use and
social media
• Social media…
– How can we use them – how do we use them?
– … and in education?
• Social media…
– As a distractor
– As a learning tool: CSCL
• The future
Today’s literature
Reynol Junco In-class multitasking and academic performance.
Gerry Stahl, Timothy Koschmann, Dan Suthers
Computer-supported collaborative learning:
An historical perspective.
“May you live in interesting times”
Social media are us
• People Without Facebook Accounts
Are 'Suspicious.‘*
• Consider:
– Anders Breivik used MySpace, not
– Aurora movie theater shooter used
Adultfriendfinder, not Facebook
– …
*http://activepolitic.com:82/News/2012-07-25c/Facebook_Abstainers_could_be_labeled_Suspicious.html
You have to be social… the correct way
“Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?“ Atlantic Magazine, May 2012
• The internet paradox
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-
making-us-lonely/308930/
Having few friends predicts early death as much as smoking or alcoholism
Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB
(2010). Social Relationships and
Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic
Review. PLoS Med 7(7): e1000316.
doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316
About me
120, 169, 13, 141, 20, 3, 169, 29, 141, 21, 3, 88, 96,
169, 8, 141, 15, 144, 169, 27, 141, 15, 144, 76, 191, 234
Education in the year 2000 (as predicted in 1900)
1982198219821982
Computers are disappearing!
Computers are social tools
Computers are anti-social tools
The social internet:
Everything old is new again
• BBS
• Usenet
• Mailing lists
• IRC
• ICQ
Everything old is new again
IRC
Everything old is new again
ICQ
The web 2.0 years (2004-now?)
• Social media move to the web
• New tools for interaction
(lots of them)
• Social media use explodes
• Less anonymity
(ongoing process)
What are social media?
“An online toolbox of digital
materials that allow
collaboration, communication,
and learning, independent of
time and place”*
* Erno Mijland – Smihopedia (2012)
are now completely out of touch with today’s youthare now completely out of touch with today’s youthare now completely out of touch with today’s youthare now completely out of touch with today’s youth
say, young man…say, young man…say, young man…say, young man… it’s about time you returned this it’s about time you returned this it’s about time you returned this it’s about time you returned this facebook to the library!facebook to the library!facebook to the library!facebook to the library!
… and which ones would you use
in education?
… and how?
What can you actually do with
social media? • Publishing media – video, text
• Debate, discussion
• Extended and informal communication
• Knowledge construction
• Logistics (e.g. arranging a meeting)
• Crowd sourcing and crowd funding
• Games
The cloud
…what are its implications?
Social media: benefits in school
• Diversity of methods
– A giant toolbox
• Break down school walls
• Facilitate (co-)creation of materials
• Materials can be published for all the world to see
• The development process can be made transparent
Technology makes us
multitaskers
Do social media
interfere with performance?
People are bad at multitasking
‘Cognitive bottleneck’
The ‘digital generation’ has plenty of
opportunity to multitask… and does so
Negative correlation between time spent on
learning and results (e.g., GPA) Junco, R. (2012). In-class multitasking and academic performance. Computers in human behavior, 28, 2236-2243.
1
Do social media
interfere with performance?
This research:
1) how much ICT use during a lesson?
2) Relation ICT use and academic achievement
Self-reports (selection bias?)
Result: Facebook and texting ‘bad’?
Junco, R. (2012). In-class multitasking and academic performance. Computers in human behavior, 28, 2236-2243.
2
CSCL
Computer-supported
collaborative learning
Interaction is the key element:
collaboration and cooperation
Learning is not reducible to individual learning
It all started with collaborative writing and
textually-mediated discussion
Stahl, G., Koschmann, T., & Suthers, D. (2006). CSCL: An Historical Perspective. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.). (2006). Cambridge Handbook
of the Learning Sciences. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
CSCL: historical and theoretical ties
Computer-aided instruction
Intelligent tutoring systems
LOGO
CSCL
Stahl, G., Koschmann, T., & Suthers, D. (2006). CSCL: An Historical Perspective. In R. K. Sawyer (Ed.). (2006). Cambridge Handbook
of the Learning Sciences. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Collaborative inquiry learning
Example: Co-lab
Lots of possibilities, lots of challenges
Main problem: marrying CS to CL
What does a teacher do here?
“Teachers will need to think about the way they will perform their job in the future, as coachmen needed to when cars and airplanes entered the scene. They had to make the transition from handling two reins to a dashboard full of instruments. The goal remained the same, getting people from A to B, but the way to achieve it changed radically.”
Sugata Mitra
Are teachers
necessary?
India
What’s next?
“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.”
Niels Bohr
MOOCs
Massive Open Online Course
Theoretical framework: ‘connectivism’
Conclusion
“The desert will rejoice and
flowers will bloom in the wasteland”
Isaiah, 35:1