Social Learning Environments

I think that the use of Social Learning Environments may be more easily implemented into higher education. As we discussed in class, due to internet restrictions it much more difficult to incorporate social learning tools in the K-12 environment. In fact, higher education has already begun to experiment with social networking.

The Center for Instructional Technology is hosting it's 4th annual Teaching and Learning with Technology conference this October. The theme is Social Learning Environments. Our keynote speaker is Gardner Campbell from University of Mary Washington. He will address how educators can embrace new online tools and incorporate them effectively into education. For more on Gardner's thoughts you can visit his blog.

As for my own thoughts, I think that social learning environments have great potential for education. As educators, we know that students learn and make connections when they are actively learning and working collaboratively. This is exactly what social networking provides for students. For example, blogs, wikis, and virtual worlds allow students to work together collaboratively. Distance and possibly time (depending on the technology) are not an issue. An English instructor at JMU uses a wiki for his students to write collaboratively.

I think we are just beginning to scratch the surface with social learning environments that are accessible to students. There are probably more opportunities to use these technologies that we can even imagine. These opportunities will continue to grow as technology advances.