Learning in the Age of Digital Culture

Author(s):

Petra Grell(presenting / submitting)Franco Rau(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

06. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures

Format:

Paper

Session Information

06 SES 04, Open Learning Cultures

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

09:00-10:30

Room:

FCT - Aula 2

Chair:

Sónia Sousa

Contribution

For some years now it is alleged, that it would be foolish to ignore the great opportunities, the Social Web offers to education (Wheeler 2009) and that Social Media enables participation and helps people to build knowledge bases that perfectly fit their needs (Owen 2006). International textbooks on web 2.0-based learning (Lee & McLoughlin 2011) within institutions on the one hand and monographs about the “Challenges of a Participatory Culture” (Jenkins et al. 2010) on the other hand claim a more or less dramatic turn in education, society and in lifelong learning. Some colleagues are talking about “Pedagogy 2.0” (McLoughlin & Lee 2011). Other skeptic voices, e.g. Neil Selwyn, point out, that neither school (Selwyn 2011) nor informal adult learning (Selwyn 2005) in UK has changed fundamentally. And Buckingham has noted the unfulfilled promises of technological change (2007). The ongoing question is, if learning in the age of digital culture is just another circle of “hype, hope and disappointment?” (Gouseti 2010).

The aims of our study were (1) to construct a clear picture of the failures of implementing Social Media in different educational settings and (2) to critically discuss the attempts to reduce unintended side-effects concerning equal educational opportunities.

Method

Content Analysis. First step (1) was a systematic review and a meta-analysis of empirical based papers about Social Software in higher education in international journals and German conference proceedings. Second (2) we extended our literature basis including broader fields of lifelong learning, such as “Bildung” and informal learning within online-games, online-communities and virtual worlds. We searched for journal articles which include in their title or keywords one of our 15 key terms (e.g. „Social Web“, „Web 2.0“, “Online Communities” or “Learning Communities”) and which were published between 2008 and 2012. We excluded all non-empirical papers, the remaining papers were subjected for analysis/review.

Expected Outcomes

(1) In the field of higher education failure arises basically from unrealistic expectations of teachers. A lack of participation is mentioned in case studies even if teachers/researchers tried to enhance participation and collaboration through obligatory interactive parts of coursework. In addition to guidance and scaffolding, several authors/researchers/teachers provide external control elements in order to initiate participation. (2) Students appear to be ‘playing the game’ rather than using the tool for their own purposes. (3) In the field of lifelong learning and adult education we state a widening gap between the privileged well educated and the underprivileged low-educated. (4) Moreover in this field there is a lack of using social theory to think about the issue, that the gap increases although Social Media claim to foster equal opportunities and participation.

References

Buckingham, D. (2007): Beyond Technology. Children’s Learning in the Age of Digital Culture. Polity Press. Cole, M. (2009): Using Wiki technology to support student engagement: Lessons from the trenches. Computers & Education 52.1. pp. 141–146. Lee, M. J. W. & McLoughlin, C. (2011). Web 2.0-Based E-Learning: Applying Social Informatics for Tertiary Teaching. Hershey, New York: Information Science Reference. Gouseti, A. (2010): Web 2.0 and education: not just another case of hype, hope and disappointment? In: Learning, Media and Technology. Vol. 35, No. 3. pp. 351–356. Grell, P.; Rau, F. (2009) Participation under compulsion. In: International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (i-JET) Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 26-30. Grell, P.; Rau, F. (2011): Partizipationslücken. Social Software in der Hochschullehre. In: Medienpädagogik. Vol. 21. pp. 1–23. Owen, M.; Grant, L; Sayers, S.; Facer, K. (2006). Opening Education: Social software and learning. Bristol: Futurelab Schmidt, J., Lampert, C.; Schwinge, C. (2010): Nutzungspraktiken im Social Web – Impulse für die medienpädagogische Diskussion. In: Herzig, B.; Meister, D.; Moser, H.; Niesyto, H. (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch Medienpädagogik 8: Medienkompetenz und Web 2.0. Wiesbaden. pp. 255–270. Selwyn, N. Selwyn, N. (2011) 'Schools and schooling in the digital age: a critical analysis' London, Routledge Selwyn, N., Gorard, S. and Furlong, J. (2005) 'Adult learning in the digital age ' London, Routledge Wheeler, S. (2009): Learning Space Mashups: Combining Web 2.0 Tools to Create Collaborative and Reflective Learning Spaces. Future Internet 1.1: pp. 3–13. Wheeler, S. (2011): Using Wikis in Teacher Education: Student-Generated Content as Support in Professional Learning. In: Lee & McLoughlin. pp. 180–191.

Author Information

Petra Grell (presenting / submitting)

University of Potsdam

Educational Science

Potsdam

Franco Rau (presenting)