The impact of social media on informal learning in museums

This paper posits that social networking can take a central role in learning in informal environments such as museums, libraries and galleries. It argues that social media offers young people agency previously unavailable in informal learning environments in order to explore complex responses to and participation with cultural content. The paper will consider transformations in digital literacy and the processes by which young learners can connect with knowledge in informal learning environments to become active cultural participants.

Die Wirkung sozialer Medien auf informelle Bildung in Museen

Dieses Papier postuliert, dass soziale Vernetzung eine zentrale Rolle im Lernen in informellen Umgebungen wie Museen, Bibliotheken und Galerien annehmen kann. Es behauptet, dass soziale Medien jungen Leuten als Agentur in informellen Lernumgebungen dienen können, die zuvor nicht verfügbar sind, um komplexe Antworten zu erkunden und Beteiligung mit kulturellem Inhalt zu erkennen. Die Autoren betrachten Transformationen in digitalen Fähigkeiten und den Prozessen, durch die junge Anfänger sich mit Wissen in anderen informellen Bildungsumgebungen verbinden können, um aktive kulturelle Teilnehmer zu werden.

L’impact des medias “sociaux” sur l’apprentissage informel dans les musées

Le présent article affirme que la mise en réseau humain peut jouer un rôle central pour l’apprentissage dans des environnements informels comme les musées,les bibliothèques et les galeries. Il avance que les medias “sociaux” offrent aux jeunes des moyens qui n’existaient pas auparavant dans les environnemetns d’apprentissage informels pour permettre d’explorer des réactions complexes et d’interagir avec le contexte culturel. Les auteurs examinent les mutations de la compétence numérique et les processus par lesquels les jeunes apprenants peuvent se brancher sur la connaissance dans des environnements d’apprentissage informels pour devenir des acteurs culturels dynamiques.

El impacto de los medios colectivos sobre el aprendizaje informal en los museos

Esta artículo postula que la creación de redes humanas puede desempeñar un papel central para el aprendizaje en entornos informales como los museos, las bibliotecas y las galerías. Apunta que los medios sociales ofrecen a los jovenes capacidades que antes no estaban asequibles dentro de los entornos de aprendizaje informal para explorar las respuestas complejas y interagir con el contexto cultural. Los autores consideran las transformaciones en el alfabetismo digital y los procesos a través de los cuales los jovenes alumnos pueden conectarse con los conocimientos dentro de esos entornos informales de aprendizaje para convertirse en actores culturales dinámicos.     

New practices in doing academic development: Twitter as an informal learning space

Using social media platforms to build informal learning processes and social networks is significant in academic development practices within higher education. We present three vignettes illustrating academic practices occurring on Twitter to show that using social media is beneficial for building networks of academics, locally and globally, enhancing information flows, inspiring thinking, and motivating academic practice. Using a reflective and diffractive methodology, we illuminate how different flows of forces and relations are enacted. We argue it is in this fluidity of informal learning that perspectives are contested and shaped, and that academic developers can benefit by encompassing such practices.     

A critical examination of informal learning spaces

ABSTRACT

Globally, the future of the higher education sector is under increasing scrutiny, and questions are being asked about the relevance of universities as traditional sites of teaching and learning. In an effort to adapt to the complexities that beset the higher education environment, universities are exploring the utility and benefits offered through informal learning spaces. However, the emergence of informal learning spaces raises important questions regarding student behaviours and ‘learning’, including the dichotomous positioning of the categories ‘formal’ and ‘informal’. This article highlights a tendency in the literature to treat informal learning spaces in a romanticised and overdetermined way. It challenges some of the popular imaginaries of these spaces as free, open and democratising in terms of students’ use, technological affordances, and a largely unchallenged emphasis on forms of community and collaboration as if they are unproblematic. Indeed, a persistently undefined ‘social’ quality attributed to informal learning settings, coupled with a focus on design and technology elements, elides the possibility of negative social practices such as exclusion and marginalisation. Moreover, empirical treatments of these spaces are dominated by quantitative methods that rely on deterministic cause and effect models, including normative understandings of academic success, as a measure of effectiveness. If universities are to proceed in better understanding these learning sites and the meanings and practices students bring to them, new perspectives incorporating more critical, interpretive qualitative approaches that give primacy to understanding the ways in which these spaces might reproduce marginalising or exclusionary social practices are required.     

Learning in the wild: coding for learning and practice on Reddit

Learning on and through social media is becoming a cornerstone of lifelong learning, creating places not only for accessing information, but also for finding other self-motivated learners. Such is the case for Reddit, the online news sharing site that is also a forum for asking and answering questions. We studied learning practices found in ‘Ask’ subreddits AskScience, Ask_Politics, AskAcademia, and AskHistorians to develop a coding schema for informal learning. This paper describes the process of evaluating and defining a workable coding schema, one that started with attention to learning processes associated with discourse, exploratory talk, and conversational dialogue, and ended with including norms and practices on Reddit and the support of communities of inquiry. Our ‘learning in the wild’ coding schema contributes a content analysis schema for learning through social media, and an understanding of how knowledge, ideas, and resources are shared in open, online learning forums.     

Microcultures and informal learning: a heuristic guiding analysis of conditions for informal learning in local higher education workplaces

This article contributes to knowledge about learning in workgroups, so called microcultures in higher education. It argues that socially constructed and institutionalised traditions, recurrent practices, and tacit assumptions in the various microcultures influence academic teachers towards certain behaviour. In line with this perspective, we present a heuristic with the potential to differentiate various types of microcultures: the commons, the market, the club, and the square. The heuristic is based on a socio-cultural perspective and research on collective action. Its purpose is to assist academic developers to fine-tune their approaches while engaging with colleagues, but also to aid further inquiry into how institutionalised norms and traditions influence academic teaching and student learning.     

基于微博的非正式学习研究

基于微博的基本特征,初步探究了微博应用于非正式学习的优势,并以新浪微博为例,构建了基于微博的非正式学习模式,为移动式非正式学习提供了依据,也为以后有关的非正式学习研究提供参考.     

非正式环境中的科学学习及其评价

在终身教育的背景下,发生在非正式环境中的科学学习逐渐受到国内外研究者们的重视。相比课堂上的科学课程的学习研究,目前国内关于非正式科学学习的研究还处于起步阶段。欧美研究者对于非正式环境中科学学习的目标、特征以及评价做了系统研究,本文主要通过梳理文献概述非正式环境中所关注的结果的种类及其评价,为我国的相关研究提供资源,为我国在此领域的研究提供借鉴。     

论高校科研组织的正式群体与非正式群体的互动关系

高校科研组织活动依赖于其正式群体与非正式群体互动关系的基本特性实现，与其基本关系的确定性、一致性、差异性等深层机理活动有关；高校科研组织系统管理必须坚持关系互动原则，才能实现有效的组织管理。     

Unpacking (in)formal learning in an academic development programme: a mixed-method social network perspective

How and with whom academics develop and maintain formal and informal networks for reflecting on their teaching practice has received limited attention even though academic development (AD) programmes have become an almost ubiquitous feature of higher education. The primary goal of this mixed-method study is to unpack how 114 academics in an AD programme developed internal (within their programme) and external (outside their programme) learning and teaching relations. A secondary goal is to highlight the affordances of social network analysis (SNA) methods in conjunction with qualitative approaches for academic developers to understand the (in)formal learning processes in their AD programme. The quantitative results indicate that participants maintained 4.84 relations within their AD programme and 3.17 external ties. The qualitative results indicate that most academics developed a range of emotional, academic, and professional support links, which were mostly outside the AD context. Participants needed an outlet to share their feelings, challenges, and frustrations about their teaching and their experiences on the AD programme. These feelings were shared with people they trusted, primarily close friends and colleagues. This study provides a social perspective on the formal and informal relations of AD, and argues that SNA techniques can help academic developers to make these relationships visible.     

Evaluating social connectedness online: the design and development of the Social Perceptions in Learning Contexts Instrument

Learners’ feelings of social connectedness may be a key factor in predicting online course success. However, students attempting to perceive and process the social context in online courses often find themselves engaging in unfamiliar, technology-mediated communication channels. While there have been several empirically based strategies published for creating and maintaining social connectedness online, presently there are no validated instruments available to evaluate the success or failure of the pedagogical methods employed. This article reports on the development and initial technical validation of the Social Perceptions in Learning Contexts Instrument (SPLCI), a research tool for measuring students’ perception of social connectedness with participants in online courses. Findings demonstrated strong validity and reliability evidence that collectively supports continued development of the SPLCI.     

Environmental learning in online social networks: adopting environmentally responsible behaviors

Online social networks are increasingly important information and communication tools for young people and for the environmental movement. Networks may provide the motivation for young adults to increase environmental behaviors by increasing their knowledge of environmental issues and of the specific actions they can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study examined an application within Facebook.com – the largest online social network in the world – that allowed users to post climate change news stories from other websites and comment on those stories. A survey revealed that users of the social networking application reported above average knowledge of climate change science and that self‐reported environmental behaviors increased during young people's involvement with the Facebook application. Focus groups indicated that peer role modeling through interaction on the site motivated pro‐environmental behaviors, that is, behavior that seeks to minimize the negative impact of one's actions on the natural and built world. Participation in a community of like‐minded users spurred many participants to learn more about climate change and do more to limit its impact.     

The role of online communities and the impact of educational social media on Saudi female college students in the United States

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the role of online communities and the impact of educational social media on 14 Saudi female college students who were studying in the United States. The findings revealed that social media was important to the participants for maintaining relationships and seeking out information from others. Social media was also an important way for participants to remain close to their communities and keep in contact with Saudi friends and family; however, the use of social media to interact with their communities was often shaped by Saudi cultural expectations. Most of the participants enjoyed online education and interacting with others in an online educational setting because it promotes collaborative learning and cultural interaction. Overall, social media used for educational purposes was mostly seen by the participants as a positive and beneficial part of their educational experiences.     

Improvization and strategic risk-taking in informal learning with digital media literacy

The city provides a rich array of learning opportunities for young children. However, in many urban schools, often it can be logistically difficult to get young children out of the building. But when elementary children are encouraged to view the city as a classroom and use digital media to explore and represent their neighborhoods, they can be inspired by the unpredictable events of daily life to ask naïve, critical and sometimes troubling questions. This paper presents a case study of a teacher in an informal media literacy learning environment who worked with a group of 9-year olds in Philadelphia. It documents the experience of a novice teacher who, flummoxed by an accidental encounter between her students and a homeless person, transformed an uncomfortable experience into a teachable moment. Children's questions about homelessness became the organizing frame for learning experience, as the instructor helped children make sense of the information on the Internet, analyze popular culture films and news media, and conduct interviews with community leaders and advocates for the homeless. The inquiry process resulted in a collaboratively produced multimedia project, created by children. The case study has implications for pre- and in-service teacher education for digital and media literacy. This paper suggests that improvization and strategic risk-taking must be conceptualized as a set of socio-emotional and experiential competencies that teachers need when using digital media in an urban community as a tool for learning.     

Academic Twitter and professional learning: myths and realities

Social networking sites provide opportunities for informal and social learning of academic practices in higher education, yet not all academics engage in these spaces. This qualitative study suggests that while Twitter offers informal opportunities for academic development, inhibiting factors prevent staff from establishing their social presence and participating in conversations on academic Twitter. In a pervasively digital era, rethinking academic development practices is required to build digital capacity and digital identity of staff to support participation on social networking sites for academic learning and development.     

On the determinants of employment-related organised education and informal learning

This paper analyses the distribution of employment-related organised education and informal learning in the Canadian workforce. The paper draws on a large-scale survey, the Changing Nature of Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL), which was based on structured and standardised telephone interviews with a representative sample of 5783 Canadian members of the employed labour force. In exploring the determinants facilitating employment-related informal learning, three analytical categories of factors derived from previous research on learning participation were used: individual-level factors, job characteristics and workplace environment. The analyses focus on differences in individuals, jobs and workplace characteristics among adult workers who acquired or improved their job-related skills through different training pathways. In addition, analyses were performed to compare the extent to which these factors differ in their influence on learning decisions among workers who combine both organised education and informal learning and those who receive only informal learning. The results indicate that important predictors of participation in employment-related organised education and informal learning are age, educational attainment, learning skills, occupational class, education-job relation, degree of autonomy, degree of labour intensity, principal area of production and organisation size.     

Investigating the relationships between informal learning and player involvement in digital games

In the last few years, digital games have become increasingly popular with both ‘hardcore’ and ‘casual’ audiences. At the same time, it has been argued that games can be powerful learning environments, since they are seen to encourage active and critical learning through participation in affinity groups and semiotic domains but there is a need for further empirical evidence to explore how this participation occurs and how prevalent it actually is. In addition the effectiveness of games within education indicates mixed results, though it has been suggested that this may indicate that learning through immersive worlds involves a more complex understanding of learning, one that is not so easy to tie to specified learning outcomes. It would seem the area would benefit from research that seeks to develop our understanding of how player involvement and learning come together in this context. This paper presents the preliminary results of a survey carried out in order to explore these issues. The initial findings suggest that how a player identifies as a gamer relates to what they think they gain from their gaming experiences with respect to learning.     

基于Web2.0的非正式学习模型研究

Web2.0的到来将引领学习者去适应一种新的学习主流方式——非正式学习,一时间,依赖先进的网络技术来构建网络非正式学习网络环境就成了远程教育研究的热点之一。文章在归纳总结多种非正式学习定义的基础上,给出了一种新定义,进一步对非正式学习的特点做了概括,对其有效性做了分析,在相应的理论支撑的基础上构建了基于Web2.0的非正式学习模式。     

Engagement and learning through social software in finance: a retrospective on the Trading Room experience

The introduction of a social software blog space called the Trading Room in an undergraduate finance unit generated a great deal of activity to support student learning. A subsequent evaluation of this innovation, viewed through the lens of Activity Theory, demonstrated that students perceived high value in the opportunity it provided for them to reaffirm theories, obtain individualised feedback and benchmark their work against others. While assessment is generally seen as the carrot and the stick of learning; students in the study reported that they would still participate in reading and posting to the Trading Room even if there was no assessment requirement. Students did not see any value in the environment as a purely social space, reporting that they saw it primarily as a professional educational community. It would appear that just as there are different communities in the real world social space, there are also different types of communities in the online space.