Social Networking as an Educational Tool

   The medium of instruction is changing. More and more people are using technology and social network and educators think that these can be used for educational use. This will bring some consequences of course, for example:

1)     Videoconferencing for educational use will make most lecturers redundant as students will have access to lecturers that are the best in their field

2)     Computer based training will allow students to work at their own pace, students will have a chance to focus on what they are unable to understand

3)     Asynchronous computer conferencing will provide all students around the world to take courses from best universities.

   Today, there are some apps or websites that consist of user generated contents. YouTube is an example of such websites. YouTube is just a platform through which people create the content. This kind of content can be used for educational purpose as well. Students will be required to create the content itself, instead of just obtaining knowledge. In this case, user generated content will bring some benefits and these can be counted as:

1)                              1)       Learners will actively engage in construction of their experience, instead of passively                              absorbing existing content.

2)                              2)       Content will be continually refreshed by learners

3)                               3)       New tools that will arise with user generated content support collaborative work

  Surely, such an education will change some of what we know and accept. For example, what it means to be educated today may differ in future.  Different skills, new ways of working and learning, new knowledge will be required to operate in and through social network. But these differences will bring some limitations to education as well and these are:

1)                                1)        There will be some trust, reliability and believability problems

2)                                 2)        It may be difficult for educators to adapt to these changes

3)                                 3)         It is still questioned whether social networking has real learning value

    There are some differences in terms of attitude, behaviour and use of technology between different generations. Basic characteristics of millennials can be counted as:

1)                                  1)        Ability to multitask rather than single task

2)                                2)          Preference to learn from pictures, sound and video instead of written documents

3)                                3)          Preference for interactive and networked activities instead of independent and                                           individual study

4)                                 4)     Shorter attention span

                                        5)        Desire for entertainment and excitement

6)                                  6)       Scanning skills

     Today, we can no longer gain personal experience and obtain all the knowledge that we need. In order to act, we try to obtain knowledge from forming connections with other people. Blogs and Wikis are the best tools for this and what we see in these tools are samples of networks of growing knowledge and understanding.

Constructivist theory

    Course design based on the constructivist theory is highly compatible with web 2.0 tools. This kind of curricula gives students chance to collaboratively negotiate knowledge. It is an open ended, negotiable approach.  Students in a constructivist environment will required to be active and interactive. As web 2.0 is an environment where people not only take information but also add content. So, in a web 2.0 course design, students will not only obtain knowledge, but also add new content.