Read the article “Adult Education and the Social Media Revolution,
Read the article “Adult Education and the Social Media Revolution,”
available in the eReserves section of the classroom. Pay particular attention to the references these authors make to the works of others. Every citation within this article is essentially a head nod to other authors who have written about the same or similar topics. Were they all in the same room, you could imagine the authors of this article pointing to or calling out those other authors while speaking. This is what we mean when we refer to research and writing as one big conversation, with all of the participants listening and responding to one another.
In a discussion post, point to an example from this article and explain how the authors do one of the following:
-refer to another work in order to give legitimacy to their own point;
-refer to another work in order to build upon the ideas of others; or
-refer to another work in order to challenge that work.If you select “refer to another work in order to give legitimacy to their own point,” first describe what the authors’ point is, then describe how the cited article supports that point.
If you select “refer to another work in order to build upon the ideas of others,” first describe what the ideas are, then describe how the authors build upon those ideas.
If you select “refer to another work in order to challenge that work”, first describe what is being challenged, then describe how the authors are challenging the cited work.
Then, give an example from your own life in which you rely upon the work of others to complete a task or accomplish a goal. (This example might be from your workplace, community, or academic life.)
By Marvin LeNoue, Tom Hall,Myron A. EighmyMarvin LeNoue is an ABD doctoralcandidate in Occupational and AdultEducation at North Dakota StateUniversity, Fargo, ND. He is currentlyserving as an instructor at the Universityof Oregon American English Institute,Eugene, OR. His research interestsinclude technology-enhanced educationdelivery and the use of educationalsocial software.(Email: mlenoue@uoregon.edu)Tom Hall has an Ed. D. in Adult andHigher Education from the Universityof South Dakota. He is currentlyserving as an Assistant Professor in theEducational Leadership Program atNorth Dakota State University, Fargo,ND. His research interests includeadult education in the 21st Century, theimpact of different generational cohortsin today’s workplace, and communityeducation in rural America.(Email: thomas.e. hall@ndsu. edu)Myron A. Eighmy is a professor andprogram coordinator for the EducationDoctoral Program at North Dakota StateUniversity. Research interests includealternative delivery modes, learningcommunities, and graduate studentself-efficacy.(Email: myron.eighmy@ndsu.edu)Adult Education and theSocial Media RevolutionThe advent of Web 2.0 and the spread of social software tools havecreated new and exciting opportunities for designers of digitally-medi-ated education programs for adults. Whether working in fully online, blended,or face-to-face learning contexts, instructors may now access technologies thatallow students and faculty to engage in cooperative and collaborative learningdespite being separated in space and time. By supporting the use of interactivemethods and multi-media materials, social software offers educators more waysto engage learners than any preceding educational technology. Social softwarealso empowers curriculum designers to more effectively accommodate manyof the core principles of adult learning than was possible with earlier e-learningtechnologies. This article offers a basic introduction to some new possibilitiesin the design and delivery of digitally-mediated education, and an overview ofthe compatibility between the capabilities of social software and the principlesof adult education.Digitally Mediated LearningSelf-directed learning is largely unconstrained in terms of time andlocation and has traditionally been a primary affordance of distance education(Holmberg, 1995). From its inception, distance education has been marketedas a solution for adults whose occupational, social, and/or family commitmentslimit their ability to pursue educational goals (Holmberg). In the decades sincethe 1970s, demand for distance programs has increased as the globalizationof national economies creates a competitive atmosphere that drives people tobecome life-long learners in order to be successful in the workplace (Merriam,Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007).For many people, the term distance education now conjures up images ofcomputers, the Internet, and online learning. In fact, with advances in mobiletechnology, the delineation between computers and various other electronicdevices (e.g. mobile phones, music players, personal digital assistants, digitaltablets) is blurring, and what was once termed e-learning or computer-mediatedlearning has become more commonly referred to asdigitally mediated learning(DML). This term implies that a medium for learning is provided by digitaltechnology of some sort, and that interaction between participants and betweenparticipants and learning materials is not direct but rather carried out throughthe technology (Grudin, 2000). The use of networked devices, local networks,and the Internet is a key facet of DML, and online networked technologiesare the delivery systems of choice for distance education offerings (Allen &Seaman, 2006).The accessibility and convenience of online DML is positioning the onlineenvironment as the primary context for adult/post-secondary education andtraining in general (Allen & Seaman, 2007; Kim & Bonk, 2006; McLoughlin& Lee, 2007). A Sloan Foundation study of more than 2,500 colleges anduniversities found online enrollments growing substantially faster than overallhigher education enrollment, and the 17% growth rate in online enrollmentsA4Adult Learning
far exceeds the 1.2% growth rate in the overall highereducation population (Allen & Seaman, 2010). Allen andSeaman classified an online course as one in which morethan 80% of content is delivered online and reported thatover 4.6 million students were taking such courses duringthe fall 2008 term.Whether working in fully online, blended, or face-to-face learning contexts, instructors may nowaccess technologies that allow students andfaculty to engage in cooperative and collaborativelearning despite being separated in space andtime.There has also been a trend toward the use of blendedlearning or approaches that combine online and face-to-face delivery modes. As part of efforts to enrich students’learning experience, maximize efficiencies in time andfacilities use, and enhance program marketability, manyinstitutions are increasing their offerings of blendedcourses (Mossavar-Rahmani & Larson-Daugherty, 2007).This method is becoming increasingly common in K-12,higher education, corporate, healthcare, and governmentaltraining settings (Allen, Seaman, & Garrett, 2007; Bonk,Kim, & Zeng, 2005; Watson, 2008). The overall result is ablurring of the boundaries between traditional classifica-tions of instructional approaches. Palloff and Pratt (2007)comment on the changes that digitally-mediated deliveryhas wrought on our definition of distance learning:Today we know that distance learning takesseveral forms, including fully online courses,hybrid or blended courses that contain some face-to-face contact time in combination with onlinedelivery, and technology-enhanced courses,which meet predominantly face-to-face but in-corporate elements of technology into the course,(p. 3)A future is visible in which schooling is dominated bydelivery models that feature multiple instructional modesfluidly combined within the affordances of technology-enhanced delivery and interaction (Bonk, 2009; Kim &Bonk, 2006). The scalability of these delivery modelsallows for the design of courses that can accommodatelarger numbers of participants than has ever been possiblein the past (Siemens & Downes, 2008). As experience withthe operation of mega-universities demonstrates, thesemodels combine human, technological, and organizationalIaspects in a powerful way (Daniel, 2003). Technology-enhanced delivery revolutionizes education by offeringgreatly expanded access to quality educational resourcesdelivered at a much lower per-student cost (Daniel, 2003;Jung, 2005).The Social Media RevolutionDesigners of online education have tendedtoward an emphasis on constructivist modelsof education, with a focus on skills consideredto be essential in a knowledge-based economy,including knowledge construction, problem-solving, collaborative learning, critical thinking,and autonomous learning (Bates, 2008; Sanchez,2003). There is a need for delivery systems thatcan maximize learner independence and freedomby supporting open-enrollment and self-pacedlearning while providing the capabilities for com-munication and collaboration demanded by constructivistpedagogies (Anderson, 2005).Learning management systems (LMS) that integrategeographically dispersed learners in asynchronous educa-tional interactions have been widely available for severalyears. However, they tend to be institution- and content-centric, lacking in support for the affordances that leadto the establishment of flattened communication networksand collaborative information flows (Dalsgaard, 2006;Siemens, 2004), An LMS is well suited for managingstudent enrollment, exams, assignments, course descrip-tions, lesson plans, messages, syllabi, and basic coursematerials. However, these systems are developed forthe management and delivery of learning, not for sup-porting the self-governed and problem-based activitiesof students. Therefore, an LMS does not easily supporta social constructivist approach to digitally-mediatedlearning. It is necessary to move beyond learning man-agement systems to engage students in active use of theweb itself as a resource in self-governed, problem-basedand collaborative activities (Dalsgaard, 2006).Web 2.0 technology can facilitate this move. This tech-nology consists of Internet applications (small softwaretools that can deliver active and interactive content toa browser window) that support interaction betweenmobile devices and the Internet, and allow interactivitybetween the user, the web, and the tool itself (O’Reilly,2005). These applications have provided Internet userswith the ability to easily create, contribute, communicate,and collaborate in the online environment without needfor specialized programming knowledge. Applications ofthis type have become known associal mediaorsocialsoftware.Comprised of a suite of tools that can support5 A
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