SOCIAL SOFTWARE

Social software allows learners choice in controlling their own learning, mediated by a raft of tools, including the voice and direction of the group. Web 2.0 software such as blogs, folksonomies, peer-to-peer (P2P) media sharing, and of course the increasingly popular freely editable wiki, are providing students with unprecedented learning opportunities. Across the globe students are able to use collective intelligence to create “the wisdom of crowds” (Surowiecki, 2003), connecting within rich and dynamic social environments, rather than studying in solitude through impersonal learning management systems designed by administrators.

This paper has explored some of the affordances and constraints of social software and defined it as an open architecture that facilitates user-controlled, collaboratively generated knowledge and community-focussed enquiry. It is the combination of the technological affordances of social software, with new educational agendas and priorities, that offers the potential for radical and transformational shifts in teaching and learning practices, what we have referred to in this paper as Pedagogy 2.0. There are signs of optimism that the new tools will result in learning environments that are more personal, participatory and collaborative. However, in order for these goals to come to fruition, there is a need for careful planning, as well as developing a detailed understanding of the dynamics of Web 2.0 and social software tools and their affordances. The limitations of the medium and the importance of risk management cannot be ignored.

In tertiary learning institutions worldwide, we are witnessing a multitude of small-scale experiments and the integration of a variety of social software resources in pedagogies. For these to expand and flourish we will need to support innovation, and to ensure dialogue and partnerships between schools, universities, teachers, community and learners, about new approaches to learning that involve collaboration across organisations, sectors and disciplines. Recent contributions to the development of Pedagogy 2.0 by the adoption of social software and the “architecture of participation” for the new landscape of teaching and learning. There are now richer and more engaging pathways to learn than ever before, but this calls for us to engage with the new tools and gain a deeper understanding of their potential for enabling choice, creativity and self-direction for learners. 

Taken from ( Mcloughlin C, J.W M, Lee (2007), Social software and participatory learning: Pedagogical choices with technology affordances in the Web 2.0 era.)