Redesigning learning through social media, Web 2.0 and F2F teaching : an action research study

The focus of this research was to explore how social and participatory media could be used to enhance the face-to-face teaching and learning process. Action research was used to design learning that valued the students’ own experiences and to encourage students to create, connect and form a partnership in the learning process: hence supporting students\u27 strengths and abilities. To monitor and participate in the use of social media required an increase in the teacher\u27s work time. As a partial counter-balance, it was found that the teacher/researcher successfully reduced her time spent on correction by implementing peer and self-assessment and by making more effective use of classroom observations. This led to a valuable triangulation of assessment data. Reviewing many of the screen clips collected in this study, one can see the diversity of roles and activities in which the students were engaged, and their development over time through the action research cycle. Combining Web 2.0, face-to-face teaching and social media, where students made online friends and used pseudonyms, provided students with more choices and flexibility when working, communicating and learning. This research may help curriculum developers interweave new technologies, new literacies and multimodal learning methods into day-to-day learning programs. The developed methods of learning and designs should also be transferable to other educational learning environments

Action research into social media within secondary school classes

Gail used social and participatory media in the secondary school classroom, not just to engage students but also to enhance their learning. Her action research successfully used concepts of formal and informal learning as well as peer review and peer/self-assessment. For the teacher, unlearning many previous practices became essential

Knowledge-building : designing for learning using social and participatory media

This report presents the results of a classroom action research that looked at how one teacher redesigned her curriculum while integrating social media, Web 2.0 and face-toface teaching in an Australian public high school. It explores the qualities that social and participatory media bring to the classroom while focussing on students as active and valued participants in the learning process. Building knowledge using the uniqueness of social media enabled students to become active and valued resources for both the teacher and their peers. Designing for learning is a key challenge facing education today; this case offers ideas for learning designers and contributes to a research base that can support educators from all sectors

Gen Y and their \u27backpacks of hidden treasures\u27

This paper reports on part of a teacher/researcher’s PhD action research study conducted in an Australian public high school, investigating the use of online social networking as a classroom learning environment where students were encouraged to find and use their hidden treasures. It examines student reactions and online activity whilst they are interacting with a range of Web 2.0 and social media tools. The study may inform the rising generation of higher education learners and their course developers and explores the move from passive to active learning through Gen Y’s engagement with online social media. It looks at a range of innovative practices that were made possible through using a Ning online social network as a classroom environment whilst encouraging Gen Y to take more responsibility for learning. It also looks at the pedagogical implications that come with the use of social media as they challenge traditional models of ‘instructional order’. This study primarily adopts a social constructivist approach to teaching with the focus being on learning, rather than teaching. The study found that having such a flexible curriculum environment encouraged Gen Y to share their ‘hidden treasures’ and, hence, informal classroom learning became more visible and more readily documented. Gen Y students appreciated the opportunities to publish and to gain feedback from more than their teacher alone. Students, in some cases, could be seen to be engaged in their own cycle of learning where they valued the opinion of their peers which, in turn, helped them to improve their work

Social media as a learning environment : how, why, where and when people learn

This paper reports on an 18-month high school action research study and how this could be used to inform course designers and educators in other sectors of education. The high school study focused on the integration of social media into the face-to-face classroom. It used action research in a Victorian public high school in a total of 13 of the author’s classes. Data collection was in three phases over an eighteen month period. This involved the teacher creating one online social network and sharing this dynamic environment with up to seven classes in a semester. Blogs, groups, chats, discussion forums, Web 2.0 tools and a wide range of student-generated content were shared online, within a class and between classes. Students were encouraged to interact and to share their thoughts and ideas about planning as well as using their out-of-school skills and knowledge. Each topic, within each class, was one action research cycle. A number of the findings from this high school study were integrated into post-secondary education subjects at Deakin University. In an era of social media, this high school study has provided insight into how, why, where and when students learn, and by blending many of the findings into Deakin University courses, this study offers a new way of approaching teaching and learning in the broader notion of tertiary education and training

The Impact of Energy Information Upon Small Business Owners

This research evaluated the impact of energy information upon business owners' energy perceptions and behaviors within their architectural and social context. Specifically, it investigated if business owners were using an online electricity monitor, and how their perceptions related to engagement with energy information. The research sample consisted of ten small business owners who had participated in a free energy assessment program run by the local government. As part of the program, participants agreed to make one change the assessment suggested and attend two informational meetings. One meeting covering general energy efficiency topics and another instructing participants in use of an online electricity monitor. Data was gathered in the form of participant interviews, copies of the energy assessments, and screen shots of the electricity monitor. Interviews in context with the business owners covered topics such as how energy information impacted motivations, behaviors, and perceived limitations. Findings indicated that although each participant expressed an interest in conserving energy, none were regularly engaging with their electricity consumption information through the online monitor. Business owners did not find the monitor useful because it did not provide them information that was relevant to their business or architectural context. This indicates that future monitor designs should make a greater effort to incorporate information about users and their contexts into the representations of energy information. Doing this could make energy information more relevant and engaging so that users can relate to it and integrate it into their behavioral routines

Remixing to design learning: social media and peer-to-peer interaction

Social and participatory media offer opportunities to interact and share user-generated content. After some investigation and research, the authors are in their initial stages of using such media to provide a pathway for thinking about learning design in higher education. Using the concept of remixing, the authors aim to creatively blend and manipulate ideas to build a sustainable approach to course/program enhancement. Remixing is touted as one of the most important practices within the field of open educational resources, but it is not mainstream practice in educational thinking or design. This article highlights the authors’ approach and uses their pre-service teacher education program and their previous high school study as an example of remixing. The high school study involved the integration of social and participatory media into the face-to-face classroom; Author 1 was the practitioner researcher in the high school study. This article articulates the use of online social environments at the high school level to highlight concepts of sharing and remixing as a creative and social approach to designing learning in higher education. It also attempts to consider this within a course-wide approach

Designing for learning : online social networks as a classroom environment

This paper deploys notions of emergence, connections, and designs for learning to conceptualize high school students’ interactions when using online social media as a learning environment. It makes links to chaos and complexity theories and to fractal patterns as it reports on a part of the first author’s action research study, conducted while she was a teacher working in an Australian public high school and completing her PhD. The study investigates the use of a Ning online social network as a learning environment shared by seven classes, and it examines students’ reactions and online activity while using a range of social media and Web 2.0 tools.The authors use Graham Nuthall’s (2007) “lens on learning” to explore the social processes and culture of this shared online classroom. The paper uses his extensive body of research and analyses of classroom learning processes to conceptualize and analyze data throughout the action research cycle. It discusses the pedagogical implications that arise from the use of social media and, in so doing, challenges traditional models of teaching and learning