Social Media and Situated Learning

A work about the upcoming blog posts:  You'll have to forgive me for the stream of things.  I did a blogger taboo...or what seems to be and that's writing it offline first and then transferring these posts to the screen.  You see, not always having an internet connection or my netbook on hand, it was more convenient to go back to traditional means of journaling...at least for a short while.  This and the next two posts were written offline first. However, linking and graphics are done live while posting.

  Social media and social networking has quickly made a fan out of me over the last decade.  I remember starting my undergrad at the University of Toronto in the mid 90's and getting introduced to the world wide web.  I had no idea what was to follow.  How consuming it could be.  How far-reaching it would take me.  How much knowledge and fiction and all the likes-in-between that I would find there.  I recall the line-ups to get a standing spot at a library computer, the max. thirty minute usage (which didn't take you very far, especially when things were on dial-up speed!).  Oh were these ever exciting, adventurous and trying times!  I would even argue, that it was 'legitimate peripheral participation' (Lave & Wenger (1991)).  This community of students as we were, congregating daily in the library commons, waiting for that elusive spot to access the world wide web, observing other's already in the 'spot' waiting for the little hourglass to stop spinning and bring on a new page of wonder.  We talked of websites and webpages to visit and to avoid, we exchanged familiar glances of anticipation and of frustration when a page took long to load, eating up precious coveted minutes of use.  We were all learning to us this new phenomenon individually and together.  A situated learning experience that you didn't necessarily have to sign up for.


Lave & Wenger (1990) describe situated-learning as learning which:

• takes place in an authentic environment and, ideally, the setting and context in which that learning would normally be applied; 
• is  facilitated by interaction and collaboration between colleagues (i.e. a community of practice);
• cannot  be achieved in a organisational setting, without the consent of all stakeholders.

In that space at time, I believe we were in an authentic setting where learning would be applied...the library is inherently a learning setting after all isn't it?  There was certainly interaction and collaboration, seeming we were a community of practice (students learning to use the internet and electronic communication, sharing what we learned with each other--I recall the exchange of email addresses, the "could you send me that link to that site..", etc). And, alas, the consent...the building camaraderie, the sharing of information readily, the helping your partner at the computer beside you while waiting for your webpage to load, the welcoming smiles as you recognized someone who helped you yesterday...yes I'd say there was consent.

It's been a long time since the days of that communal off/online setting.  But, I realized that it still exists and it keeps morphing, especially as we learn and adapt to new social media and social networking.  I may not physically be standing beside someone in a community of practice, but now virtually on a discussion board offering advice to a new mom, or to a group of friends posting about where to find the best travel deals, or professionally about a particular practice in an industry.  Whether its Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn (or one of the many many other social apps out there), I realized that learning is non-stop, it's everywhere, its accessible. 

It quite reminds me of Peter Senge's concept of the learning organization.  Where people are continually learning, formally, informally, etc.  Where new patterns of thinking are constantly emerging and shifting.  Sometimes you're participating directly from within the circle, sometimes from the peripheral by simply absorbing and learning.

Social networking, once feared by organizations, is now being embraced by many as a way of enhancing workplace learning and employee engagement.  Who would have thought, the once banned sites (IT denied access at work) of past, would be sought for organizational learning and success.  An example of this is when I discovered that my organization had a "group" page on Facebook made up of employees, at first informally organized, but later used more formally by the organization to hold discussions on particular events, ideas, happenings, and for sharing new information on other learning opportunities or call for participation in other sub-groups. 

Adult education, workplace situated learning, has certainly come some way with the inclusion/infusion of social media in the everyday.  It will be exciting to see how things continue to morph in the organizational and community environments, in the context of work and outreach.  I leave with one take on the Future Workplace.

References:

Lave J. and Wenger E. (1991) Situated Learning. Legitimate Peripheral Participation, 

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Senge P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization, 

Century Business/Doubleday.