Social software: E-learning beyond learning management systems

Annotation

In this article, Chrisitan Dalsgaard of the University of Aarhus, describes the potentially constructivist use of social software beyond the more objectivist approach of learning-management systems (LMS) seen today in many University settings. He grounds his discussion in the question of whether the socializing features of such software should be integrated (as they tend to be in an LMS) or kept separate of the central system. He claims that this question can only be rightfully answered in the context of pedagogy because “the usefulness of different tools in support of learning depends on which learning activities the tools [are supporting.]”

He points out the difficultly in defining “educational social software” by settles on one given by Terry Anderson that includes the idea that uses must retain control in order to be counted as such. He lists weblogs, wikis, RSS feeds, and social bookmarking as candidates but claims the list is not exhaustive. One already sees a contrast with the type of functionality generally included in an LMS, including assignment management, lesson plans, and syllabi.

In conclusion, he offers a “student-centered” model of e-learning which allows for a LMS for administrative issues, personal tools for construction, presentation, reflection, and collaboration, and social networks for facilitating communication between students in the same course and others working in the field.

The shortcoming for this article is Dalsgaard’s overly optimistic assumption regarding the intrinsic motivation of students. For this type of strict-constructivistic pedagogy to work, students must be highly motivated.

This paper was incredibly elucidating for me when it comes to understanding the possible categories of functionality associated with educational social networking software, which could include those stated above.

Dalsgaard, C. (2006). Social software: E-learning beyond learning management systems. E-Learning. Retrieved July 12, 2009, from http://www.eurodl.org/index.php?p=archives&year=2006&halfyear=2&article=228.