Page 118 - Educational Technology A Primer for the 21st Century

108 7 Social Learning Perspective of Educational Technology
5. Think about how to measure group learning performance. What kind of com-
ponents should be considered? Do think how to measure and evaluate group
work in this course?

7.1 Introduction

Social media is changing communication between individuals and organizations.
People can now enjoy a new type of learning by integrating social media. With the
aid of the Internet, learners can get access to courses, instructional materials, and
co-learners anytime and anywhere. In addition, learning with social media can
provide a high degree of interactivity among participants who are separated both
geographically, temporally, and culturally. Social media afford students many of the
benefits of face-to-face interaction without the need to travel to specific places at
specific times.
In this chapter, we will introduce educational technology from the perspective of
social learning and discuss the roles of technology in social learning, describe ways
to build and manage learning community, and indicate methods to measure group
learning.

7.2 Social Learning

7.2.1 Definition

Social learning was proposed by Bandura (1962), who believed people learn from
others through observation, imitation, and modeling (Bandura, 1962; Bandura &
Walters, 1963). For example, when a child sees one is punished for stealing, the
child knows stealing is bad behavior. However, Bandura’sdefinition does not
emphasize the social context that is often important for learning (Reed et al., 2010).
Wenger (1998) describes social learning as active social participation in a com-
munity of practice. Wenger and others stress the dynamic interaction between
people and the context as they construct meanings and develop identities (Muro &
Jeffrey, 2008). In a sense, this is an extension beyond behaviorism and cognitivism
to take into account the influence of others and the context (Reed et al., 2010).
Reed et al. (2010) analyze social learning in terms of individual understanding, a
community of practice, and social interactions in that community as follows:

Social learning may be defined as a change in understanding that goes beyond the indi-
vidual to become situated within wider social units or communities of practice through
social interactions between actors within social networks (p. 6).