E-Learning by Design, 2nd Edition

8

Social learning

Learning as and from a group

Social media are changing the way we get news, entertain ourselves, and even find mates. Blogs have scooped national news networks and debunked their lead stories. Wikipedia challenges established commercial encyclopedias. Facebook and Twitter are necessities for many in today's society. No surprise, then, that social media and techniques are transforming learning and leading to another branch on the e-learning tree.

But social learning is not new and does not require social media. Social learning began in an ancient classroom when one child turned to another and asked, “What did the teacher just say?” That is, social learning is learning from other people–co-workers, fellow students, experts, consultants, ...