Socially Networked Learning: Understanding Designing Evaluating ((3 Credits))

Catalog description

The rapid advances in communication and learning technologies have opened new arenas for educators and communicators, however, a conceptual framework about the value and design of these new and rich types of interaction needs to be developed. Plus, for effective educational uses, one needs to assess what happens to the learners and learning and to evaluate the overall productivity of the socially networked environment itself. In this course, participants will study the research about various aspects of these emerging social networks, considering the sociology and the psychology of the individuals and interactions. Working then with their own needs, they will frame and design a social network to meet a learning or communication goal for their students or clientele, developing an implementation, assessment and evaluation plan and articulating a theoretical/conceptual framework to validate their design. (Participants can also choose to work on a project with the instructor.) Two synchronous meetings.