OMG! Norah Jones visiting four universities?
NO it’s not Norah Jones the singer/songwriter who swept us away with her hit single “Come Away With Me” in 2002. She is a research study student at the University of Glamorgan. Along with 3 other students Jones explored the student experience on social software. Entitles “Get Out of MySpace!,” the research:
(1) identifies the distinction between the students’ current usage of social software
(2) reports on the students’ experience on opportunities and challenges of learning with social software
(3) introduces principles as a guideline in using social software for learning.
Research
Through the use of surveys and gathering quantitative data the students explored the disruptive nature of social networking and the opportunity for higher education.
The students were asked: (1) How often do you use the educational technology listed below, within your learning process? (This would include preparing and submitting course work and assessment feedback) (2) What is your reason for using the educational technology mentioned in the previous question?
Results
The research revealed that 70% of respondents rarely or never use social networking software for learning experiences. Most are however members of social networking sites.
The article alludes to a digital divide, not between an older generation of people and a younger generation but rather a divide between traditional methods of learning/ spreading information and the way in which young people communicate.
Analysis
The study revealed that in order to integrate social networking into the classroom schools need to tackle the issues which inhibit its use. These are: (1) the separation of life and studying; (2) originality and copyright issues; (3) sense of information flooded; (4) time constraint based on their disconfirming experiences and (5) lecturers are not up-to-date and may not know how to integrate and make use of social software.
According to the article:
Students and educators could also have a choice to either separate or to combine their life and studying to a certain level. We suggest this choice using an analogy of continuum of “socio-learning divide”.
WAIT A MINUTE
I may be a hopeless traditionalist but the so called “socio-learning” environment doesn’t have that much of an appeal to me. I understand the interest in instantly sharing ideas regardless of time and space but the thing that makes school an experience is the fact that you have to EXPERIENCE it!
I enjoy educations digital divide.
Social networking sites change this experience by confining us to written posts, pictures and videos. There is no depth to online “interaction.”
Being at school also keeps me concentrated on my assignments and work. Having a large amount of my work based on line leaves me to wander the internet in hopeless procrastination.
Mass Communication 101 is my second class to use the Ning website. It is also one of four classes in which my teacher has requested that work be submitted over the internet. However, the moment my computer is on I remember the episode of House that I missed, the email I was expecting from a friend and the news broadcast I wanted to read.
The noise of the internet is too much for me to integrate it into my learning experience.
Maybe it’s just me and my “old ways.” Perhaps everyone else is just more millennial than me. That’s probably why I got excited by the name Norah Jones and you didn’t…or did you?
