OMDE 610 - Reflective Journal
Week Five - October 9th - 15th
Social Networking Tools in Distance Education
The use of Social Networking tools in Distance Education allows for more creativity in distance education. When I first started the MDE program, and realized that some of the courses used social networking tools, I wondered, “What does social networking have to do with education?” “How is the use of social networking tools valuable to our learning, after all, they are mostly used for personal, informal reasons.” However, I’ve learned that social networking can be used for many reasons such as, business purposes, educational purposes, and many other reasons. Social networking enhances the learning environment because many students already have social networking accounts, and they may feel more comfortable socializing with their instructors and classmates through social networks, as opposed to socializing in the web-based classroom. I would use a social networking site in the distance education classroom to assist in breaking the ice with my students. The interactions do have to occur in the distance education classroom because there needs to be a record of student participation, but to warm the student up, and get them comfortable with me, I would introduce social networking.
The personal connections that the students have may assist the students in developing more ideas to contribute to their area of learning. Further, the students may connect with professional networks that present training opportunities, and other professional opportunities that can contribute to their professional growth. For instance, when I was looking for employment, I was running out of ideas on where to apply. I am connected on facebook with one of my former classmates from the M.Ed. Instructional Technology program. I found her because we both are connected to UMUC on facebook. As we were instant messaging one day, she started telling me her career plans, and named some places that she was thinking about applying to, as well as the type of positions that she was looking for.
My conversation with her gave me some ideas on where I could apply to, as well as the types of positions that I can hold with my M.Ed. Instructional Technology degree. It is my goal to obtain a position in distance education, a position that will allow me to work from home, as working outside of the home is not convenient with the responsibilities that I have with my boys, and my little girl that has special needs. I am still searching for a position that fits me, but she contributed to my ideas on where to apply, as well as what to apply for. Professional opportunities may present themselves through social networking sites because we can connect to people from all over the world, and we never know who their contacts are. Further, we can share tools and information with our classmates that contribute to their knowledge. We can also build our technology skills by using the technology tools from various social networking sites. The use of social networking sites in distance education relates to connectivism in distance education because social networking sites are tools that are used to make connections.
Reference:
Lee, M., & McLoughlin, C. (2010). Beyond distance and time constraints: Applying social networking tools and Web 2.0 approaches in distance education, In G. Veletsianos (Ed.), Emerging technologies in distance education (pp. 61-87). Athabasca, CA:Athabasca University Press. Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120177/ebook/04_Veletsianos_2010-Emerging_Technologies_in_Distance_Education.pdf
