Abstract
The purpose of this literature review is to provide readers with comprehensive information on how adult learners can master their learning autonomously by use of social networking technology. With this extensive review, readers are expected to expand their horizon of the role of social networking tools in progressive higher educational organizations, including their contributions to learning, instruction, instructional design, and project management from a systems perspective with foci on two popular instructional systems design (ISD) models applied in educational processes. Some of the innovative applications of social networking within the project management-based online learning design (PMBOLD) field, in addition to a number of potential risks and challenges associated with incorporating social networking technology into learning and instruction will be additionally presented.
TopBackground
Ongoing debate among believers and skeptics of the pedagogical value of technology supported learning and instruction is not an indicative of a one-size-fits-all model in the 21st century classroom. While some school systems adopt and implement a completely face-to-face approach to getting students to interact with the content, with each other, and with their instructor, some others opt for fully online education to leverage students’ learning and teachers’ instructional practices. The debacle here does not stem from whether or not instructors should implement technology-based resources in their class-related activities. Paramount instructional decisions are made not based on the “usage level of technological resources, but the [proper] usage of technology in educational environment with convenient pedagogical approach” (Sezer, Yilmaz, & Yilmaz, 2013, p. 141). As such, in order to optimize effective learning and teaching with various web 2.0 technologies both inside and outside of the classroom, instructors need to consider several factors.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Instructional Design (ID): Also referred to as instructional systems design (ISD) , ID is the systematic practice of design, development, and delivery of both physical and digital instructional resources towards efficient, effective, engaging, empowering, contextualized, and authentic learning and instruction.
Panopticon Design: A metaphor used to a surveillance mechanism pertaining to an individual’s right to claim their privacy.
Intersubjectivity: That which is shared by and existing between more than one conscious mind.
Autonomous Learning: Type of learning that is conducted in a self-directed or self-regulated manner. Often associated with older adolescents and adult learners.
SLOs: Acronym for Student Learning Outcomes.
MOOCs: Online, interactive, open-source courses with unlimited participation by attendees who have open access to these courses on the web.
Cognitive Processing: Taking in all of the information collected via motor brain functions and through sensory acts and operating these data (i.e., storing, recovering, transforming, and implementing) effectively and intelligently.
PMBOLD: Acronym for Project Management-based Online Learning Design.
Millennials: Those who were born in this millennium (i.e., 2000).
Aim: AIM was the first test of the idea of distance education as a total system ( Moore & Kearsley, 2012 ). It tested the viability of the theory that the functions of the teacher could be decentralized, and teaching could be improved when those functions were assembled by a team of specialists and delivered through various media. The technologies included in AIM included printed study guides and correspondence tutoring, programs broadcast by radio and television, recorded audiotapes, telephone conferences, kits for home experiments, and local library resources. Also, what was articulated into the program was student support and counseling, discussions in local study groups, and use of university laboratories during vacation periods.