5.6 COMMUNICATION THROUGH SOCIAL LEARNING

Conte and Paolucci (2001) define social learning as a process of learning caused or favored by people being situated in a common environment and observing one another. This allows the learners to not only perceive each other for comparison and self-evaluation, but also see others as a neutral source of information, which may help or speed several forms of instrumental learning.

Within a social learning episode the learners update their own knowledge base (adding to, or removing from it a given information, or modifying an existing representation) by perceiving the positive or negative effects of any given event undergone or actively produced by another person on a state of the world in which the learner has as a goal (Conte, Paolucci, 2001).

Social learning can be done on media such tools as blogs, microblogs (e.g., Twitter & Yammer), file sharing (e.g., Flickr & SlideShare), Virtual Meeting Places, (e.g., Adobe Connect & Elluminate), social sites (e.g. Facebook & MySpace) and wikis.

So as a facilitator i have learnt to use social media tools to:

• Provide a means of social learning when the learners are spaced apart. This learning is important for:
  • Solving small everyday problem before they get big (distributed problem solving).
  • Creating an environment that supports creativity.
  • Forming ad hoc workgroups as needed to address business challenges.
  • Building a work environment that is flexible.
• Guide them to create their own collaborative knowledge bases, rather than relying on others to do it for them.
• Increase the feeling of being a team when the learners are separated by distance by:
  • increasing participation
  • helping to represent the corporate brand
  • developing community
• Help motivate them as this is a primary requirement for learning.