Social media technology provides educators with an opportunity to engage learners in the online classroom, as well as to support development of learner skills and competencies. This case study explores the role of social media in promoting cognitive and meta-cognitive learner development while using a heutagogical teaching and learning approach. Research was conducted using questionnaires and interviews and incorporated the perspectives of both students and instructors on the use of social media in the online classroom and how media influenced interaction and learner development. Results indicate that students perceived specific social media (Google Docs, mind mapping and e-portfolio software) in conjunction with a unique learning activity as influencing specific cognitive and meta-cognitive skills (constructing new knowledge, reflecting on course content, understanding individual learning process). Research also indicated an increase in student familiarity with using social media and student research skills. This paper presents the findings from the case study, as well as general guidance to instructors for incorporating social media in the online classroom
Use of social media is on the rise within education, both outside and inside the classroom (Pearson 2010; Seaman and Tinti-Kane 2013). As more educators incorporate social media in the classroom, they have needed to seek out new – and old – teaching and learning theories for incorporating the technology in pedagogically meaningful ways. When incorporating any kind of media, educators must consider the construct of the course, the technologies used and the pedagogical approach to designing and delivering learning activities. With the multitude of tools and approaches available, the challenge is in finding the approach that has the most meaningful learning outcome. One approach is to encourage students to use social media actively in their learning and research, opening up the potential for them to develop the skills they need for creating a personal learning environment (PLE) and bringing them a step closer toward becoming more self-directed learners. This paper describes a graduate level course that applied a heutagogical framework, combined with social media, to the design of its learning activities, and reports on the results of this approach over 14 cohorts of the same course, specifically in examining learner familiarity and research confidence with social media over time. Student feedback on how the use of social media within these learning activities influenced their perception of individual cognitive and meta-cognitive skill development has also been included.