Practice Source A

The following source is NOT a source you will find in your actual synthesis packet; however, it is a source that is related to the packet's topic of Social Media in some way. Please read the source and then answer the following questions in a comment to this post:

1. What is the source's SOAPSTone?
2. What type of source is this?
3. How does the information from this source relate to the prompt?
4. How could the information from this source be used in your synthesis (if you were to go with the main claim you drafted in a previous post)?

Myth: Social Learning Is the Same as Social Media

(Excerpt from a website created by the creator of BlackBoard)

Social media and social learning are as much the same as French fries and French toast. In other words, they’re different (but both wonderful).

Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest make it easy and motivate people to connect, share information, and develop relationships. Yet they can also provide the means to wander aimlessly, discovering people and information that may serve no value when it comes to learning.

When using these sites in the classroom, specific goals, directions, and guidelines on how to reach them (such as input from an instructor or lesson plan) can be used to facilitate formal social learning. However, social learning can also occur informally, without a pre-defined leader or curriculum, when topics originate organically from the learners themselves—for example, a group of students who get together to study for an upcoming test.

Social learning strategist and designer Tom Spiglanin explains social learning and social media exist separately, but social media can be used in support of social learning.

Dan Pontefract, head of learning and collaboration at Canadian firm Telus, posed a further distinction in Chief Learning Officer: Social media is a tool; social learning is an action. And online social technologies have enabled frictionless social learning opportunities.

Researchers Baiyun Chen and Thomas Bryer found that online social tools provide learners with “connections across boundaries and over time” and facilitate informal discussion and collaboration (key elements of social learning).