Using Social Networking to Enhance Learning in a Corporate Environment

8/9/2019 Using Social Networking to Enhance Learning in a Corporate Environment

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Using Social Networking 2

Abstract

Recent advances in social networking capabilities of computers provide new opportunities for

training and learning within organizations. Learners no longer need to depend on classroom

instructors, online programs, or other mediated instruction to acquire new skills and knowledge.

Instead they can get or provide assistance by using a variety of online social networking tools. How

are corporate educational groups responding to this shift in how learners get and share information?

In this paper we will describe what constitutes social networking sites, how they are used to deliver

educational services, and what barriers exist to their adoption.


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Introduction

The way the world communicates and learns is fundamentally changing right in front of our

eyes. The evolution of computer hardware and software has created new avenues through which

people can connect, collaborate, and learn. These technological innovations mean that informational

content is no longer produced solely by organizations. Now individuals are also able to create content

such as web pages, articles, pictures, and videos. Individuals are creating so much new content that it

is estimated by 2010 70% of the information in the entire digital universe will have been created by

individual users (Gantz et al., 2007).

New content is being distributed virally sp? using social networking sites. These sites use the

Internet to provide the technical means to create, share, and edit information. Educators have begun

to experiment with ways to harness the power of these sites to provide an immersive learning

environment for their students. While it has been relatively easy for K-12 schools and institutions of

higher learning to incorporate some of these brave new learning technologies into their curriculum,

can the same be said for corporate training organizations? This paper will discuss the components of

a social networking site, an example of how such a site could be used for corporate education, and

some of the barriers to adoption of these sites for corporations.

Components of a Social Networking Site

Definition

Social networking sites are websites that are accessible from the Internet that allow users to

construct a public profile, publicly list their social connections with others on the site, and view and

examine other users lists of connections (boyd & Ellison, 2007). Sites such as Facebook, YouTube,

or Second Life are available to anyone on the internet. However, other sites are private and kept


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Examples

The combination of social networking and these user-generated information tools is being

recognized by businesses as the interconnection [of] fabric and protocols that bind people together

in new and interesting ways (Hollis, 2007). It is only natural that corporations should look to social

networking sites to solve the problem of distributing water-cooler learning; that is, creating a way

for everyone in the company to benefit from the knowledge passed between key players during

informal discussions. As companies become more knowledge-driven, training content must be

tailored even more to meet the needs of their employees. Harnessing the power of water-cooler

learning with social networking sites may be one way to keep pace with these needs.

Quintiles Transnational Corporation, a worldwide leader in pharmaceuticals services, is an

example of a company that is leveraging social media to meet the training needs of their workers. The

16,000 person company manages clinical trials for drug companies. Since they are highly regulated

by the Food and Drug Administration, they have a wide array of instructional classes in order to meet

U.S. federal regulations. These classes provide basic, base-domain knowledge about process and

procedure that all employees must master. The knowledge management software system used by

Quintiles has the capability to manage podcasts. The company is using this method of delivery to

offer SME-produced audio tutorials on various topics that employees download into portable

devices and learn on the fly (Frauenheim, 2007). The goal is to take the topics that would be

available via water cooler learning and make them available to everyone in the organization. This

informal learning is not designed to replace the federally mandated training, but as a complement to

the skills learned in the instructor-led classes.

The National School Boards Association (2007) has recommended that teachers use social

networking sites for professional development and staff communications. Some pre-service classes


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have used blogging and RSS feeds to allow student teachers to connect with their peers, share

experiences, reflect on their own learning, and prevent feeling of isolation (West, Wright, Gabbitas &

Graham, 2006).

Sites such as SecondLife take the step of user creation to a new level. SecondLife is a virtual

world. To navigate the site, users create a 3-D representation of themselves known as an avatar. Users

navigate their avatar through the 3-D world of SecondLife, design and resell 3-D content using an in-

world currency known as Linden dollars. Lindens are currently trading at $265L to $1 US

(SecondLife Lindex Exchange, March 12, 2008). Technology Corporation IBM created a program

called Play@IBM inside Second Life for new employees and interns that expedites corporate

orientations (Frauenheim, 2006). The program was targeted at employees at remote offices, to help

the geographically displaced employees feel more connected to the main organization.

Organizations have also used the rich 3-D environment in SecondLife to simulate complicated

training scenarios. The I-95 Corridor Coalition, an alliance of transportation agencies, toll authorities,

and related organizations, has used the site to create a virtual world training simulation for emergency

responders (Lynch, 2008). The virtual world setting allowed individuals to assume the emergency

worker role they would play in the event of a real emergency, and interact with emergency workers

from other agencies to respond to a disaster on a simulated stretch of I-95.

Barriers to adoption

Whether you call it collective intelligence or the wisdom of crowds, social networking

sites provide the technical platform to pool the individual knowledge of a large group of people in a

self-organizing fashion (Tapscott & Williams). There are several barriers to harnessing this power to

use in an educational setting. These barriers include:


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Site availability. If depending on publicly available sites, instructors are bound by the

availability of the site. If the social networking site is not online, or the systems are being

taxed by a large number of users, instructional plans may need to be delayed or cancelled.

Legal issues. If an organization plans to use a social networking site that is open to anyone on

the Internet, what happens if students are faced with sexual or racial harassment while using

the site (Bugeja, 2007)? What measures must be taken to protect students from griefing,

which is ruining another users experience in an online world just for the joy of doing so

(Dibbell, 2008)?

Return on business investment. Creating course content and materials social networking

sites will require technical developers and other investments in technology. There may also

need to be a shift in how a training organization works and interacts with their audiences.

Organizations should consider the benefits of creating personal learning centers for students,

where students can reuse and recreate information according to their needs and interests

(Downes, 2005) before dismissing the idea of using social networking sites as an instructional

tool based on cost alone.

Conclusion

The digital age is an exiting time in which to be an educator. An infrastructure has been

created for students to access information from many different types of sources, even each other.

Giving students the ability to learn in a collaborative, flexible environment also builds innovative

workers who increase an organizations intellectual capital and overall competitive advantage (Cross,

2004). After all, if there is any truth to the idea that in an information age, learning is the ultimate

survival skill (Cross), educators owe it to their students and the organizations they serve to facilitate

socially networked learning.


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References

boyd, d. b., & Ellison, N.B. (2007). Social network sites: definition, history, and scholarship,Journal ofComputer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), Article 11.

This article begins by giving a concrete definition of a social networking site. It then traces thehistory of social networking sites from SixDegrees.com in 1997 to Facebook in 2006. It discusses thesocial mechanisms of sites like Friendster and MySpace, and explains this is a global phenomenon. Itends by discussing the research that currently is being done about social networking sites as theyrelate to impression management, friendship performance, network structure, bridging online andoffline networks, and privacy issues.

Bugeja, M. J. (2007). Second thoughts about second life, Chronicle of Higher Education, 54(3), pC2-C4, 2p.This article discusses possible legal ramifications for designing instruction in Second Life. It brieflydescribes the interface, and then discusses if an administrator of professor could be help liable if astudent is harassed or assaulted in world. The author gives examples of such crimes occurring in

Second Life, and explains that Second Lifes terms of service have released them from the liability ofthese events. The article ends by cautioning instructors to develop a process before requiring studentsto participate in this virtual world.

Cross, J. (2004). An informal history of eLearning, On the Horizon, 12(3), 103-110. I use him as a guestlecturer in my f2f version of the course!This article begins by explaining how people learn. It goes on to cover the earliest technologies thatled to eLearning systems. It covers how the industry evolved from CBTs to instruction delivered overthe Internet. The article recounts the history of eLearning by covering topics covered at theTechLearn conferences from 1999-2003.

Dibbell, J. (2008, January 18). Mutilated furries, flying phalluses: put the blame on griefers, the sociopathsof the virtual world, Wired. Retrieved January 25, 2008, fromhttp://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-02/mf_goons?currentPage=all.This article explains the mayhem caused by the griefing activities of some groups on socialnetworking sites. Griefing is defined, as are other terms such as we do it for the lulz?. The historyof griefing is given, and the effect of social networking sites on griefing is explained. The article alsodiscusses some of the financial effects of being a target of a griefer.

Downes, S. E-learning 2.0, eLearn Magazine, 2005(10), 1.This article begins with the types of e-learning being deployed today. The article then discussestrends in the audiences that use the Internet, such as the so-called digital natives. Some of these

trends include learner-centered design, Connectivism, and the belief that information should beshared, not hoarded. The article describes Web 2.0, and gives examples of how Web 2.0 technologiescan be used to create E-Learning 2.0.

Frauenheim, E. (2006). IBM learning programs get a 'second life', Workforce Management, 85(23), 6-6.This article explains what is involved in conducting a training session in Second Life. In particular,the article describes how IBM is using Second Life to integrate geographically disparate employeesinto the companys culture.

Frauenheim, E. (2007). Your co-worker your teacher: collaborative technology speeds peer-peer learning,Workforce Management, 86(2), 19-23.


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This article discusses ways corporations are using Web 2.0 technology to deliver corporate training.The article discusses "water cooler learning", or informal learning. The article discusses apharmaceutical company that uses audio tutorials that students can consume when they have time andcompanies that use a virtual world for informal meetings. The article also discusses ways traditional

software packages such as Oracle and SAP are using Web 2.0 technology to track training events.

Gantz, J. F., Reinsel, D., Chute, C., Schlichting, W., McArthur, J., Minton, S., et al. (2007). The expandingdigital universe: a forecast of worldwide information growth through 2010, 1-24. IDC. RetrievedMarch 8, 2008, from http://www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/expanding-digital-idc-white-paper.pdf.This white paper, which was sponsored by EMC Corporation, attempts to enumerate the amount ofdigital data that has been created. The paper also estimates the amount of data that will be created inthe next several years. The paper describes how they measured the size of the digital universe, andexplain what elements make up the digital universe. The paper explains what sort of mechanisms willbe required to store the digital data being created.

Hollis, C. (2007, October 17). Creating the social computer, Chuck's Blog: An EMC Insider's perspective oninformation, technology, and customer challenges. Retrieved February 22, 2008, fromhttp://chucksblog.typepad.com/chucks_blog/2007/10/creating-the-so.html.This blog post makes analogies between the social networking and creating a computer-basedservice-oriented architecture (SOA) to manage business processes. The post compares buildingApplication programming interfaces (APIs) which would require protocols for communication andvalidation to building social networks that would require the same types of protocols. He alsocompares the need to balance cost, risk, and value when opening access to information in a computernetwork to the need to balance those same factors in an online social network.

Jonassen, D., Cernucsa, D., & Ionas, G. (2007). Constructivism and instructional design: the emergence ofthe learning sciences and design research In , Trends and Issues in Instructional Design andTechnology (Second) (pp. 45 - 52). Pearson Merril Prentice Hall. What a great choice This chapter begins by explaining how constructivism is a philosophy that is the backbone of manytheories of how learners created and manipulate their worlds. The chapter goes on to relate designresearch to instructional design, and presents guidelines and examples of design research.

Lange, P. G. (2007). Publicly private and privately public: social networking on YouTube,Journal ofComputer-Mediated Communication, 13(1).This article begins by defining social networking sites, and explaining how social networks useelectronic means of communication as a media circuit to remain connected to each other. The

article describes an ethnographic investigation into the use of YouTube by young people. The articleexplains the findings of media circuits used by the YouTube users, and takes a deep look at what theusers are willing to disclose about themselves on a public social networking site.

Lynch, C. (2008, February 6). Companies explore virtual worlds as collaboration tools - cio.com - businesstechnology leadership, CIO. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from http://www.cio.com/article/180301/.This article describes how some companies are using Second Life as a training tool that simulatesreal-world work environments. The article explains how the I-95 Corridor Coalition is using SecondLife to train emergency response personnel to react when a disasters strikes.
http://chucksblog.typepad.com/chucks_blog/2007/10/creating-the-so.htmlhttp://chucksblog.typepad.com/chucks_blog/2007/10/creating-the-so.html


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National School Boards Association. (2007). Creating & connecting: research and guidelines on onlinesocial and educational networking, 12. National School Boards Association. Retrieved February 9,2008, from http://www.nsba.org/site/docs/41400/41340.pdf.This study reports the results of surveys administered to 9 to 11-year olds, parents, and school district

leaders responsible for setting Internet policies on the use social networking sites. The study reportson how children use these sites to connect and create content. The study also points out how schoolshave policies to keep students away from the social networking sites that could help them connectand create while in class. The paper closes by offering advice on how to balance keeping the childrensafe while at the same time giving them access to sites that could enhance learning.

Second Life. (2008, March 12).,LindeX Exchange: Market Data. Retrieved March 14, 2008, fromhttp://secondlife.com/whatis/economy-market.php.This webpage gives the current exchange rate for Linden dollars, which is the official currency inSecond Life.

Learning and knowing in networks: changing roles for educators and designers. (2008, January 27).

ITFORUM. Retrieved February 6, 2008, from http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper105/Siemens.pdf.This paper introduces the premise if the way information is being transmitted is drastically changing,the ways people learn must also be changing drastically. The paper discusses how the Internet ischanging the way people are able to network, and suggests that younger people are more readily ableto adjust to this type of information sharing. The paper review common learning theories, andsuggests a new learning theory to reflect the connected way of obtaining information made possibleby the Internet. The paper suggests new roles for educators to support the new ways of learning.

Tapscott, D., & Williams, A. D. (2006). Wikinomics (1st), 324. Penguin Group.This book investigates social networking sites such as Wikipedia, Second Life, YouTube, MySpaceand Flickr are changing the way the world collaborates to do business, create new information, and

learn. The book explains how advances in technology have made social networking sites possible.The book also gives examples of how mass collaboration is a tool that can be used to save time andmoney while at the same time finding new ways to innovate.

Turoff, M., & Hiltz, S. R. (1977). Meeting through your computer: information exchange and engineeringdecision-making are made easy through computer-assisted conferencing.IEEE Spectrum. RetrievedFebruary 22, 2008, from http://web.njit.edu/~turoff/Papers/mtyc.pdf.This article, written well before the Internet Age became a reality, discusses how information couldbe shared using computer conferencing. The elements and mechanisms of computer conferencing aredescribed. Examples, costs, and barriers to adoption are also discussed in the article.

Welkowitz, L. (2008, February 22). Asperger's conversations: stretching classroom boundaries: Web 2.0,Asperger's, primary source,Asperger's Conversations: Weekly audio posts by Larry Welkowitz, Ph.D. Retrieved March 14, 2008, fromhttp://welkowitz.typepad.com/aspergers_conversations/2008/02/stretching-clas.html.This blog post describes the result of the authors assignment to one of his undergrad classes. Theclass was required to create blog posts after reading a book written by a man who has AspergersSyndrome (a form of autism). The author read the blog posts of the undergrad Abnormal Psychologystudents, and posted his thoughts on their blogs. This blog post describes the reaction of the class tohaving their book reviews critiqued by the books author. Ah! Covered in your paper. Good!


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Welsh, A. (2007). Internal wikis for procedures and training, Online, 31(6), 26-29.This article reviews a companys decision to collaborate using a wiki. The article discusses why thesoftware was chosen, how the wiki encouraged flexible working, roadblocks to participation, andhow the wiki created value for the organization. The author also shares ten tips for a successful

procedure wiki.

West, R., Wright, G., Gabbitas, B., & Graham, C. (2006). Reflections from the introduction of blogs andRSS feeds into a preservice instructional technology course., TechTrends: Linking Reseach &Practice to Improve Learning, 50(4), 54-60.This article describes the evolution of incorporating blogs as an instructional tool in a preservice classfor teachers. The article talks about the technical barriers encountered by the students, and about theconceptual barriers to using these tools instead of more traditional tools. Suggestions were given toovercome these barriers, including having the instructor model the use of blogs and RSS feeds.


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Criteria for Grading Midterm Paper:

A. Extent to which discussion of key ideas and practices provides a clear description of the trend:

This paper is outstanding! It provides very clear picture of the ideas and practices involved in socialnetworking,

B. Extent to which example of how the trend has been employed serves to demonstrate use of the keyideas and practices associated with the trend:

Good example.

C. Organization, Clarity and Style:

Extremely well-written

D. Extent to which annotated reference list conforms to assignment requirements:

Provides a wealth of what appears to be great references, with clear and concise annotations.

Grade for paper: A

Gina: I am VERY impressed with this work! Great job! I would like to encourage you to submit for

publication in a practitioner oriented journal such as Training and Developmentor Training. If you

would like to pursue this and have any questions about how to do so, feel free to contact me.

Using Social Networking to Enhance Learning in a Corporate Environment

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