Teaching Social Software with Social Software by Ulises Mejias
This article explores how the current wave of information and communication technologies (ICTs) known as social software can enable new forms of study and research, preparing students to participate in networks where knowledge is collectively constructed and shared. This approach to learning, which I call distributed research, might be attractive to educators because it exhibits three comparable advantages to those associated with problem-based learning (cf. Watson 2002; De Vry and Watson 2003).
First, it engages students in learning to learn by having them assume some of the responsibility for integrating and maintaining the social software systems that allow learning to happen. Second, it promotes the benefits of working cooperatively with tools that facilitate the aggregation and organization of knowledge while at the same time
demonstrating that the diversity of individual research interests enhances learning for all. And last, it helps students develop practical research skills that they need in a world where knowledge construction and dissemination make increasing use of online information networks. In short, social software allows students to participate in distributed research communities that extend spatially beyond their classroom and school, temporally beyond a particular class
session or term, and technologically beyond the tools and resources that the school makes available to the students.