Social Media and Learning2.0

The use of Social Media, so popular for social networking, is expanding into business, government and education worlds. Many companies are beginning to embrace the use of new social networking / media tools for promotion, marketing, engagement and interaction with clients and staff development but approaches and guidelines vary. These reports and resources outline a few examples.

Many educators see the potential of social media / web2.0 for teaching and learning and their own professional learning but access is often restricted in schools and filtering is an issue, as discussed in many blog posts.

As use of social media becomes more widespread in the community, learning2.0 research reports are of interest, including 'Learning 2.0: The Impact of Web 2.0 Innovations on Education and Training in Europe' - Final Report (2009) - European Commission Joint Research Centre. This 'describes how the emergence of new technologies can foster development of innovative practices.' It provides pointers for new directions and opportunities using new tools and new approaches in teaching and learning.

The Australian Government Gov2 taskforce is about to release a report, 'Engage -- Getting on with Government 2.0', which is expected to outline how the use of new social media technologies can help to make public sector services more efficient and to better meet the needs of the community.

Image by woodleywonderworks

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73645804@N00/3328850666

Telstra (Australia) has come up with a new staff training guide for social media, the 3Rs of social engagement, for their 40,000 employees, as outlined in a recent post on Mashable. The '3Rs' are identified as responsibility, respect & representation. This online training package includes a comic style flip book with media clips.

The 'Ten Commandments of Social Media' by Robb Clarke aims to provide an easy to read personal guide to operating in an ethical manner, to not only 'make you a better person' but to also ensure a 'more appreciative' bunch of followers. Again, ethics are highlighted.

Social media, eg Twitter, is a vital component of developing and nurturing an educator's professional learning network (PLN) in a connected world and for lifelong learning in the digital age.