Social media in the classroom is a controversial topic, and not just in traditional classrooms. Many trainers and human resource experts are pondering this question: Is social media in e-Learning a distraction or an aid?
On the supporting side, Jane Bozarth, e-Learning Coordinator for the State of North Carolina and author of Social Media for Trainers, says, “Participants are happy to engage with one another using social media tools for training purposes. They find it convenient, useful for learning at the moment of need and [that it helps them] develop a greater sense of control over their learning.”
Additional benefits include:
Long Distance Online Collaboration
You can promote learner interaction through tools like blogs, podcasts and internal social networks. This is also a great way to connect multiple teams who work remotely from different locations. If you want to collaborate with coworkers on your latest e-Learning development project, try using ReviewLink, a cloud-based online course review tool for sharing and reviewing e-Learning courses. You can invite colleagues and advisors to review your work and offer feedback.
Knowledge Sharing
In a global business environment, bottom-up collaboration is an asset. Social media tools allow for knowledge sharing and informal learning among all employees. Even something as simple as a weekly, 15 minute Twitter chat on a pre-arranged topic can generate great conversation and ideas.
Social Backchannels
Creating a social “backchannel” allows your learners to contribute to and enhance learning during a live presentation. A backchannel can greatly extend the reach of ideas and create a sense of community among your learners, as well as encourage your more introverted learners to participate in the discussion. Plus, this gives you more control of the inevitable background conversation among learners.
One popular—and easy—way to create a backchannel is to designate a hashtag on Twitter, like #eLearningRocks, and ask your learners to contribute to the discussion using that hashtag. You can also create a more private backchannel than Twitter by using collaboration tools, like real time chat and instant messaging, included in a learning management system like CourseMill® LMS.
But it’s so distracting…
Despite these benefits, many people fear that social media is simply too much of a distraction to learning. And it certainly can decrease your productivity! Jay Cross, author of Informal Learning, points out that workers waste one-third of their time looking for information. The key is to outline specific goals and guidelines for using social media sites in a productive, educational way.
Many other social media naysayers add that it discourages face-to-face communication, which is an essential skill in the business world. e-Learning and social media sites aren’t as conducive to the type of explanation and clarification learners can get in a traditional classroom. Face-to-face communication allows learners to pick up cues from tone, inflection and body language. In social media, these physical cues are lacking. Learners lacking strong writing skills may struggle with using social media to express their ideas and questions.
However, using social media for e-Learning does allow learners to practice their written communication skills and reach out to a broader group of peers and mentors than if they were limited to just their office or department.
It’s clear that there are a lot of benefits to incorporating social media into your e-Learning, as long as you do it right. You want to achieve a balance between encouraging learning through social media tools or simply goofing off and wasting time on Facebook. Try it out, and see what work for your learners and your organization. You might be surprised at the positive response you receive!
