You raise an interesting point when you say that we are constantly connected to each other and therefore constantly interacting and learning. I think of our BYOD program at school, and how it’s objective is to allow students to access information easily while working collaboratively to solve problems. Does it really? I would challenge that just because you are connected, it doesn’t mean that you are being social or actually learning anything.

Just the other day I was sitting at dinner with a group of friends and was struck by how many of them were on their phones. I had to ask them to put down their phones so that we could have a real, live conversation together. It was weird to feel surrounded by people, but lonely at the same time. Although we were all sitting together, in a social situation, we were totally disconnected.

I see this in schools too. Kids are glued to their laptops during lunch break. Instead of running around playing or chatting to one another, they are staring at their computer screens, off in their own world. We may be connected to each other through technology every moment of the day, but we are in danger of allowing this same type of connection to make us more unsocial. (See: Turk, Gary)

You may have seen this video come across Facebook in the past few weeks. In it, Gary Turk argues that we are becoming “a generation with smart phones and dumb people”. I don’t want to believe it. I want to believe that technology will bring us together, help us to work together collaboratively, and enhance our learning, but as I look around my own dinner table and classroom, I can’t help but notice that his words ring true.

Sources:

Turk, Gary. "Look Up - A Poem That Will Inspire You to Put Down Your Smartphone." YouTube. YouTube, 5 May 2014. Web. 10 May 2014.)

Rheingold, Howard. "Way-new Collaboration." TED Talk. 8 Feb. 2008. Web. 12 May 2014.

I agree that we are more connected today than ever before. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest make it easy for people to share information quickly and constantly. Do you think that teachers can use social media in the classroom as a means of social learning? And how so?

We barely do anything alone anymore. I agree with both Lexi and Cara when they say that there are levels of social. Since we have not defined them, I am going to go ahead use the idea that social learning is more than just an interaction with another person to gain knowledge, like asking for help from a retailer to decide which product to buy, but rather that it is learning within a group of people, collaboratively.

It is with this idea that I say not all learning is social. Nothing illustrates this concept more than the year I met Max. Things were disappearing: first the remote for the VCR and then the remote for the Smartboard. But this wasn’t a behaviour issue; this was a learning opportunity. Turns out Max was taking them apart in his desk and then trying to put them back together again. Max learned in doing on his own.

I have experienced this type of independent learning first- hand too. A few years ago I decided that I wanted a new bicycle. I pictured my “dream bike” in my mind and went out in search of it. After looking in what felt like every store in town, I couldn’t find the bike I imagined. So I decided to build it. It took a few months, about 50 Youtube videos and the advice of a few salespeople, but I did it. Like Max, I learned it felt natural to explore on my own.

Even though Max and I both had interactions with people throughout our inquiries, the actual learning happened independently.