Perspectives on Distance Education and Social Media Free

Applying social media in distance education is relatively new and has drawn significant attention in recent years. While distance education is not a new concept, the use of social media and Web 2.0 tools is a budding phenomenon. In a recent Pew Internet Survey, Charlie Firestone, executive director of the Communications and Society program at the Aspen Institute, wrote: “The timeline might be a bit rushed, but education—higher and K-12—has to change with the technology. The technology will allow for more individualized, passionbased learning by the student, greater access to master teaching, and more opportunities for students to connect to others—mentors, peers, sources—for enhanced learning experiences” (Anderson, 2012, p. 4). Hargadon (2008) described the impact of social media and Web 2.0 tools as “culturally, socially, intellectually, and politically having a greater impact than the advent of the printing press” (para. 3).

We asked Professor Steve Wheeler of Plymouth University in the United Kingdom to share his insights on the relationship between distance education and social media. Wheeler, who is an associate professor of learning Technologies in the Faculty of Health, Education and Society, was originally trained as a psychologist. He has spent his entire career working in media, technology, and learning, predominantly in nurse education and teacher education and training. He specializes in research on e-learning and distance education, with particular emphasis on social media and Web 2.0 tools. He reflected on the challenges that educational technology can pose to teachers and students and shared his suggestions on using technology to differentiate instruction without discouraging those who are less comfortable with technology. Wheeler indicated that the implementation of technology has to be rationalized so that it makes a difference—you have to think about the pedagogy first and secondly if the technology really fits the solution. Take an interactive whiteboard for example; there are so many uses for this technology beyond simply using it to write on or to use as a projector screen. Most educators, however, use this technology in the same way they always have, and don't take advantage of the many additional features that whiteboards offer. For technology in education to be relevant, a symbiosis between pedagogy and technology needs to exist so that technology extends, enhances and enriches the pedagogy. Mccrea, (2012) also reiterates this point, indicating that one possible reason that educational technology has not had the transformative impact on learning that was expected, is that innovation often ends up replicating existing practices—it just does them shinier and faster. As a result, the learner's experience doesn't really change all that much. In order to get the desired results, technological innovation needs to be enacted alongside pedagogical innovation.

Wheeler argues that the best way to use technology to differentiate instruction, regardless of the setting, is to model best practices through opinion leaders. Opinion leaders are those people who are respected by a majority of the people in the field and whose ideas and behaviors serve as a model to others. If you can engage the opinion leaders to model best practices with technology, you can get more people on board because they can see through the opinion leaders that they can achieve a similar type of success. Everett Rogers' (1995) diffusion of innovation theory can also be applied to this concept. Sahin (2006) argues that Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory is the most appropriate theory for investigating the adoption of technology in educational environments and states that when teachers see that technology adds value to their instruction, they will use it. Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory describes the role of the opinion leader as being at the center of the communication network. He can reach a large number of people via the interconnected flow of information (Yates, 2001), which in many ways describes our social media networks that exist today.

We then discussed how distance educators can create a stimulating environment that enables students to live up to their fullest potential without fear of failure. Wheeler indicated that the best way to accomplish this is for teachers to model good failure—to show learners that they can fail and still be successful. He feels that a blame culture exists in many of schools around the world that actually set learners up to fail. When they fail, students are punished, which then prevents them from trying new things, which could impede their ability to reach their full potential. Students should be able to take risks, fail, and get away with it, particularly with the use of technology. Failure should be safely rewarded since it is a way to learn something new. If we can show students that it is acceptable to fail as long as they are learning, then we can learn to celebrate failure as well as success. The concept of celebrating failure is shared by others as well. Wilson (2011) mentions her experience of celebrating failure at an Apple Distinguished Educators Summer Institute. She describes failure as “truly authentic learning” and points out that failure does not represent a person, it represents a moment. It is where our thinking is changed about something and we re-evaluate ideas, thoughts, and processes and discover what didn't work. It gives us the opportunity to explore other options and opportunities. We are challenged to do better, and to be better—it is what makes us who we are.

With the emergence of new technology based education paradigms, how do we expect the classroom, as well as learning styles of students to be changed? How can today's educational leaders influence these changes? Wheeler highlighted Otto Peters' industrialization theory, which was formally introduced over 40 years ago and indicated that, in some ways, society has moved on, but education models have not. He emphasized that we need to shift the educational model from one of instruction to one of learning that meets today's needs of society. Traditional lecturing is often considered a passive style of learning by many experts. A study conducted by students at Nicholls State University found that an active teaching approach may have greater benefit on student learning than a passive one (Michel, Cater, & Varela, 2009). The preference is for students to be engaged by fully doing, making, problem solving, designing and conversing—by using problem-based learning techniques, which were developed in the late 1970s for medical school education (Massa, 2008). Poon, Reed, and Tang (1997) describe problem-based learning as a studentcentered learning process that emphasizes motivating learners to assume responsibility for their learning and to develop their inquiry ability in the reasoning process.

Distance education is a departure from the traditional education model, and is not dependent on time and space. Students can study asynchronously on their own or cooperatively by accessing content when it is convenient and appropriate to them. Content can be pushed out in new ways through mobile devices and the Internet. While Wheeler believes that applying problem-based learning techniques in an online only environment may be more difficult, today's collaborative tools, including social media and Web 2.0, are quickly breaking down these perceived barriers. Massive open online courses allow content to be delivered and accessed for free. There are other differentiators for formal and informal learning as well. Wheeler pointed out that people are coming together simply for the joy of learning, and that we are seeing this more and more often, as evidenced on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Hangouts. The beauty of this, he asserts, is that you are bringing together informal learning in a loosely structured way. We are also seeing a shift in the teacher student relationship—teachers are increasingly serving as facilitators of the courses and students are often taking the initiative and leading the learning process. Teachers provide the information, but students are going off and learning more on their own.

Wheeler emphasized that students also have to work cooperatively to produce content that will be shared, where the community becomes the curriculum and is shared for the whole group to polish and reiterate. This usually results in the best content, and reinforces peer-to-peer learning. When you look at various theories of social development, or scaffolding, social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of human cognition. Vygotsky's (1934) zone of proximal development theory suggests that students can learn more in the presence of a more knowledgeable person, but we're seeing a shift in these theories with the introduction of social media. In recent observations of how students interact online, we're seeing them teach others. Paragogy, or the new andragogy, is a relatively new concept of self-directed learning based on Knowles' (1980) theory of peer-to-peer learning where students learn more from their peers through social media. Paragogy expands on the scaffolding theory because peers are in equal relationships, exchange conditions can work both ways and shared learning is achieved through the sharing of ideas, content, and dialogue (Wheeler, 2011). This happens every day in social media. More knowledgeable people are often no longer required as valid information is widely available on the Internet. Students must find the information, discern it, put it in context and share with their peers through their social media networks. As Corneli and Dannoff (2011) concluded, there is a connection between paragogy and peer production, and paragogy connects learning and productivity. Wheeler underscored that teachers are the arbiters of knowledge and are there to regulate rather than interfere; social media networks are the enabling force and are reinforcing this informal type education.

What impact does the new paradigm of social media have on the learning environment of the future and how will it be different from the learning philosophies, theories, and styles of the past? According to Wheeler, we are coming full circle and returning to the apprenticeship model, where students sat at the master's feet to learn. In today's environment, social media networks enable students to define what and how they want to learn. They choose their own tools, pursue their own content, and establish social networks to help support them. It is really almost “just for me” learning that is personalized to the individual. The teacher's role is changing in this paradigm as well. Teachers are there to mediate the learning process and are harnessing the power of social media in the classroom to do so. No longer are they focused simply on pushing content or information; they are facilitating the process and helping students assume responsibility for their own learning. Many experts agree with Wheeler that the role of the educator must change in the 21st century. Siemens (2008) indicates that education must rethink its view and approach to learning and knowledge, as well its approach to teaching. Johnson and McElroy (2012) describe the changing role of the teacher in the 21st century as the ability to present core skills and knowledge in a way that is relevant to the student and connects the curriculum to the real world.

In order to support this new paradigm, Wheeler states that we have to continue to create grass roots efforts of teachers who are visionaries, and, in their own quiet way, are changing the way learning can occur. We need to teach them to be tenacious, resilient, and confident about their knowledge and skills through the bear pit pedagogy—teaching them to defend and attack their ideas and solutions using problem-based learning and other forms of learning by doing and making. In this way, we are teaching them to do things better and to influence those who may be resistant to change. We are developing teachers who are radical in the way they approach teaching and learning and who want to make a difference. Social media is the best way to take advantage of the personal learning networks that are being developed and to share information and ideas on how to make a difference. Personal learning networks, or PLNs, can be described as systems that can help learners take control of and manage their own learning where learners set their own goals, managing the content and process of learning and communicate with others to achieve their goals (Patnoudes, 2012). Social media and Web 2.0 tools are the enablers that bring the learning community together, however it is defined by the learner, and provides the framework that allows students and teachers to harness the power of collaborative, personal learning.

We are seeing a dramatic shift in the tools that are used in today's technology-based distance education. While distance education is not new, there are new types of socially rich, mobile technologies that empower learners to be more in control of what they learn, when they learn it, and how they learn it. Students are taking more responsibility for their own learning and their approach learning is changing. More and more learners are choosing their own content and the methods by which they are accessing information. With the ability to “attend” digital lectures whenever and wherever, and with almost unlimited access to extensive resources that allow a student to challenge an instructors' knowledge, the relationship between learners and teachers and, among learners themselves, will change dramatically. Teachers are still considered the leaders of the “classroom” for the most part, but how they lead is dramatically changing. The methods that educators use to help students become active, engaged, life-long learners are continuing to evolve. In the context of distance education, this means continually innovating and changing our approach to personalizing education and making it relevant. Social media networks are creating possibilities for learning that did not exist 10 years ago; how we harness these learning communities and create the classrooms of the future that meet the needs of today's learners and society is still emerging. The impact of social media and Web 2.0 tools, and the potential of the ever evolving technology on distance education is yet to be fully understood, but educators must continue to evolve the use of these collaborative tools to ensure that what is being taught is relevant to the learner and can be applied in their real world.