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Section 3: Social learning //versus// individualized learning
Section abstract:

Social processes mediate learning. Students learn at a deeper level when learning is constructed through interactive discussion. Web 2.0 has enabled students to become avid users of communication technologies, social and visual media, as well as simulations and games, particularly at an informal level. As educators make use of these informal learning tools in a formal setting, communities of learners are forming as a sign of the “emergence of a new form of technology-enhanced learning – Learning 2.0 – which goes beyond providing free access to traditional course materials and educational tools, and creates a participatory architecture for supporting communities of learners.” (Brown & Adler, 2008). Papert (1999) wrote that it is critical to shift from learners engaging with institutional procedures to the institution engaging with the learner. This implies that institutions need to recognize the new cultures of learning and engage with those cultures. Yet that involves profound change in institutional practice, procedures, organization, curriculum and pedagogy. This section will explore the possibilities of **social networking** (e.g. Facebook, wikis, blogs) as well as **simulations and games**, as powerful learning tools. On a broader level, this section explores the potential for **social learning //vs//. individualized learning**, as well as **informal //vs//. formal learning**, in the 21st century.

Brown, J.S., & Adler, R.P. (2008, January/February). Minds on fire: Open education, the long tail and learning 2.0. //EDUCAUSE Review//. 43(1):16-32. Retrieved from http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823

Papert, S. (1999). Vision for education: The Caperton-Papert platform. For the 91st annual National Governors’ association meeting in St. Louis, August, 1999. Retrieved from http://www.papert.org/articles/Vision_for_education.html, March, 2009.

Chapter Title: Culturally Responsive Teaching with Emerging Technologies Author(s): Colleen Swain Packer Abstract: Today’s diverse student populations interact with a world dependent upon technologies. One could even propose today’s 21st century students have moved from a digital (primarily computer based) generation to a mobile technologies generation. Yet, many educators teach and assess students using strategies and tools from the past. Educators must reconsider not only our teaching and assessment strategies, but also the tools we use in the practice of our profession.

Culturally responsive teaching is a way of looking at teaching from a perspective that respects and recognizes the culturally identity of each student and what she brings to the learning environment (Gay, 2000). Culturally responsive teaching is also social in nature. As students encounter knowledge from others’ perspective, they begin to build shared cognition (Resnick, 1987). Educators need to incorporate tools our students use and consider normal parts of their lives into today’s teaching and learning environments.

This chapter will present how intertwining the principles of culturally responsive teaching with emerging technologies is an effective teaching method for teaching and assessing today’s 21st century learners. Curricular examples integrating culturally responsive principles while using emerging technologies will be presented. Insights gained into organizational structures that need to be considered will also be mentioned.

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Chapter Title: **Reflexive challenges for the Active Social Construction of Knowledge and Technology: A Paradigmatic Paradox** Author(s): **Maheswar Satpathy**, UGC-Research Fellow, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India Abstract: To a major chunk of the society, Knowledge has been largely a value to be harbingered by a group of 'more haves' and to be trickled down to the 'lesser haves', cosidering from a Marxist view applied to knowledge economy. The process of academic deliberations have been considered as a process mainly deriving its roots from the ancient desire of people to transmit the values, knowledge, learning, skills and expertise which they had learnt from their superiors to the coming generations and creating indirectly a platform for the sustainable knowledge sharing. But, as we grow gradually in the wake of globalization, with the advent of modern technologies and scientific techniques being heavily applied into the field of education, we realize it has created an urge for transformation of the field, and posing fresh challenges at every step we march on.

And another major challenge which had always permeated our field of education and intellectual discourses but has got drastically fired by the fuel of technology in recent years is the lack of reflective skills and the bent for reflexive arc of knowledge.The whole busines of imparting education has been relegated down to the mundaneness of preparing students for facing the demands of changing life. The process involves a rigorous pattern of moulding intelligent brains to copies of terrene realities, aspired to be acting machines as though running automata on the demands of social processes, rather than a thinking human being commissioned with forces within to think and act intuitively.

In the present chapter an attempt is made to emphasize the much overlooked aspects of Individual and social learning processes mired by Individual differences, and how the present system of education though progressively and technologically rich, is devoid of a sense of consideration of the unique ways each individual constructs the reality around us. An understanding of how a student, a growing soul in his/her formative years constructs the social realities, what psychological processes goes on in his mind, and what affects his social interactions in later years of his life demands unavoidable attention from each one of us.

Chapter Title: Learning 2.0 in School Libraries 2.0 Using Web 2.0 Tools: Cultural Exchanges 2.0 for Learners? Author(s): Carolyn Starkey, Assistant Professor Library Education Media, Alabama State University, USA, and Averil Loague, Assistant Professor Library Education Media and Technology, Alabama State University, USA Abstract: Learners with the vast resources of libraries at their fingertips are tied together through computer networks and are engaged in the manipulation of, reflection upon, and the creation with, and—most importantly—the sharing of knowledge and culture with a whole host of web-based tools designed for especially for that purpose. As demonstrated by the publication of the American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) //Standards for the 21st Century Learner//, students are engaged in a new type of learning, one with multiple literacies including digital, visual, textual, and technological, made real by authentic tasks and constructivist learning in communities of practice and collaborative partnerships.

This chapter will examine how learners have moved beyond a single library into a global community where the first priority in the shared mission of educators and learners must be personal commitment to the tenets of reflective practice, change agency, and lifelong learning, It will examine how Web 2.0 will contribute to the community-driven, user-generated content that will change the very face of who we are as a global culture and what we expect from a 21st century education, an education should be a fluid, dynamic process with the ultimate purpose of producing socially-responsible individuals who seek to collaborate within their culturally-diverse communities to promote a life of justice based upon the critical analysis of practices and new ideas.

Chapter Title: Understanding How Learning Takes Place in Social Practices Author(s): Natalie Senjov-Makohon Abstract: With the explosion of social technologies and the emphasis it places on the potential of connecting people to produce and share knowledge (Bonderup Dohn 2009), teaching, like many other professions, has transcended the traditional learning environment. Social technologies are impacting on the learning and teaching environment. An investigation was undertaken in an Australian university which shows the impact of technologies in a traditional university learning environment. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, including uchit (learning and teaching; Vygotsky 1999) was noted which led to the development of a new term – hyperuchit- with multiple and unpredictable nodes and connections. The sociocultural theory enunciates the social and cultural aspects of learning and emphasises the critical importance of people who are conduits in today’s connected age (Zelenka 2007). The use of technology in this context connects learners and their cognitive development in their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).This chapter describes an investigation of experienced teachers and their use of technologies to come to terms with the connected age. This chapter argues that social technologies can be vehicles that connect people but in reality the pedagogy and understanding student learning is the force that connects students in a socio-cultural content (Vygotsky 1962).

** Submissions for Second Call short abstract deadline: September 10, 2009 **

Chapter Title: Gaming, Learning 2.0, and the Digital Divide Author(s): Nada Mach Abstract: Web 2.0 has enabled digital natives to become avid users of communication technologies, social and visual media, as well as simulations and games. The communities of learners emerging from the use of such technologies are signs of the “emergence of a new form of technology-enhanced learning – Learning 2.0 – which goes beyond providing free access to traditional course materials and educational tools, and creates a participatory architecture for supporting communities of learners” (Brown & Adler, 2008). This signals a change from passive to active learning. In the age of “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001), the digital divide has multiple meanings and takes on huge importance for a large segment of society. Before students even cross the school’s threshold, socio-economic status, ethnicity, language, and cultural background are central to the division (Kelly, 2008). With gaming, gender becomes central, too. This chapter will expand a recent paper by the author in delineating the various digital divides and suggesting ways to bridge them, with particular emphasis on simulations and games.