A Case Study Examining the Implementation of Social Networking ...

A Case Study Examining the Implementation of Social Networking Technologies to Enhance Student Learning for Students Learning in a Second Language Mark Curcher, Dubai Men‟s College, United Arab Emirates Abstract: In an effort to enhance student engagement and learning on the Monetary Theory course at Dubai Men’s College, instructors wished to move away from a knowledge transfer model of learning to one where the course is delivered within a student centered, social constructivist framework. To facilitate this, a number of Web 2.0 tools were piloted on the course in 2009. These included a Ning community website using blogs and also the use of Diigo social bookmarking tools. The aim of both was to increase student engagement and thus develop deeper learning. This paper seeks to examine the pedagogical arguments for introducing social networking in the context of this course, taught to UAE national students in a second language environment. It will examine the practical challenges of implementation, how these were overcome and the reaction of learners to these changes. It will conclude with an overview of the lessons learned and the plan for further utilization of social networking in courses.

learning model that included a much wider use of educational technology. The aim was to try and create a „community of learning‟ among the students taking the course, with a particular focus on the sharing and discussion of resources using new social bookmarking technologies. The first cohort of students to use these new technologies studied the course in the second semester of academic year 2008/2009. The initial response to this, which focused on the use of the Diigo bookmarking tool, was reported in a paper presented under the „Best Practice” stream at E-Learn 2009 in Vancouver in October. Since then another cohort of students have taken the course and we have made some changes to the tools being used, thus this paper seeks to build on the earlier paper by including more details of student perceptions and reactions and include a larger sample of learners. The research is based on an action research model and results are gathered from an anonymous online survey completed by the students at the end of the course.

Keywords Collaboration, Social Bookmarking, Networking, Learning Community

Context The Monetary Theory course at DMC is taught in the final year of the Bachelors of Applied Science (BAS) in Business program. Students have normally taken four or five years to reach this stage of their studies and have previously taken a course in Micro and Macro Economics as well as a wide range of business courses. DMC is a part of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), the federal vocational higher educational system for the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There are sixteen colleges spread across the cities of the UAE in the system, divided into male and

Introduction The course in Monetary Theory at Dubai Men‟s College (DMC) has been taught in a fairly traditional „knowledge transfer‟ model since its inception. There is a strong argument in the literature that learning is a social activity and the author was keen to see if he could improve student engagement and thus encourage deeper levels of learning and enhance student success by using a blended

female campuses. The students in this study are all male business students working towards a Bachelor of Applied Science in Business. The vast majority of students have been educated in public state schools where the language of instruction is Arabic. Their major experience of learning when they come to DMC could be described as “learning as memorisation” (Rowntree, 2005, p.14). Rote learning is a highly prized skill in the local Islamic culture and supported by both religious and secular tradition. The controversial work of Hofstede (1991) on various culture norms and values would seem to support this view and although wary of stereotyping, fifteen years of living in Dubai and teaching at DMC would hold this to be generally true. Evans (1994) highlighted the importance of this social and educational experience: The earliest formal learning experiences which people have form a basis upon which their subsequent learning takes place. Attitudes and skills with which they learn have their foundation in schooling. (Evans, 1994, p.23) This quote illustrates the challenge we face at HCT as we try to move students on from their formal early learning experiences in school towards a more student centered collaborative approach to learning in college. Students experience a transformation in educational styles and philosophies when they join the college. They have to move on from the formal and traditional learning experiences of their primary and secondary school education and deal with a western curriculum delivered in English primarily by native

speakers from western countries. Many find this difficult and resist this change and even by the end of their studies most would still be classified as highly dependent learners who expect teachers to hold the knowledge and transmit that knowledge to them. Their model of learning is based on the notion of knowledge transfer and the „sage on the stage‟. Although chronologically mature, few DMC students display the characteristics of adult learners as described by Knowles‟ Theory of Andragogy in (Moore and Kearley, 1996). Experience of working in this context for almost fifteen years suggests that in many ways they are still very much like child learners. Students expect teachers to make all the key decisions in relation to learning and tend to have a rather polarized view of the world where questions have answers that are either right or wrong.

Learning as a Social Activity The argument that learning is a social and community activity has been well made by Brown Collins and Duguid (1989), Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) among a long list of literature that can be traced back to Vygotsky and his ideas on the “Zone of Proximal Development”. Wenger has strongly argued in favor of the „Community of Practice‟, a model that has been widely adopted in work based training and in professional development models used for faculty and teachers working in education. As Weller (2006) states: There is a good literature therefore about the benefits of a community (be it virtual or real) in the learning process, but being pedagogically sound is

not, in itself, sufficient for them to be adopted on a large scale. The traditional approach to teaching, embodied in the face to face lecture, has a good deal of inertia and is supported by an existing framework which is realised through assessment and accreditation strategies, administration, financial structures, physical buildings, etc. (Weller, 2006, p.12) As explained earlier and also identified by Weller (2006), the impact of the expectations of the learners themselves must not be overlooked. If the learner‟s experiences do not include the development of communities and the sharing and discussion of ideas, then we face a real challenge to move towards this model. The problem is that the traditional model of education does not usually encourage cooperation as McConnell (2000) identified: The traditional education system can be viewed as one set up to encourage envy. There are those who can and those who can‟t…Envy leads to trying to win, which leads to defection. In most education systems, students are required to do the same piece of work…Often there are a limited number of high grades being offered, and the students know this. This encourages competition. The students compete on a

zero sum basis; whatever one person wins, the other loses. (McConnell, 2000, p.7) However it is the author‟s view that the benefits of cooperative learning far outweigh these challenges and are worth pursuing as the cooperative model is also more representative of learning outside of college. McConnell summarizes the benefits of cooperative learning as follows:     

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helps clarify ideas and concepts through discussion develops critical thinking provides opportunities for learners to share information and ideas develops communication skills provides a context where the learners can take control of their learning in a social context provides validation of individuals‟ ideas and ways of thinking through conversation (verbalizing); multiple perspectives (cognitive restructuring); and argument (conceptual conflict resolution). (McConnell, 2000, p.26)

It should also be remembered that this is all taking place in an English as a Second Language (ESL) environment. When the second language issue is transposed over McConnell‟s list above, the importance of discussion, communication and verbalization is amplified and adds weight to the argument for a cooperative pedagogy. The author‟s own experience of online learning communities, both formal and informal, convinced him that the key was to use educational technology as the

enabler. The whole argument of the Weller (2006) paper quoted above is that communities are the logical conclusion of e-learning. This is based on the argument that the design of the internet itself is based on three core features of robust, decentralized and open communication and that this has led to the social features of the system that has impacted the way that online communities function. The history of collaborative learning was analyzed by Johnson and Johnson (2004) who also examined how this area was being revitalized by the advent of educational technology and online learning. They cite a vast literature that shows that cooperative learning online produces higher levels of achievement than individualistic learning. They concluded that: Few educational innovations hold the promise that technologysupported cooperative learning does. (Johnson & Johnson, 2004, p.806) A change of this kind cannot be made without a review of the design of all aspects of course delivery including assessment and the author recognized that it would be necessary to make some changes to the way the course is assessed. Blogging had been introduced to the course in 2008 in an effort to encourage reflective learning (Sheetz and Curcher 2008). So already a small percentage of final grades (15%) were allocated to the learner‟s blogs. This was to be reviewed as social bookmarking and greater collaboration was introduced. As Jenkins (2006) asserts, one of the implications of online collaborative work is that educators will have to re-evaluate some of the

individualistic components of assessment. As Mason and Rennie (2008) state: Social networking encourages collective contribution, not individual ownership. (Mason & Rennie, 2008, p.14)

The HCT Learning Model It is important not to forget that one is operating within an institutional framework and no matter how exciting any innovation or how renegade a faculty member may feel, there are still policies and procedures to be addressed as well as an important responsibilities towards institutional goals and mission. It was therefore vital to ensure that any changes to delivery still met with these conditions. The HCT Learning Model document was published in 2006 and provides a clear statement of educational philosophy. The second paragraph of Section 4 “The HCT‟s Educational Philosophy” states: Learning has both individual and social aspects. Indeed the two are inextricably linked, in that many forms of cognitive activity are influenced by social and cultural contexts. Success within a particular culture is predicated upon the knowledge, skills and attributes that are considered essential to that culture. As such, it is important to encourage both individual effort and collaborative group work by creating

learning opportunities that promote dialogue and inquiry. (HCT Learning Model, 2006) Further, in Section 3.2.2 on Learning and Teaching it states that learning should be based on a number of principles including; “Learning that involves engaging collaboratively and independently with practices, tools and technologie.;” The HCT Learning Model document actually encourages innovations that move towards a social constructivist pedagogy. Far from being a restriction on ideas, it actually provides a sound framework on which to develop new ideas. Firmly grounded in the work of Biggs (1999), it highlights the importance of aligning learning outcomes with the learning activities, the learning environment and the learning assessment. This Biggs called “Constructive Alignment”. It shows Biggs underlying belief in a constructivist framework which places the learner at the heart of the learning process always focusing on what the learner is actually doing. By focusing on what the learner is doing there is a natural shift away from what Laurillard (2008) calls the “tell-practice-test” model (p.12) that moves towards the experiential model of learning first outlined Dewey as far back as the end of the nineteenth century. Thus there really was no tension between the HCT model and the changes being piloted.

Using Diigo for Social Bookmarking The focus of this paper is the use of social networking for learning; however it is important to acknowledge the use of “Diigo” as a social bookmarking tool and the role that this played in developing a community. In a social bookmarking system users store lists of internet resources that they believe they will find useful. The social aspect is that these can then be shared with the public at large or with a specific group. The origins of

social bookmarking lay in academia when groups of likeminded scholars working on the internet would want to share information and ideas. One of the earliest social bookmarking websites was www.del.icio.us.com. For this pilot Diigo was chosen after a review of the alternatives. It offers the ability to set up unlimited groups, useful if teaching multiple sections or if you share different resources with different groups of people. It also allows the text on websites to be highlighted and for sticky notes to annotate to the website. Diigo also has the ability to host a discussion based on a particular comment or resource. Resources are usually tagged with user defined keywords which can be informally assigned. As people add to these tags they form a kind of „democratic folksonomy‟ of metadata. The key point about the use of social bookmarking is that it creates an environment where there is shared collaborative ownership of the learning resources, where a teacher or a student might share a resource, start a discussion or comment on something shared by someone else. All are respected as members of a lifelong learning community of which the teacher is just a part. However despite its many advantages, Diigo was felt difficult to use by a significant number of students who simply chose to share resources via other alternative routes. For example, many just linked to articles via a blog post or as an attachment to a blog post. Others embedded the code for videos that they wished to share with fellow students into the video sharing section of Ning and so avoided using Diigo. In conclusion, the small minority who adopted Diigo really „got into it‟ and used it to share a wealth of resources – but these only got shared with the others in this small sub-group rather than the wider student cohort taking the course.

On the basis of this the author decided to experiment with the use of „Flinkit‟ which is a social bookmarking application designed to be integrated into the Ning website itself without having to have a separate bookmarking website as with Diigo. However the take up with Flinkit was even lower than with Diigo – in the second cohort not a single student shared resources via this method. Most chose to share via links in their blogs, or in the case of video resources, embed the code directly into the Ning website.

Using Ning as an Online Community The HCT specified LMS is Blackboard Vista, however this really does not facilitate collaboration and social networking as described in this paper, and the author feels that it is more appropriate as a store of content, space for submission of assessed work and place for official announcements. The Ning site, linked through Blackboard, provided a community space where students could write their own blog and read the blogs of other learners and comment on them. Membership of the community was controlled by the teacher to ensure privacy and a safe online environment for a learner to work. Students have control and ownership of their home page in the community and the postings that they make there. Students had very positive things to say about Ning and its ease of use. Ning has been widely adopted by groups wishing to work collaboratively on a wide range of issues. The site has many advantages including the ability to customize the layout and look of the site, control membership, provide blogs and comments as well as space to share links, documents, photographs and videos, host discussions and chats and set up your own customized home page within the community. The site is fairly intuitive and straightforward to use and is also free,

though that does mean that adverts appear on the pages. A paid Ning site is available which offers even greater levels of customization and services without adverts. As a place to host student reflective learning blogs it has proved to be very successful. One big advantage is that all blogs are on the one site and visible to everyone who is a member but not accessible to the outside world, as would be the case for say a „blogger‟ account. This makes it much easier for an instructor to keep up with discussions and comments in the blogs, intervene if required and grade, if the blogs are a graded component of the course. Blackboard do offer a blog application now within Vista, however as this is the „college owned and managed‟ environment of the LMS, students seem less willing to be truly reflective about their learning and especially about learning from mistakes. This previous comment is subjective and only based on a few passing comments of learners but I do suspect that it may be true. Student feedback All students taking Monetary Theory were asked to complete an anonymous online survey after the course was completed. The survey platform used was the „Survey Monkey‟ website. Nineteen students completed the course in the first cohort and eighteen in the second class, giving a possible sample size of thirty seven students. Of these thirty seven, twenty one students had completed the survey at the time of writing. The survey included both open and closed questions about the use of Ning and Diigo. Students could also volunteer to be further interviewed about their views and experiences. However before looking at this data, I would like to comment about participation in the community, in particular the first

cohort. As an observer it seems to me that about half of the first class actively and enthusiastically participated in sharing resources and discussing them on Diigo. The other half never really bought into it, despite the fact that marks towards final grades were attached to participation in this activity. One student commented that this was because the percentage weighting was too small, however I think it is important to recognize that perhaps this style of learning is not everyone‟s preference, especially if they have not had any prior experience of it before. As Brown (2001) states from their study of online distance learning communities; Community did not happen unless the participants wanted it to happen. (Brown, 2001, p.14) Of the ten respondents to the survey from the first cohort, only eight actually participated using Diigo. The reason given for not signing up was that it was “too complicated”. The eight who joined Diigo all claim to have been active sharing bookmarks. In terms of frequency of sharing, most students shared between 3 and 4 bookmarks during the course. The outliers are two students who shared more than ten different resources and one who only shared one site with colleagues.

All respondents felt that Diigo had helped their learning in someway. Sixty three per cent said that it helped their learning a bit while thirty seven percent said that it helped their learning a lot. Two students said that they found the site difficult to understand and use at first and this is why they were slow to participate. This is probably true and more could have been done in class to scaffold the student‟s skills development in using the website. Overall the feedback from the students who used Diigo was that it was enjoyable and that they believed that it did benefit their learning. Feedback about the use of the Ning website and the use of blogs on Ning was very positive with 15% of students responding that the use of the website was “Very useful” to aiding their understanding and 50% saying that it was “Useful” for the their understanding, the remainder were “Neutral” except one lone student who said the site hindered their understanding of the course. In response to the open question “If you think the Ning site helped your learning, please explain how it was useful in the space below” the following represents some of the replies were given by students;

Table 1. Sample of Student Responses to Ning 1 2 3

4 5

as each one of the student participate in teaching the course. Ning gave the opportunity for students to discuss various topics, and share different resources, which made the learning experience in the course worthwhile kept us on track, for example even if u missed a class ull find many blogs talking about what happend in class and what they felt abt it. so no need to call anyone and ask since its all their and its like u were in class after reading other blogs ( they give u the mood and picture of what happened ).. and also it makes students more linked with the course. easir to follow and contribute It was verey usefull, if you had any doubt your coulleags helped you out easilly without wasting time of going to them or bothering the teacher. The website was mainly used to share knowledge and understanding of subject related to

the course, it is also useful for student socializing which could then reflect the interaction of students in the class room. 6 NING IS A GOOD WAY TO INTER ACT WITH STUDENTS AND HELP THE STUDENTS EXPLAIN TO EACH OTHER WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED. MORE OVER THE TEACHER CAN SEE IF THE STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THE TOPIC TAUGHT OR NOT AND HELP THE ONES WHO DOESNT UNDERSTAND. 7 Helped me research more about a certain topic because i know i would be critised if i wrote something wrong. I have to be sure of the information i give my replys should be backed up with a good logical response or something with a refrence 8 students can share with others what they have learned 9 it was usefull because we now about other students ideas 10 It makes us learn from each other by reading other students answers. Further, no less than seventy five percent The chart below (Chart 1) illustrates the of students felt that they would student‟s preferences for the various recommend the use of a Ning website to application available within the Ning another teacher to enhance the learning website and how they contributed to their and understanding on another course and learning. eighty one percent would recommend the use of blogs to enhance student learning. Chart 1. Students rating for various Ning applications

Conclusion It is the author‟s firm belief that the use of educational technology and in particular the use of social networking contributed to the development of small learning communities in the Monetary Theory classes of 2009. Not all students actively participated in those communities but those that did found it to be beneficial. The majority of the class was active and a very small group could be classified as very active, sharing resources, commenting and discussing what they have found and really engaged with the subject and materials. For all students it was their first experience of using a social bookmarking system and some struggled with the complexity of using the site at first. Better scaffolding should be provided in the future to help students develop the required skills and understand the processes involved in participation. Given the students prior learning experiences they took to the idea with remarkable enthusiasm and many really seemed to value the opportunity to have a voice and share their knowledge and opinions. The use of social networking also had a secondary impact in that it moved learning from beyond the classroom and its formal setting. Students were sending each other links, commenting them and posting blogs about those links at all times of day and night, at the times that suited them and their family and work commitments. This ability to mix both formal and informal learning is an advantage recognized by Jay Cross (2007), who has likened the situation to the teacher creating a „learnscape‟ where learners can flourish but not where they are tightly managed and controlled. There was a small group of two students who were very resistant to the changes in the course and assessment design and who

vocally expressed the view that it should be the teacher who provides and comments on all the resources and materials and tells students what is right and wrong. These same two students were also very negative about the use of blogs and the benefits of reflecting on ones learning. The use of these technologies is probably best suited to higher level students in our college system because the level of language skills required to be able to find, evaluate, comment and share a resource mean that lower level students just would not be able to manage the task and collaborate in a meaningful way. On reflection the use of Blackboard as an LMS, Ning as a community site and Diigo to share resources was too much and students became confused about what they were supposed to do on each website. This problem is made worse by the number of administrative portals and systems that the institution expects students to use in addition to an LMS. The use of a Ning social bookmarking application proved to be even more disappointing than the use of Diigo and this seems to be area in which students are just unfamiliar and perhaps need more support and help. The use of social networking technology is a way of improving the collaborative learning experiences of students. It does require proper planning and implementation and a re-evaluation of learning activities and assessments but can bring much more enjoyment and improved learning to students in the opinion of the author. At the time of writing a third cohort of students is completing the course with its new structure. Their comments and feedback will be incorporated into further refinements and developments in the way that the course is delivered.

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