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We have spent a substantial amount of time this week looking at how Facebook has impacted the world of learning, first in ways have that affordances to learning, and then how Facebook may have evolved into becoming a virtual space for facilitating learning. While some of the findings in the two xxx papers were perhaps expected, some were new that I had not considered while reading up on the role of social media in learning.

I find myself personally vying towards the constructivist theory of learning, especially because it counteracts the passivity of the learner in any learning environment. Given this leaning, I am keen to think of Facebook as an environment that can enable learning. I feel uncomfortable using the terms formal and informal learning, because to my mind, such specificities depend on the cultural conditioning within which a certain learning space is functioning. But perhaps in an alternatively devised learning environment, affordances in Facebook like the closed groups, come in handy while disseminating knowledge. Another tool on Facebook is the Live option, whereby learners can share their ideas and thoughts in real time with other interested learners, or can even be used by teachers and instructors to share their teaching materials with a wider audience of learners other than just members of their classrooms.

The specific contexts that these affordances could come in handy would be those that include homeschooling or distance learning. Given then physical distance that is presupposed in these learning environments, the social media affordances mentioned can bridge this distance, and enable learning not just for the learners but also create a humanising experience for learners and teachers/instructors.