W6 Q1_ Jeong | W6 Q1 | Forum

The two premises I would like to make are that the social network sites has several affordances, but it is neutral in itself. Rather than social network sites were developed for educational purposes or learning, users who use it as a tool should adopt features that are helpful for learning. Also, the other premise is that, as we discussed in the last class, the term learning is viewed as a broad and dynamic concept that involves not merely absorbing knowledge, but through interactions between people and building the ability to construct information and knowledge on their own.
As noted in Ellison et al. (2007), Facebook, one of social networks sites, has a feature that bridging social capital and these “weak ties may provide additional information and opportunities (p. 1163)”. In this paper, it lacks the quality and quantity of additional information students may receive through Facebook, so it needs future studies on this topic. However, according to the paper, these benefits allow college students to get more out of college life (Ellison et al, 2007), and in this sense, those willing to learn and be informed can use Facebook affordances as a learning tool.
Additionally, as an example of the Hot Dish “combining up to date climate change knowledge with action strategies in an online social context produced synergy (Robelia et al., 2011, p. 570)”, social networking applications shows the potential for learning-purpose within a much more active and broader concept.