What is Social Learning
From reading Cornford’s paper on the Prevalence of Social Learning I was able to grasp a larger concept of what social learning is. I also realised what social learning models are and that this model has been around for some time. My own opinions of social learning were somewhat expanded upon and in today’s society I believe social learning goes somewhat unnoticed in certain groups or communities and people are unaware that they are taking part in a social learning environment.
Social Learning to me prior to reading this article was focused on learning skills and tasks whilst interacting in a community or group or workplace. Cornford makes note that “there has been increased recognition that much learning occurs in settings such as workplaces, in shops and eceryday activities.(p73). I can draw on my own experiences as totally agree with what was said. The majority of my learning my current skills in web development and php programming came from social interaction and learning my doing. I also immersed myself in the world of code and programming as much as possible with the outside of work commitments and I can feel myself become better at what I do everyday. Also when I was “studying” my undergraduate degree in commerce, the best knowledge I learnt was from actually doing or for use of better words, practising accounting. Being able to demonstrate and pass on those skills also strengthened my knowledge and of course contributed to the social learning of others.
I also call on fond memories of an online gaming community that I help start with Angus :p With user motivation high at the time there was great success with social learning and teaching. Newer members were brought up to speed on the groups social etiquette when it came to online gaming and competitive play. The willingness for new members to join, required them to read and understand the groups guidelines and abide by them in order to stay apart of the community. This forms the basis of social cognitive theory where there are interactions between the individual and the environment.
more to follow…
Brown’s modern touch in the 90’s
What has changed?
The most significant change since Brown’s report has been the emergence and availability of high speed broadband internet. This has enabled many home users to access larger amounts of information in a short period of time. It has also allowed for higher quality video streaming which has opened the doors to sharing various savoury and unsavoury videos, eg YouTube. This has also opened opportunities to develop more complex video tutorials and web applications. Access to the internet has become available to everyone, it is affordable and can even be used on a compatible mobile phone.
Today many activities are channelled through internet traffic. Everyday activities like shopping for groceries, to your favourite book can be obtained over the internet.
The advance in technology and the ease of access have allowed for this generation to gain a greater knowledge of the world and have access to answers by “googling” the question. Google has become the biggest search engine across the globe in its short life span and the phrase “just google it” has become a common term in today’s language.
