Adult Education And The Social Media Revolution Essay

Adult Education And The Social Media Revolution Essay

Excerpt from Essay :

Adult Education and the Social Media Revolution a Case Study: M. LeNoue, T. Hall, & M.A. Eighmy. Adult Learning Vol. 22 No. 2 p 4-12, Spring 2011

The world is changing, and now social media and web-based tools are a part of adult education. The paper by LeNoue, Hall, & Eighmy (2011), Adult Education and the Social Media Revolution,” discusses this phenomenon. Given their academic backgrounds in education, including a specialization in education of adults, the authors present arguments with considerable force and knowledge from experience.

This study addresses a variety of issues, effects, and usage situations that they have experienced in teaching student/adults. The modern e-learning process has evolved to include a variety of means that enable the student/adult to participate and overcome inherent barriers. Indeed, LeNoue and colleagues (2011) summarize their work with the critical point that so many strategies now exist to make e-learning effective that it is incumbent upon the instructor/guide to find and properly utilize these strategies. Within this paper, the focus will be to address how e-learning for student/adults functions, as well as addressing lessons, outcomes, barriers, setting, and participants.

Participants in the program

LeNoue, Hall and Eighmy (2011) discuss an adult education program, where ‘adults’ are defined generally as being older, non-college, or post-college individuals. For these student/adults, the purpose of learning is defined, having precise objectives such as new attitudes, values, knowledge and skills. Student/adults in particular are interested in information of immediate potential use in their own work environment.

The instructor in a learning situation with student/adults is in a slightly altered role, wherein he/she has become more of a guide and/or tutor to a more active learner. The instructor/guide is disseminating and/or sharing the information, in this case via computers or digitally-mediated. Part of the role of the instructor/guide is to assist the student/adult to evaluate their ongoing experiences and learning processes as well as enabling them to contribute both to their own learning and to the situation as a whole (p.6). Thus, because this article does not address a one-on-one tutorial, but the use of social media and a classroom setting, there is more to consider than merely the student/adult and the instructor/guide.

Essentially, because social media is being used as the learning platform, that brings these media into play as part of the learning situation. Applications that might be used include Flickr, Twitter, Google Groups, Myspace, Wikipedia, Facebook, Second Life, and Youtube (p. 6). As well, Blogger and WordPress — microblogging applications- may be a part of student/adult e-learning programs (Pauschenwein & Sfiri, 2010). Further learning and assistance may come about through Google Hangout and Skype as well. That means one can consider these platforms and/or their designers, as participants in student/adult e-learning.

During learning, the environment can vary considerably (Illeries, 2008), and the ‘transfer of information’ can occur in settings that are informal, non-formal, and formal. Of these three: (a) Informal learning is, in a sense, analogous to daily life, in that it is continuously ongoing in all of our activities. (b) Non-formal learning is more like that of a classroom, and may include an instructor and a ‘lesson’, but does not involve any ‘credentials’ being earned. Finally, (c) Formal learning is generally (but not always) more highly structured and includes credentials as well as a set curriculum (Jarvis, 1985).

According to Brookfield (1986) adult learning can occur in any of the three settings described above, and the fact that the educational ‘lesson’ includes social media does not mean it is not ‘education’. While corporate usage of the various types of social media might rank them differently, this does not negate their potential value in an educational setting (Greenhow, 2009), As well, video conferencing may be a part of e-learning and adult education, as may Google groups. Thus, the platform used is distinct within the adult and e-learning situation, and the typical definitions of ‘formal, informal, and non-formal’ are differently utilized within e-learning. As well, because some e-learning situations for adult/students may not actually include ‘certification’, it becomes less clear in another way as to how e-learning should be defined.

Participation…

Adult Education And The Social Media Revolution Essay