Social Media as a learning tool

Probably one of the reason the discussion about social media as a learning tool is important is because of the popularity of Social Media. The popularity is more in terms of participation of the number of people of all age groups and their active participation. It would be wonderful to have this platform used as a media for learning.

Path for Social Media as a learning Tool.

Platform for Communication
Allows for active participation (in sense of user generated data; noisy data)
Generally all are equal (peer communication) but
Some emerge as leaders (may be based on their expertise, participation, creativity ....)
SIG formed (Leaders moderate the group)
Leads to some focused discussion (signs of learning - though not formal)
since there is less noise "useful learning can happen"

So structurally everything is in place to enable learning if no distinction is made between formal and informal learning! but with some constraints on the social media ... like a teacher the leader moderates - what to do when and why and structures information) ... in this structure SM and a ICT learning tool can be stitched together.

However, the constraints reduce the social media as a learning tool to a mere classroom (CR) kind of environment. At best one could call this social media learning tool as CR++.

Having established that one is looking at a CR++ environment; the question is should CR++ be in addition to or in its own right the only platform for learning?

If the answer is a NO - then the question is why do we then need it? is CR not enough? Is CR lacking something? How will CR++ be different?
If the answer is YES - one already has CR so why another CR++? Will there be time to manage both CR and CR++ in terms of time?

CR++ could have the following advantages:

Multiple teacher driven courses (different versions of the same topic)
Multimedia driven courses means may be faster learnibg and stronger understanding
Students learn anytime anywhere
if you missed CR, use CR++ or if you did not understand CR use CR++ to refresh general problems
Requires infrastructure (communication channel, devices) for all participants
assumption that electricity and BW is relaible)

Comments

Visualizing Speech Processing Challenges!

Often it is difficult to emphasize the difficulty that one faces during speech signal processing. Thanks to the large population use of speech recognition in the form of Alexa, Google Home when most of us are asking for a very limited information ("call my mother", "play the top 50 international hits" or "switch off the lights") which is quite well captured by the speech recognition engine in the form of contextual knowledge (it knows where you are; it knows your calendar, it know you parents phone number, it knows your preference, it knows your facebook likes .... ). Same Same - Different Different: You speak X = /My voice is my password/ and I speak Y= /My voice is my password/. In speech recognition both our speech samples (X and Y) need to be recognized as "My voice is my password" while in speaker biometric X has to be attributed to you and and Y has to be attributed to me! In this blog post we try to show visually what it means to pro...

BITS Pilani Goa Campus - Some Useful Information

You have cleared the BIT Aptitude Test and have got admission to BITS Pilani Goa Campus. Congratulation . Well Done. This is how the main building looks! Read on for some useful information, especially since you are traveling for the first time to the campus and more or less you will face the same scenario that we faced! We were asked report on 29-Jul-2018 (Sunday) to take admission on, 30-Jul-2018. We reached Madgoan (we traveled by train though the airport is pretty close to the BITS campus, primarily to allow us to carry more luggage!)at around 0700 hours (expect a few drizzles to some good rain - so carry an umbrella) on 29-July-2019. As you come out you will be hounded by several taxi drivers, but the best is to take the official pre-paid taxi. It should cost you INR 700 to reach the BITS campus. We had booked a hotel in Vasco (this is one of the closest suburb from BITS campus, a taxi should charge you around 300-350 INR; you will make plenty of trips!) ...

Paying Property Taxes Online - Government of Andhra Pradesh

When my father received a SMS stating that you can pay your property tax online. I was thrilled. Why? My father stays with me in Mumbai and paying property tax for a small flat in Proddatur Municipality was always a pain. The best was to request someone to pay it on behalf of him which meant it was at the time and convenience of the person we requested. Mind you this is no easy task, asking someone to pay on your behalf. A quick search on the web got me to Commissioner & Director of Municipal Administration and I it does have an online payment of taxes tab. And boy this was a breeze. As soon as you press the online payment tab you see a neat selection of District | Muncipality | Tax Type. For my purposes I choose Ysr Kadapa (it would be nice if they changed it to read "YSR Kadapa") and then "1014-Proddatur" for Municipality and I chose Tax Type is "Property Tax" (the other option is Water tax) Once you fill in these details. You are directe...

Thoughts

Search This Blog