Social networking

From living technology to learning technology?

Abstract

The future that popular social network technologies have in academia is the focus of this paper. The paper presents the results of a survey of some 812 university students at the University of South Australia. The survey focuses on student?s current uses, social network preferences, student preferences, student learning styles in order to determine if these living technologies can be used as learning technologies. Of particular interest are student tendencies for using such social networking for academic purposes. The study attempts to categorise the vast array of contemporary technologies and student preferences into a smaller number of factors that bring some clarity to an understanding of the relevance of these technologies to learning. As such, it provides a basis to future studies in this area. There is evidence in the paper to suggest that social network technologies are being used for informal learning practices and that the technology affordances are being used by students with a collaborative learning preference.