Allan and I are working on a conceptual piece about the semantic web which grew out of our random thoughts on the matter published recently in the Semantic Report. This week’s Social software class was an extension of our thoughts about Web 2.0, and the tensions it introduces for librarians, educators and students.
One tension around social software that I wanted to revisit is the notion of socializing to learn. I believe humans are social beings and learn best from each other. (Check out the photo to your right – that’s a social pod of whales navigating waters in the Pacific.)
A media guy named Morgan, who attended our session, challenged some of my ideas around socialization as a learning activity. We even got clarity around our definition of socializing from Nancy (who googled and provided definitions). I take their points that socialization is not necessarily educational or a part of learning.
However, my point is that a lot of knowledge-creation is inherently social. Think of how we work together on projects and how children learn in pods. I challenge the idea that solitary acts of knowledge-creation (ie. an expert writing a book, let’s say) are superior to thinking-working-doing with others. And contest the resistance to social software in the educational and library contexts.
Some educators and librarians (even some government organizations that block social tools) don’t get Web 2.0, or see its potential. This, to me, was why we did our session this week. To show how social tools can be used to raise awareness and start conversation. Sorting through problems with each other is a first step to thinking together, which is a social act, I argue, and a precursor to knowledge building, and the sharing of new ideas.
Yvonne Chan
lse721
Dean – For clarification, my point related to the inaccuracy of using the terms “socializing” and “socialization” interchangeably. These are very different concepts – but can both be potential benefits of social software. Nancy
Thanks Nancy. I agree I’m using the terms loosely, and think that socialization, though a process, involves a great deal of the social.
In that way, I’m using them as close cousins, and as a social software advocate not in the strict sense. – Dean
Thank you for the session last week. It was very interesting, and I leaned how differently people understand “social software.” I agree that Web 2.0 is contributing a lot to learning situations. What I thought is, however, that the meaning of “social” was too broad to describe such contribution of Web 2.0.
For example, in Japan, people see “socializing” through the Web as a kind of dangerous activity because we can never know if people are telling the truth about themselves on the Web. It’s not too difficult that a middle aged guy pretends as a teenage girl on the Web. Such things were what occurred to me when I hear “social” in the Web context, and that’s why I asked what you meant by “social” software.