ABSTRACT
YET ANOTHER TREND… Th e popularity of a wide range of social soft ware, particularly with young people, has led many educators to think that this practice and enthusiasm could be turned to educational use. Th e purpose of this book is to assist this process by providing some guidelines for integrating social networking into course design and by documenting the activities of the early pioneers who are experimenting with innovative practices in their teaching. In this fi rst chapter we aim to show that the roots of social networking are not a paradigm shift from what went before but a growth or development from previous practice and theory. Of course there have been other media which educators were convinced could transform teaching and learning:
Television and then videoconferencing were going to render most ordinary lecturers redundant because every student would have easy access to outstanding lecturers, with resulting cost savings. Computer-based training was going to allow learners to work at their own pace, practicing as oft en as necessary and receiving programmed feedback from the ever-patient computer. Artifi cial intelligence was going to provide a truly responsive ‘tutor’ who would ‘understand’ the student’s misunderstandings and respond appropriately.
