Groups, Networks, Sets, Collectives I would say the participants in NGL could be considered both a network and a collective: a network initially when information is being shared between the nodes; then when collaboration and creation occur, the network would develop into a more complex, transformative entity – a collective. In contrast, our NGL course participants could be considered a group at the moment because the process of gaining knowledge needs to be sustained, and this process is quite complex, carefully designed and managed (Dron & Anderson, 2007). My experience of groups is varied. I belong to several groups personally and professionally. I find Dron and Anderson’s (2007) description of the group useful because I have found that groups are sustained when there is a sustained, managed purpose. When this is lacking, the group tends to dissolve. In my experience, networks can be more flexible. You can drift in and out of networks; take up where you left off. I think that has been a contributing factor to the success of social network platforms such as Facebook, Linked-in and Instagram. The nature of these platforms enable them to facilitate interactions that are topical and reflective of change. The networks I am involved in are professional/industry networks, Community of Practice Networks, Facebook and Linked-in. Quora and Reddit are both interesting concepts, and I believe they could both be used in learning, but I would use them to model the process of learning, rather than use them as a legitimate source of knowledge. I do realise though that this attitude reflects closely the attitude of Higher Education in the use of social media (Bonzo & Parchoma, 2010). I would question the validity and accuracy of the information posted on these sites. After examining Quora and Reddit, it did dawn on me that many people live a large amount of their time online. To formulate some of the questions, and for others to go through the process of reading and responding to the questions, indicates that there is a large community devoting significant chunks of their lives to these forums and networks for reasons other than formal learning. Source: Mashable (2014) How to: Ask and Answer Questions on Quora [You-tube video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqjJUCib588 References
Bonzo, J., & Parchoma, G. (2010). The Paradox of Social Media and Higher Education Institutions. In Networked Learning: Seventh International Conference (pp. 912– 918). Dron, J., & Anderson, T. (2007). Collectives, networks and groups in social software for e-Learning. In World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (pp. 2460–2467). Facebook. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/ Linked.in. (2016). Retrieved from https://au.linkedin.com/ Mashable (2014) How to: Ask and Answer Questions on Quora [You-tube video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqjJUCib588 Quora. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/ Reddit. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/
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