Making the world your classroom

Originally published to eBridge on Friday 6 July 2012

Using social bookmarks to share articles that we find interesting helps us to become part of modern technological communities of practice, where the ability to locate relevant information at need to solve problems has become critical (Johnson & Johnson, 1996), and any information that does not become embedded into such communities effectively becomes lost (Smith & MacGregor, 1992).

When I originally cited these references in one of my first reflective assignments for the FOLT module, I must confess they were somewhat abstract terms to me! I was still new to the constructivist philosophy of learning and teaching, and bewildered by the Twitter feed of the Learning Technologies conference. After my initial trepidation of engaging with this community I have been progressively changing my approach to learning to fit with the ethos of co-creating knowledge (McLoughlin & Lee, 2007).

To really appreciate the benefits of this way of learning and working in this way, freeing up bookmarks and knowledge to take out of the classroom is a logical step, particularly now that the technology finally fits with a more natural way of integrating work and learning - if we are ready to break out of old habits.

• Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. T. (1996). Cooperation and the use of technology. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.), Handbook of research for educational communications and technology (pp.1017-1044). New York: Simon and Schuster Macmillan.
• McLoughlin, C. and M.J.W. Lee. (2007) Social software and participatory learning: Pedagogical choices with technology affordances in the Web 2.0 era. in Ascilite. 2007. Singapore. Available at: <http://www.dlc-ubc.ca/wordpress_dlc_mu/educ500/files/2011/07/mcloughlin.pdf> [Accessed 6 July 2012]
• Smith, B. L., and MacGregor, J. T., (1992). “What Is Collaborative Learning?". National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment at Pennsylvania State University. Available online at: <http://learningcommons.evergreen.edu/pdf/collab.pdf> [Accessed February 2011]