(Drawn from Rheingold and Kimball's work on social networks (http://www.rheingold.com/Associates/onlinenetworks.html)
Main Points:
Scholar 360 connects students, faculty and administrators through a Social Network - Learner Management System (SN-LMS). This system creates webs of relationships that link people based on shared interests. Conversations emerge from these connections that result in increased collaboration and tailored educational experiences.
Academic institutions greatly benefit from Scholar 360 because it increases collective knowledge and enables continuous learning for students, faculty, and administrators. On-site class meetings and faculty meetings are designed to connect people to one another to pursue a common purpose. For example, class is designed to help the professor distribute knowledge to students. Faculty meetings occur so policies can be reviewed and implemented. However, the learning and connections that occur in these contexts are often short lived.
Scholar 360 reinforces learning and networking by providing a constant, on-demand, virtual e-learning environment. Scholar 360 helps people and institutions grow by integrating personal relationships and knowledge. This synergy results in exponential learning on all levels. Review the main points below to fully understand the Scholar 360 approach to learning.
- Scholar 360 is student centered not course centered. Training occurs throughout the program and is not limited to a particular course or series of courses. The student sees the larger picture of where the program fits into their life and where each of their courses fits into the larger program. The dots are all connected, so that integrated learning occurs. Training is continuous and not something that is bracketed between the start and stop dates of a course.
- Scholar 360 allows students and faculty to immediately post something that they have been thinking about, so that others can also think about it. They don't have to wait until the next class to discuss their ideas and learn from one another. Class meets continuously rather than just weekly.
- Scholar 360 attunes faculty, administrators, and students to one another's needs. Some think that learning only occurs in the classroom, but learning also occurs in relationships outside of the classroom. If I feel connected to you, then I'm going to share helpful information with you. Scholar 360 builds collaborative relationships with students and faculty by helping them get to know one another on a deeper level. A quick metaphor: I'm a waiter in a restaurant and you are a regular. I already know your tastes and can offer you tailored suggestions based on your history. This kind of interaction doesn't occur outside of a personal relationship. Similarly, collaboration between students and faculty does not happen outside of relationships. Scholar 360 increases learning and productivity by creating a personal learning environment where information is freely shared.
- Scholar 360 helps faculty and students identify where they fit in the larger academic body. Each person has a bird's eye view of the overall institution and therefore has a much better idea as to where they can plug-in. Students can easily identify peers and faculty who share there interests. Similarly, faculty can find students who are interested in their research areas.
- Scholar 360 creates and maps community memory. Students and faculty understand the breadth and depth of the community brain so they know exactly where to find and deposit information. Everyone knows where everyone else exists on the network, so knowledge is quickly and efficiently shared.
- Scholar 360 supports all types of people. Quiet people often have a hard time communicating in class or in meetings. Scholar 360 gives them an avenue to interact and learn in an environment that is more conducive to their preferred means of communicating.
- Scholar 360 increases the cross-pollination of ideas, papers, and projects. Scholar 360 organically organizes people from different parts of campus so that collaboration naturally occurs. The right hand knows what the left hand is doing, so time and energy is not spent recreating the wheel.
- Scholar 360 helps students and faculty clarify and refine their ideas. The learning environment requires people to express themselves through writing or another form of media. Expressing thoughts makes them clear and detailed.
- Scholar360 opens up information so that every allowed user can know it. Information is not restricted to a handful of individuals or automatically hidden behind course walls. This saves time because students and faculty don't have to run around campus or look through directories to track someone down to find the information they need. Rather, finding people and information occurs naturally because groups are already connected.
- Scholar 360 invites everyone to join the larger dialog. Rheingold uses the metaphor of an elephant to capture this. If everyone has a leg of a larger elephant that they are trying to put together, then they are not going to be able to construct it via emails and phone calls. Rather, they are going to have to see the parts that each person has, so they can all see the big picture and better understand how their piece fits into the whole. Scholar 360 opens information to all admitted users, so that collaboration can occur across relationships and not be restricted to snippets that people see in an email or memo.
- Scholar 360 spawns innovation because ideas are shared across departments and committees. Documents, ideas, templates are bounced back and forth and applied in different settings, so they are constantly modified to fit the application to a new context. This allows ideas, papers, and templates to be changed and refined for new purposes.
|
