As Learners Move into the Open: Obstacles to Overcome, Strategies for Success, and Potential for Participatory Learning (Research-Based)

This presentation will highlight results from two research studies conducted between 2008 and 2010 on social media use for learning. Participants were undergraduate and graduate students in a School of Education at a large urban research university in the United States. Findings from the first study describe a perceived gap between faculty and student use of social media and emphasize student expectations for classroom use. The second study of graduate students engaged in blog writing as a method of reflective practice shares effective classroom strategies and explores the nature of participatory learning that emerged from blogging in an open learning environment.