Albert-László Barabási has stated “networks are everywhere. All you need is an eye for them”. No where is this more true than in social structures. Over the last five years, tools like Facebook, Myspace, Skype, and Twitter have increased awareness of the value of networks for communication and interaction.

Public and open social networks – such as Facebook – can be disconcerting for learners; too much “noise”, lack of separation between personal social life and learning, and general reluctance to post still-developing ideas on the open web. To address these limitations, Athabasca University has launched The Landing – a social network where individuals have control over how much information they share and with whom they share it.

Structurally, networks differ from the design traditional classroom or distance education models. Networks facilitate greater social interaction, two-way information flow and exchange, participatory pedagogy, and social learning. While these attributes can be included in classrooms or distance education with some difficulty, effective learning networks use these as a base pedagogical model.

This eight week course will provide an introduction to teaching and learning in social networks learning, using The Landing as the instructional tool.

What you will do and learn:

At the conclusion of the course, participants will be able to:

• Define social learning
• Detail ways in which networks can assist peer-to-peer learning
• Use the main toolsets within The Landing to create content and communicate with colleagues and learners
• Describe and model effective teaching practices in networked environments