Knowledge Practice in Social Media Environments: Where Formal and Informal Learning Meet

Current educational trends place emphasis on the need for learning to be an active process; personalized on the one hand, collaborative and social on the other; ultimately, life-long and life-wide. At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that more and more knowledge is constructed outside of traditional educational institutions, i.e. on the job, at play, and across various and numerous media platforms. The question follows how to orchestrate the union between ‘personalized’ and ‘social’, ‘formal’ and ’informal’; and how to make these unions work jointly towards the ultimate educational goal which is a learning mindset for life. This paper examines the role of digitally mediated social practice in knowledge advancement through a study of students’ perceptions of networked learning. The assumption is that networked learning, through its flexible and open formula, can meet the demands of the new skills and current educational postulates. In the presented study data were collected from reflection documents written by students as a part of an assignment on creating and maintaining Personal Learning Networks on Internet. Students work on this assignment in the course ‘Educational Use of Social Media’. The course is one of the components in a study program ‘ICT and Learning’ offered as further education by Nord University, Norway to teachers, teacher education students and instructors. The technique of examination and interpretation applied to the data was qualitative thematic content analysis supported by computerassisted qualitative data analysis software NVivo. Theoretical analysis was guided by social constructionist perspective on knowledge creation and drew on the concept of Pedagogy 2.0. While many advantages to networked learning were specified by students, challenges were identified as well. Social networks on the wider web carry the potential of knowledge spaces where knowledge can be a guiding value. However, to handle the fluid and emergent resources in networks, a specific set of skills and attitudes is required. As the presented study shows, these skills and attitudes correspond with the competencies referred to as the 21st century skills. Since the 21st century skills are indispensable in the knowledge economy, networked learning can find its place in wider scope of educational practice.