Story-Based Professional Development

In this chapter, the authors describe an initiative to create a cross-organization, knowledge building communal network built from the personal workplace stories voluntarily contributed by conflict management practitioners. They identify various wiki adoption and usage issues and provide recommendations and strategies for addressing these issues based on survey data from the wiki target member population. Moreover, the authors compare and contrast their wiki design with recommended practices from the wiki literature and provide some suggestions for future research.

It’s All about Personal Connections

Given the potential of informal online learning via social networks for supporting the career-long professional growth of in-service teachers, research must be conducted to better understand the ways in which today’s future teachers are being prepared for and experiencing such practice. This chapter presents the authors’ efforts to move in that direction, a qualitative study describing six pre-service secondary English language arts teachers’ perceptions of self-directed networked learning during a teaching internship. Findings suggest that participants perceived networked learning as a viable and valuable approach to supplementing professional growth despite also perceiving challenges in the form of context, identity, and time.

Turn On Your Mobile Devices

The number of mobile devices and active users is growing. Mobile devices expand the reach of technology-mediated communication possibilities for many people. They have become a convenient, and in many instances preferred, way for people to communicate with each other as well as to access the Internet. In terms of learning, this means that people can increasingly access both content and resources from any number of locations. This chapter explores how mobile devices can be used to support informal learning practices, and it provides practical tips for researchers in conducting studies of informal mobile learning.

Professional Development through Web 2.0 Collaborative Applications

This chapter presents a fresh look at collaborative applications and their use in professional development and informal learning. The chapter addresses some of the cultural challenges impacting collaborative technologies, especially given the fact that these technologies are transplanted from developed countries into regions of the world that are only beginning to understand their significance. Therefore, the chapter points to the importance of and the needs to allow cultural variation and differences in usage. The chapter acknowledges the fact that collaborative technologies possess great potential for both professional development and informal learning, but cautions that external factors, such as culture and community, be taken into account to realize potential benefits.

Dermatological Telemedicine Diagnoses and Andragogical Training Using Web 2.0 Mobile Medicine Video Conferencing

Polymorphic innovations of Web 2.0 have both inspired and facilitated a near ubiquitous learning architecture centered on mobility, customization, and collective intelligence in a variety of fields. These reconfigurable pedagogical learning platforms have empowered participants by removing passive, standardized methods of unilateral knowledge delivery established by its Web 1.0 predecessor, and included a multitude of divergent, informal, and participant-driven social networks. These new technological devices and opportunities for self-guided, multidirectional knowledge exchange within newly established informal learning networks are affordable and flexible. Thus, McLoughin and Lee’s (2007) moniker of “Pedagogy 2.0” is apropos (p. 672). The teaching and training of professional medical personnel, aligned with the flexibility and the capability of Web 2.0 platforms in the exchange of collaborative social learning, can be an authentic and productive knowledge-making andragogical approach to healthcare training. Such training must consider, study, and embrace social-constructivism, problem-based learning, andragogy, universal design for learning, media naturalness theory, divergent thinking, and the expanded rhetorical triangle in order to maximize the potential of mobile medicine through expanding the practice of telemedicine.

Twitter-Based Knowledge Sharing in Professional Networks

Social media provides professional organizations with a new means of distributing information and perhaps even facilitating learning among their members. This study compares Twitter use in two populations, academics and corporate professionals, and in two interaction contexts, conference and non-conference, looking at how knowledge is shared by organizations. Organizations in three fields—nursing, information technology, and educational technology—were included in the study. A content analysis showed that both types of organizations focused more on supplying original content than providing links or retweets. Conferences generated the greatest activity levels and industry organizations were more savvy with Twitter use, although on the whole hashtags were underutilized and much room remains to maximize use of social media. Nonetheless, a wealth of knowledge sharing that can support information learning and professional development is taking place in these online networks.

Use of Social Network Analysis to Create and Foster Interdisciplinary Research, Projects, and Grants among Faculty

This chapter describes one university-based social network created for peer mentoring, knowledge brokering, and resource sharing for faculty and students to collaborate to increase research and scholarship. First, the case study describes the process utilized to survey interests of faculty as the basis for an affiliation network of faculty research interests. The benefits of social network analysis and its applications are discussed and utilized. Next, a conversation is presented about the use of social network analysis to foster faculty collaboration through targeted programming. Finally, recommendations for practice are presented.

Applying Social Network Analysis and Social Capital in Personal Learning Environments of Informal Learning

Recently, researchers in the instructional technology and learning sciences arenas have started to pay attention to the concept of Personal Learning Environments (PLE). With the aim to investigate how social network theory could indicate the desired indicators for successful Personal Learning Environments, the authors are addressing social capital theory as a conceptual framework to understand the network landscape within informal learning environments. Social capital is an inherent property of network and collaboration dynamics, along with key indicators related to personal network measurements. Personal network analysis as a means to evaluate the social capital is discussed later in this chapter. This chapter is not about learning what or learning as becoming, but about how people learn with whom, and with what degree of influence. It will be helpful to educators or researchers who are interested in measuring academic and psychosocial outcomes within the presence of social capital when applying personal social network analysis in personal learning networks.

An Activity Theoretical Approach to Examining Virtual Professional Development and Informal Learning via Social Networks

This chapter discusses the adoption of activity theory (Engeström, 1987, 2001; Leont’ev, 1978, 1981) as a conceptual framework for analyzing learning processes related to professional development and informal learning via social network environments. The discussion includes an overview of professional development and informal learning via social networks, which highlights the need for a related analytical framework. Activity theory is then described and applied to an example of professional development. This operationalization of activity theory demonstrates the ability of the framework to enable viewing and analyzing learning via social networks such as Facebook communities, wiki and blog spaces, listservs, and discussion forums. The chapter ends with several key points related to implementing activity theory as a solution to investigating behaviors in social networks and potential directions for future research.

An Analysis of Teacher Knowledge and Emotional Sharing in a Teacher Blog Community

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the findings of a research study analyzing knowledge and emotional sharing in a self-generated online teacher community. Although active informal learning occurs in online communities of teachers, scant information is available about the knowledge and emotions teachers share in these communities. The authors conducted a content analysis of 1,709 entries in a self-generated blog community and examined the types of activities teachers were engaged in. The data revealed that over 29% of entries were related to lesson plans or teaching resources. In addition, over 17% of the postings addressed teachers’ positive or negative emotions. The authors argue that teacher participation in online communities should be promoted and encouraged since online communities help teachers with informal learning and emotional sharing.