Social software
What is social software?
'Social software' is the term used to describe the range of easy-to-use authoring tools available on the web that enable group interaction and collaboration. Social software is also sometimes called Web 2.0.
These tools are used by teachers and students because they:
- encourage learners to manage their learning actively
- enable communication between local and global communities of learners
- allow for collaboration
- facilitate sharing and aggregating of resources
- provide a wide audience for learners’ work, including family and whānau.
A range of social software is listed on Software for Learning. Social software is continually evolving, and a search of the Internet will provide a range of options.
Here are the main types of social software currently being used in schools:
- Wiki / collaborative editing: A wiki is a website where several authors can add, edit, and delete content. This is an excellent tool for students to create projects jointly and for teachers to comment on student work in progress. There are also text, spreadsheet, and presentation applications that allow content to be shared over the web and edited collaboratively.
- Blog: This is a website where authors regularly add text, photos, audio, and links. It is often likened to a journal. Readers can usually add comments. Blogs can be published by classes, groups, or individuals, and are great for students to record the development of projects and reflect on their learning.
- Podcasting: Podcasting is broadcasting audio and video over the web, which users can access to play back on computers and mobile devices at any time. Podcasting enables students to record stories and create radio broadcasts for a worldwide audience.
- Media sharing: Media-sharing websites allow users to publish their digital content (such as photos, presentations, and video) for sharing with other users. Often content can be tagged (labelled) and rated by other users. Websites with content created by educators are also available.
- Bookmarking: Bookmarking websites allow users to record, tag (label), and share links to online content such as web pages and photographs. Tags help users find content because content is categorised using a familiar, accessible, and shared vocabulary.
- Aggregator: Aggregators enable users to collect and view, in one place, information ‘feeds’ from sources across the web, including blogs, podcasts, and websites. In effect, users compile their own newspaper, which is updated automatically when new material is added to the source.
- Social network: Social networks are used for socialising with friends and groups of users with similar interests (which can be recreational, educational, or issues-based). Activity is oriented around each member’s profile page. Some social networks allow users to create private communities and can be used for project-based and collaborative learning in educational settings.
- Mapping: Mapping software provides detailed maps and simulations of the Earth and sky. Learners can link spatial information with demographic, environmental and social data, and overlay observations, stories, and images. Combining data from multiple sources (‘mash-ups’) supports learners to make connections between different dimensions to reveal new relationships.
As well as facilitating learning for students, social software supports teachers in collaborating on their own projects, sharing resources, and reflecting on their practice with others in online communities. Because technologies are changing rapidly, the possibilities for e-learning are expanding faster than the evidence of its impact on learning outcomes. Social software provides opportunities for educators to create and share evidence, as well as draw on the evidence and experiences of others, about how e-learning can promote learning for students.
Examples of student work combining a range of software and social software can be found on the del.icio.us page StudentDigitalWork.
Two examples of social software used for teachers’ professional learning are Rosetown’s wiki and Willowdale Elementary School’s bookmarks. Interface Magazine provides a list of blogs by teachers.
