Discuss the Impact of Social Media on Lifelong Learning

Learning, what is lifelong learning? Why do individual constantly have to learn? Lifelong learners are those people who continue to learn even after they had finish school. Formally or informally all of us are lifelong learners .Learning is not just taking a book and read, according to (Albert Bandura 1925-present) learning refer to learn from one another ,via interaction with other, imitations, and modelling. Moreover, consider Delor’s point of view of lifelong learning, learning refer to what we know learn something that we were not aware before ,what to do with whatever we have learn how to use the knowledge acquire, how to live together and with other meaning our interaction with other how to get along and how to be , refers to our personality. Learning has been considered as a ‘social activity’ by psychologists. People get into lifelong learning to stay connected to the world and not to remain obsolete to the evolution of the world which increasingly is growing up rapidly and with the innovation of social networks in and new technologies learning have become more accessible to everyone among all age groups who want to get engages into any vocational training or academic system.

Social media and learning

‘Social media refers to a set of web-based tools and services used for a wide range of applications (Lee, McLoughlin, 2010).’ Social media resources emphasize active participation, connectivity, collaboration, as well as sharing of knowledge and ideas among users. ‘Social media have contributed to an information society’ where learners get quick access to information required by using social networks and Google search for their research and projects. Furthermore, ‘It has also been argued that social media can be efficient and effective in lifelong learning by enabling people to keep up-to-date with new knowledge.’ ( Kind & Evans,2015). Technology and social media has created an ‘online communities’ that enable learners in all ages to get connect to the world of online educational society. Internet , and social media has made the wider world become a ‘global village’ through social networks. Thus, ‘Connecting through social media can bring those geographically diverse together in communication across time zones and continents.’ Moreover, social media has created a shared zone where all learners are able to communicate, chat ,share video and interact with other learners sharing common interest or just discuss about informal topics. The interactivity enable learners to express their point of view, feeling, and ideas without any community barriers . ‘There is great potential for social media to break down traditional hierarchies.’

Furthermore, social media provide platforms and applications that has drawn precisely for educational purposes. E-learning is an example of platform system, based on formalised teaching with the help of electronic devices that has been design to implement learners to achieve learning goals and quality learning experiences. Design and development of effective e-learning requires a number of analytics activities to help ensure learning takes place.’ While teaching can be based in or out of the classrooms, the use of computers and the Internet forms the major component of E-learning.‘ E-learning can also be termed as a network enabled transfer of skills and knowledge, and the delivery of education is made to a large number of recipients at the same or different times.’ ‘E-learning has proved to be the best means in the corporate sector, especially when training programs are conducted by MNCs for professionals across the globe and employees are able to acquire important skills while sitting in a board room, or by having seminars, which are conducted for employees of the same or the different organizations under one roof. The schools which use E-learning technologies are a step ahead of those which still have the traditional approach towards learning.’

E-learning vs Social media

E-learning and social media both have some similarities that promote lifelong learning as they are both cost efficiency, providing information at low cost and allows everyone to get access faster ,easy to use no need of high level education, E-learning link to formal education, and ‘ Content are updated by professionals’ and the limitation of E-learning are fixed, impersonal and lacks of social interaction whereas social media are more to be attractive and ‘quality of user’ and it limitation are distractive, can be either formal and informal education and ‘ content are driven by users.’

Social media tools for promoting lifelong learning

‘Social media tools make the learning environment more dynamic by supporting new features and characteristics. These features and tools facilitate the learning environment for both adult learners and educators and encourage them to take an effective role in creating and sharing the information rather than just access the content.’ Innovative technologies such as Smartphones, Tablets, and Laptop are social media tools that are being use to provide accurate and up-to-date information and enable learners to get quick access for their research. Combining social media in educative system activities create connection between learners and tutors increased their communication out of the classroom (Lee, McLoughlin 2010) suggest that online social networks enable learners and instructors to present themselves socially in an online environment and connect with one another and this enables learners to participate in a group learning process.’(Lui 2010 )mentions some social websites: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Linkedin are tools that are engaged in socializing and interacting in learning and enable learners to get involved in developing new activities and skills such as writing skills and on the same time they develop the ability and understanding of using new electronic and digital devices.

Limitation of social media on lifelong learning

Researcher (Greenhow, Robelia, 2009) have identified risk that learner s may face up when using ‘ social software’ in educational system. ‘These include workload concerns for educators and students, lack of trust in peer feedback, ownership issues with regards to public and collaborative spaces, difficulty in adapting publicly available tools, and difficulty in protecting the anonymity of students. ‘Causes Face-to-Face Interactions to Feel Disconnected’’ Refers to ( Greenhow )suggestion learners loose their ability to do face to face communication and might cause problem when participate in an interview for professional reason. Causes Distractions Learners might also been distracted with other activities or websites rather than concentrate in their study. Furthermore, social media, ‘ Diminishes Understanding and Thoughtfulness’ learners do not really make efforts to understand by their own to answer questions as they know that all they required are available online. Facilitates Laziness just need to use Google Search and gain all information. ‘Conveys Inauthentic Expression of Feelings’ Learners used shorthand writing and most commonly Emoji to express their feeling rather than writing a complete phrase. Lack of emotional connection

Consider research and arguments, we can conclude that social media inevitable had an impacts of how learners has get into the trend as lifelong learning. Lifelong learning starts with learning even if itself. Social networks interfere by providing tools to complement our journey in gaining knowledge to promote skills.’ The web has become one of the channels of learning that opens the door for people around the world to access education for free, or for fewer costs.’ Technologies are being created and innovated every time to help in providing better finding and services it’s the learners how had the power to rather use these tools efficiently or not.

 

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