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SOCIAL NETWORKING IS IMPORTANT FOR SUCCESSFUL INFORMAL LEARNING >>
 * Jay Cross is an advocate of understanding that we are in changed times. We are 'all in this together' when it comes to learning. Information is at our fingertips and there is no longer a 'scarcity of information'.
 * Formal learning is forgettable, and most learning takes place //**after**// class. Schools need to understand that teaching has changed because of this.
 * Blogs and Wikis are ways for students to share 'informally'. Everyone who learns needs to apply his or her knowledge so that it is **usable** and **remembered**. Blogs and Wikis allow students to connect their learning and apply it right away. Connecting learning to students' social lives is a powerful way for students to remember and retain what they have learned.
 * We don't need studies to show us how many hours students are spending on Facebook and other social network sites. We should harness this power for education. This way, learning is less formal and more real.
 * Students can effectively resolve a problem or collaborate with others when social networking.
 * Cross (2008) defines the social areas in which new learning is formed in a collaborative setting as "learnscapes". Learnscapes have the following advantages over forma learning structures:
 * "Training Programs are events, learnscapes are long-term processes"
 * Learnscapes are places of mutual collaboration, where information is shared, ideas are formed and new knowledge comes into play.
 * Learnscapes are loosely structured areas where participants are free to find their own means and processes of learning within established boundaries
 * "Courses end; learnscapes persist"
 * Grouping students together has shown to improve student performance while working toward a shared understanding.
 * Using relevant information and responding in a content-rich way leads to higher knowledge retention rates
 * Knowing students' background and interests determines the way they perform in group assignments. Developing skills to tolerate diversity and communicate to other cultures, social networking connects students to specific content. Social bonds that form connect some of the basis of the informal social learning network.
 * Students get personalized learning through collaboration and innovation.
 * Allowing students to collaborate means they can cover topics, solve problems, debate, ask questions, and provoke thoughtful responses. Even more, using the web 2.0 tools will provide a platform in which it is a safe learning environment.
 * Application of tools and knowledge leads to transfer in other areas of learning.
 * Students anticipate applying the information in the future, and therefore learners are performing powerful cognitive processing, extending their learning and skills base.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'times new roman',times,serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">Social networking allows informal learning to happen quickly. As Kapp says on page 163 of our text, "Connected gamers want information, and they want it now."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Digenti (2000) saw more than ten years ago that informal learning would be enhanced by social networking and online interactive experiences. At the time of her writing, the impact of technology on corporate learning and educational theory was focused more on the integration of technology into existing formal learning structures. Teleconferenceing, e-meetings, and other formal delivery systems were in the early stages of being replaced by the more interactive areas that others have outlined above. One of the most intriguing implications that Digenti observed in these early applications of networking technology was the oft-fruitful results of cross-company interaction. I believe that this is an area in which school corporations have failed to make true use of the interactive nature of web based social networking for educational game. No matter how thoroughly we expose our students who already meet in daily face-to-face classes to web-based interactive space, there will be a degree of insincerity in their online interaction when they know they will be seeing their peers in class the next day. Expanding our experiences - - for example having students in Northwest Indiana interact with students in St. Petersburg who are also reading Dostoyevsky's //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 13px;">Crime and Punishment // could significantly enhance their experiences.
 * Lorraine G slideshow

<span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; color: #008080; display: block; font-family: 'comic sans ms',cursive; font-size: 150%; text-align: left;">REFERENCES: Cross, J. (2008) Learning for the 21st Century. Retrieved from http://www.informl.com/2008/12/17/learning-for-the-21st-century/. Digenti, D. (2000) Make space for informal learning. Retrieved from @http://ddigenti.wordpress.com/papers/make-space-for-informal-learning/ http://www.edutopia.org/social-networking-how-to http://www.we-magazine.net/2008/12/06/jay-cross-on-informal-learning/ http://soton.academia.edu/ReenaPau/Papers/393703/The_Role_of_Social_Networks_In_Students_Learning_Experiences Kapp, K. (2007). //Gadgets, games and gizmos for learning: Tools and techniques for transferring know-how from boomers to gamers.// San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.

Lorraine G slideshow