LeNoue, Hall, and Eighmy's study of social media in adult e-learning

Adult Education and the Social Media Revolution a Case Study: M. LeNoue, T. Hall, & M.A. Eighmy. Adult Learning Vol. 22 No. 2 p 4-12, Spring 2011

The world is changing, and now social media and web-based tools are a part of adult education. The paper by LeNoue, Hall, & Eighmy (2011), Adult Education and the Social Media Revolution," discusses this phenomenon. Given their academic backgrounds in education, including a specialization in education of adults, the authors present arguments with considerable force and knowledge from experience.

This study addresses a variety of issues, effects, and usage situations that they have experienced in teaching student/adults. The modern e-learning process has evolved to include a variety of means that enable the student/adult to participate and overcome inherent barriers. Indeed, LeNoue and colleagues (2011) summarize their work with the critical point that so many strategies now exist to make e-learning effective that it is incumbent upon the instructor/guide to find and properly utilize these strategies. Within this paper, the focus will be to address how e-learning for student/adults functions, as well as addressing lessons, outcomes, barriers, setting, and participants.

Participants in the program

LeNoue, Hall and Eighmy (2011) discuss an adult education program, where 'adults' are defined generally as being older, non-college, or post-college individuals. For these student/adults, the purpose of learning is defined, having precise objectives such as new attitudes, values, knowledge and skills. Student/adults in particular are interested in information of immediate potential use in their own work environment.

The instructor in a learning situation with student/adults is in a slightly altered role, wherein he/she has become more of a guide and/or tutor to a more active learner. The instructor/guide is disseminating and/or sharing the information, in this case via computers or digitally-mediated. Part of the role of the instructor/guide is to assist the student/adult to evaluate their ongoing experiences and learning processes as well as enabling them to contribute both to their own learning and to the situation as a whole (p.6). Thus, because this article does not address a one-on-one tutorial, but the use of social media and a classroom setting, there is more to consider than merely the student/adult and the instructor/guide.

Essentially, because social media is being used as the learning platform, that brings these media into play as part of the learning situation. Applications that might be used include Flickr, Twitter, Google Groups, Myspace, Wikipedia, Facebook, Second Life, and Youtube (p. 6). As well, Blogger and WordPress -- microblogging applications- may be a part of student/adult e-learning programs (Pauschenwein & Sfiri, 2010). Further learning and assistance may come about through Google Hangout and Skype as well. That means one can consider these platforms and/or their designers, as participants in student/adult e-learning.

During learning, the environment can vary considerably (Illeries, 2008), and the 'transfer of information' can occur in settings that are informal, non-formal, and formal. Of these three: (a) Informal learning is, in a sense, analogous to daily life, in that it is continuously ongoing in all of our activities. (b) Non-formal learning is more like that of a classroom, and may include an instructor and a 'lesson', but does not involve any 'credentials' being earned. Finally, (c) Formal learning is generally (but not always) more highly structured and includes credentials as well as a set curriculum (Jarvis, 1985).

According to Brookfield (1986) adult learning can occur in any of the three settings described above, and the fact that the educational 'lesson' includes social media does not mean it is not 'education'. While corporate usage of the various types of social media might rank them differently, this does not negate their potential value in an educational setting (Greenhow, 2009), As well, video conferencing may be a part of e-learning and adult education, as may Google groups. Thus, the platform used is distinct within the adult and e-learning situation, and the typical definitions of 'formal, informal, and non-formal' are differently utilized within e-learning. As well, because some e-learning situations for adult/students may not actually include 'certification', it becomes less clear in another way as to how e-learning should be defined.

Digitally-Mediated Learning outcomes

The success and/or effectiveness of DML for the adult student has now been evaluated in more than one study. In [1] "The use of e-learning tools in adult learning: A comparative study between Cypress and five other European countries," Papadopoulou, Aristodemou, & Laouris (2008) have addressed DML; [2] the study by Pauschenwein and Sfiri,(2010), was titled "Adult Learner's Motivation for the Use of Micro-Blogging during Online Training Courses."

The 2008 study by Papadopoulou et al., (2008) addresses e-learning and its effectiveness in universities and other higher learning institutions. In 2008, the field of e-learning had not evolved to fully become digitally-mediated learning as it is called today. However, professional growth for adults is seen as being of significance for not only business but also social and personal success, so these authors compared the results obtained in Cyprus with those from other countries for adult learners. Papadopoulou et al. (2008) compared e-learning results for Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain, using results from a single university in each country, obtained from a questionnaire that was posted online.

In their work, these researchers sought to determine the reason that the adult students initially signed up for an e-learning course, how they had first learned about the course, and any motivation for taking the course. As well, the questionnaire asked participants to evaluated their e-learning experience, with a focus on the environment for learning, the e-learning venue. The study participants included 155 women and 129 men, for a total of 284 adult students; these students were dis-proportionally located in Belgium (122 participants) vs. The other countries: Cyprus -- 24 participants; Germany -- 4 participants; Poland -- 32 participants; the remaining 112 came from Italy and Spain.

In this work, use of the e-learning environment by adults differed between the countries, in terms of both personal opinions and choices made. The two countries with the most similar results were Poland and Belgium; in contrast fewer similarities were observed between the students in German, Spain, Italy, and Cyprus. Within Poland and Belgium, adults learned about the e-learning courses from the local university; students in Cyprus found out about the course via the internet; the students in Spain and Italy responded 'other means not listed in the questionnaire'. For the question addressing e-learning environment and 'friendliness', students regardless of country were either undecided about friendliness, or agreed that e-learning was friendly.

The 2010 work by Pauschenwein & Sfiri compared use of web 2.0 and evaluated three online courses; participants for the study were in all cases educators. The focus of the study was the hypothesis that twitter exchanges were a positive contributing factor to student/participant motivation in an online course. Thus the project sought to determine and establish the actual motivation driving the adult students to take online-based courses. Specifically, Pauschewein & Sfiri were addressing the ideas of Kunga & Machtmes (2009), who postulated that mature students who take online courses have a variety of 'triggers': personal/work challenge to complete a specific online course; desire for self-growth; peer-pressure challenge; and work pressures to enhance the work skill-set.

The 2010 work of Pauschenwein & Sfiri, was a 26-person study, using Twitter as the social media platform, in part because of the rise of Twitter as a popular medium of exchange, as well as the relative simplicity involved in using Twitter, even for those with only rudimentary computer skills. The research program quantified Twitter use for a 6-week period: 3 weeks during the course, and the subsequent 3 weeks after the course had concluded. During the course itself, the data were as follows: 52% of students made over 100 tweets; 19% of the students made 91-100 tweets; 13% of the students made 20-50 tweets; 6% of the students made approximately 20 tweets; and the remaining 10% of the students had signed up for Twitter but did not use it at all during the 3-week course. Surprisingly, the use of Twitter dropped strongly following the course: 52% made over 20 tweets; 29% made fewer than 20 tweets; and 19% made no use of Twitter at all. The specific relevance of the tweets to the course itself was also somewhat telling: with only 4 students talking about the work and/or achievements of other students; only one student supporting other students; only 4 students mentioning the course itself; and the remainder were either 'hello' tweets or answers to tweets. The authors of the study concluded that while use of Twitter (or 'micro-blogging') has a modicum of utility for e-learning by increasing student participation, it did not make an real strides in altering student behavior outside the course. However, during the course, the use of Twitter appeared to be a valuable educational tool, and given the simultaneous aspect that Twitter was considered 'fun', it enhanced student inter-relationships, and group cohesiveness, as well as strengthening student motivation.

Educational Value

LeNoue and colleagues (2011) address the manner in which digitally mediated learning can facilitate adult education. In particular, they include the use of MySpace, YouTube, Google groups and etc. In their discussion (LeNoue et al., 2011: p.6). Their perspective actually focuses on the way in which social media can be considered as learning tools for different tasks. Each type of social media provides a different lesson that is successful for the interaction between student/adult and teacher/guide in digitally-mediated learning. An example is the use of 'Delicious' which enables the student/adult to 'tag and bookmark' and share resources that they have gathered (p. 7). As well, teaching adult learners about Wikispaces and Google Docs enhances inter-personal work and collaboration, such that geographic location and/or timezone are no longer factors impeding work.

The possibility of learning is enhanced for adults via social media because this increases self-direction. According to Cross (1981) and Tennant (1996), external pressures motivate adults to learn, and being self-driven rises to primacy for learning. This alters the role of the instructor so that he/she is a guide who provides content and functions to control 'quality'. Thus 'andragogy', teaching of adults as distinct from 'pedagogy', teaching of children, can be enhanced via the various platforms of social media because they assist the adult to understand and undergo the transformation of learning.

Conclusion

The article by LeNoue, Hall, and Eighmy (2011) addresses the effects and use of platforms such as social media in androgogy. The focus in the situation of adult education now includes both instructors and adult students. Instructors act as guides, providers of content, and controllers of quality in the learning process, while the adult students are those seeking to be guided to educate themselves. Furthermore, additional participants include others within social media as well as the actual designers of the various platforms. However, barriers exist, and one of these is the inherent resistance of an adult to novel technologies, despite the adult student's willingness to learn. First, the student/adult must know the basics concerning use of the mobile device and/or computer before the lessons of the social media can be accessed. Second, the student/adult must be shown how to access the various platforms of social media.

In analysis of adult learning with respect to social media, various geographical regions have different experiences with platforms for e-learning as well as different opinions; as well e-courses can be motivational for the student/adult. In terms of the e-learning process, the various platforms have been developed over time to include tools that address consensus problem issues. In particular, web 2.0 has been shown to be a useful resource for student/adults who are willing to learn and to overcame their own resistance-barriers.