Socializing the Classroom: Social Networks and Online Learning

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Socializing the Classroom: Social Networks and Online Learning, by Susan B. Barnes, examines how social media can be used in education through two research grants and real-world applications. Barnes analyzes social media including Facebook, Courseware, and Second Life, while providing a theoretical foundation for examining social software. A new generation of students is surrounded by digital technologies, leading scholars and teachers to consider virtual worlds to engage students.

By bringing together human-computer-interaction theories with social theory, Socializing the Classroom creates a theoretical foundation for future research in the area of social media, online learning technologies, and the development of social networks. Readers will gain a better understanding of how students use online learning environments to communicate task-oriented messages and maintain social interactions. This is an essential text for scholars, students, and those interested in social networks and the implementation of technology in education.

Reviews

In Socializing the Classroom: Social Networks and Online Learning, Susan Barnes has illuminated a new approach to the study of using technology in the classroom, one that takes into account the dynamic social changes in students and their engagement with technology. In this valuable new work, Barnes opens new windows into understanding the multiple media illiteracies of students, through the lens of media ecology. While many either bemoan or overtly praise the way technology has been introduced to the classroom, Barnes and her team ask tough questions, and provide valuable answers to anyone wondering how students really learn. -- Brian Cogan, Molloy College, author of Deconstructing South Park: Critical Examinations of Animated Transgression
Barnes and her colleagues offer a useful analysis of the digital age in sociological terms. Socializing the Classroom is packed with historical context, real-life situations, and the thinking of diverse researchers and theorists. -- Paul Levinson, Fordham University, author of New New Media

Author Bio

Susan B. Barnes is a professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Associate Director of the Social Computing Lab at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).