Abstract:

This abstract relates to my PhD research entitled. The PhD is based on research going on at Aalborg University (AAU) within the Faculty of Social Science, meaning that the learning approach taken in this paper is based on the AAU PBL model (Kolmos, Fink, & Krogh, 2004; Kolmos, 2009).

The research has been taking point of departure in “the Collaborative E-learning Design method” (CoED) used as a kick-off method, further described in other related articles (Buus, 2011; Buus, Georgsen, Ryberg, Glud, & Davidsen, 2010; Georgsen & Nyvang, 2007).

Three scenarios emerged. The first scenario, the teacher integrates a blog into their lectures to support the students in collaborating and sharing work connected to the lecture content. This is preparing the student for using the blog at the final joint workshop session during a two-day period, where students in groups had to apply different theories to the same case and discuss these theoretical issues on the blog.

The second scenario actually consists of two activities in parallel. In scenario 2a students are offered unlimited supervision in relation to a small group project. The supervision takes place using group feature, which supports sharing and collaboration among students, and Facebook was chosen among the students as the platform.

Scenario 2b is giving the students a presentation to two web 2.0 tools for sharing and collaboration, enabled to support them in their sharing and collaboration as a group (class) and as smaller groups. The tools presented were Diigo (a social bookmarking tool) and Zotero (a social reference tool) as two tools among others similar tools, students could benefit from in their collaboration both in courses and project work.

The third scenario deals with online on site commenting on theoretical questions and issues coming up during lectures using a same time web 2.0 tool called Etherpad . This activity is going on during the course and gives the teacher a view of where the students have issues related to the theories or methods introduced during lecture.

Interesting perspectives on how to integrate social media or web 2.0 into ones learning has emerged from this research. I have identified themes likes “Facilitation”, “Challenges” “Different views on PBL” (in an AAU PBL model approach), “Future changes” among others. I’m working on my analysis of the data so far, but have some preliminary interesting findings.

REFERENCES
Buus, L. (2011). How to integrate social media in a PBL approach. ECEL Conference paper.
Buus, L., Georgsen, M., Ryberg, T., Glud, L. N., & Davidsen, J. (2010). Developing a Design Methodology for Web 2.0 Mediated Learning. I L. Dirckinck-Holmfeld, V. Hodgson, C. Jones, M. de Laat, D. McConnell, & T. Ryberg (Red.), Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Networked Learning, Networked Learning (s. 952-960). Aalborg.
Georgsen, M., & Nyvang, T. (2007). Collaborative e-Learning Design Method (CoED) ( No. No. 12). e-Learning Lab Publication Series (s. 25). E-Learning Lab: Aalborg University.
Kolmos, A. (2009). Problem-Based and Project-Based Learning. University Science and Mathematics Education in Transition (s. 261-280). Hentet fra http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09829-6_13
Kolmos, A., Fink, F. K., & Krogh, L. (Red.). (2004). The Aalborg PBL model - progress, diversity and challenges. Aalborg: Aalborg University Press.

Keywords:

Social Media, Web 2.0, Learning Activities, CoED.