Social Objects and Education

This week's readings focus on 'Social Objects'. According to Hugh Mcleod, a 'social object' can be abstract, digital, molecular, but must be something which draws people together around it. Whether it is the Boston Red Sox or an iphone, if it encourages people who care passionately about it to gather around it and create social interaction and conversation, it is a social object.

The Ed Techie article asks, "What would a social object be in education?" and then answers, "On campus that's pretty obvious-it can be the lecture or workshop, a book or an article. Online, I guess the answer is 'content'." Educational content can be a social object, but some criteria must be met: (1)It is a starting point for a social network, (not the other way around), (2)It encourages individuals to participate, whether through controversial ideas or informational imperfections, (3)It appeals to a community of learners who find it engaging, (4)It is perpetuated by continuing to be successful at creating social interaction. (This last criterion is my own addition).

To the extent to which assignments or assessments draw people around them and create social interaction and conversation, they would be considered 'social objects'. It is conceivable that an assignment to create a virtual art gallery could be considered a social object, that would provide a starting point of conversation, and would provide something about which the participants would care passionately. It would, however, most likely, cease to continue to be a social object after the assignment was completed. Since the 'perpetuation' criterion would not be met, these
items might better be termed, 'transitory social objects'.

How compatible does the notion of social objects appear to be with the idea of learning management systems? Since the venue of a learning management system is basically an extension of the classroom, (and a rather mandatory aspect of it), the idea of people volitionally, spontaneously and enthusiastically gathering to it and caring passionately about it seems to be at odds with the definition of a social object.

A metaphor for a social object in education? Maybe a band would provide a good metaphor. It is something around which people enthusiastically gather, a starting point, are passionate about, engage in social interaction about, and find interesting for long periods of time. How can this metaphor be ported over into the field of education? If education were a musical group, the individuals in the audience (students) would find points of intersection in their interests in particular songs or performers, but also might find that they resonate with a particular instrument or singer or song more enthusiastically than others. All fields of knowledge are interrelated and offer truth (music) to students, but some students experience 'sympathetic vibrations' with a particular subject(song)that they would explore further. They might also feel a closer bond with one professor than another,(singer or musician). As far as educators (the band)are concerned, they might orchestrate and arrange music a little differently for different groups, (design curriculum to reflect differences in students), they might use different techniques on instruments to elicit a chosen response, (choose specific learning strategies to enhance the students' experience), they might use 'playing by ear' and listening to keep on pitch (tuning their ears and hearts to their students' needs) and they might learn to improve in playing 'in concert' with their fellow musicians (working with fellow instructors to collaborate and share ideas).

All in all, I quite enjoyed all of the readings this week and appreciate learning more about social objects! (Even the debate was interesting!)