Social Networks and Learning Networks

This is an interesting session by Carolyn Haythornthwaite and Maarten de Laat that explores the questions that may be raised from the earlier Hotseat discussions for the previous several months prior to this session.

Very interesting session of various knowledge and network maps that Caroline and Maarten are exploring. Learning is a relation that connects people, though it is also an outcome of that connection. Learning is thus both the structure as well as its outcome.

The actors are the people, relations are the connections, and network (which is the relationship between them all).

Some more interesting network maps about how certain teachers or topics are linked with one another. These can be used as discussion starters. Seems like a valuable idea, though I wonder if this cannot also have the effect of oversimplifying some aspect of reality by reducing the complexity of relationships in a single way represented by single lines between nodes in a network?

Yes, context seems to be key, and from an educational perspective the idea of value creation and linking this back to how we can understand if learning actually occurs.