How digital networks shape our social circles

Overcoming inertia: Activating a community plugin isn’t as simple as ticking a box. Social Learning is the informal learning that takes place fluidly in social spaces, and I argue these to be in face to face communities as well as online. They are spaces where we expand our learning networks, finding things out on the fly to fit in a timely and relevant fashion with what we need to know as we need it. It’s geo-located, culturally contextualised needs based learning. Learn as you use, use as you learn. This isn’t new. Being from a farming family with generations of farmers behind me, stretching back to when Vikings bred their sheep on the Lakes district fells, I know first-hand that this kind of community learning is, literally, as old as the hills. I have grown up in New Zealand around marae*-based learning which again is community focused. We still have a lot to learn from our heritage as learners. Coming from these communities, being an autonomous learner is something culturally embedded. I am currently working with a group of teachers on a CLIL preparation project. We are preparing ourselves to activate CLIL in our local school at primary level. The beauty of CLIL is that it isn’t prescribed. A CLIL framework is built from the ground up, contextualised timely and relevant to the school community that chooses to engage the methodology. I was all excited about getting of teachers involved with co-curating our learning. Then I hit a snag. A key ingredient for this to work is to be working alongside agile, autonomous learners. I set up an Edmodo classroom for my learners. Three weeks later only one had signed up. The space remained a conversation with myself. How to overcome inertia and activate change in learners? Read less