Rethinking sociocultural notions of learning in the digital era: Understanding the affordances of networked platforms

Abstract

Understanding the affordances that networked platforms offer is a good place to start rethinking our notions of learning. The article discusses how social connectivity has changed, arguing that networking and networks have become foregrounded in how we perceive and experience our (digital) social worlds. Our aim is to understand the nature of networked structures, and the networked practices that these have enabled, to shed light upon how they ‘work’ for learning. While making use of the concept of affordances, the article discusses a selection of four affordances of digital networks (visibility, scalability, flexibility and persistence) and argues how these impact upon opportunities to learn through social media. The article finally critically reflects on how sociocultural theories of learning need expansion and revision, given social changes involving the rise of social media, but it also shows how this perspective leads the way in pointing to new challenges for theorising learning.

Sustaining Education by Actualizing Affordances of Social Media Platforms During the Pandemic

“…Previous studies have shown that students were able to identify and actualize the affordances of social media as they perceived that these platforms were flexible and allowed acquiring important information (Ansari & Khan, 2020) from anywhere and at any time (Attard & Holmes, 2020;Greenhow et al, 2019;Stewart, 2015). The functional affordances, for instance usability and practicality, have also been explored in prior studies by Unlüsoy et al (2022) who found that besides editability and replicability which are valuable capacities that allow students to engage with content the social media environment also expanded visibility or exposure to the vast amounts of information.…”

“…Although, educational institutions are increasingly using LMS with social media-like functionalities, it does not support informal learning, educational activities from a socio-constructivist perspective (Van Den Beemt et al, 2020;Garmendía & Cobos, 2013). According to Unlüsoy, Leander, and Haan (2022) social media is an "ever expanding and shrinking collections of nodes and link" that "allow forms of interaction and learning that are fundamentally different" (p. 79) from other learning platforms. Therefore, social media has important implications for rethinking the connectivity or the kinds of social interaction that underlie most of our thinking about learning (Unlüsoy et al, 2022).…”

“…According to Unlüsoy, Leander, and Haan (2022) social media is an "ever expanding and shrinking collections of nodes and link" that "allow forms of interaction and learning that are fundamentally different" (p. 79) from other learning platforms. Therefore, social media has important implications for rethinking the connectivity or the kinds of social interaction that underlie most of our thinking about learning (Unlüsoy et al, 2022).…”

“…One of the functional affordances is expanded visibility enabled by social media. This aspect is related to learning as learners can access vast amounts of information publicly visible in networks (Unlüsoy et al, 2022). Yet another aspect is flexibility afforded by social media, for instance the 'open' learning settings, in which learners have the freedom to choose their preferred technology or application and learn without being constrained by a prescribed path as in traditional learning environments (Unlüsoy et al, 2022).…”

Sexual Violence Disclosure in #Notokay: Disclosure Goals, Disclosure-Facilitating Resources, and Overall Disclosure Trajectory

“…According to Bazarova and Choi's (2014) functional model of self-disclosure, people's disclosure goals are influenced by the affordances of SNSs. These affordances can be defined as “the inherent features of a technology, as well as how people interact with and interpret these features” (Unlusoy et al, 2022, p. 80). Examples of affordances are visibility, scalability, and permanence.…”