Abstract

Distance Education is the natural evolution of a human-centered branch of education. Recently, the rapid development of social networks has decisively contributed to the configuration of a new environment in the field of distance education (Jones, 2020) which also has an impact on adult education. The research objective is the attitude of teachers towards the use of social networks in the context of their training. At the same time, the pedagogical utilization of Social Networking in the context of Teacher training was investigated. The Laboratory for Advanced Learning Technologies in Lifelong and Distance Learning [e-Learning Lab] of the Department of Education of the University of Crete created a new social network which is called Learning Social Network (LSN). The sample of the research consisted of 45 trained teachers who participated in a distance learning program. Participants were asked to comment on their recent experience with LSN with respect to communication, collaboration, usability, interaction and learning. All the data are reliable as Cronbach's Alpha is 0.961. Findings indicate that that social networks can be used pedagogically in various levels: communication, collaboration, interaction, as well as participatory learning and LSN can give the ability to enables users to create a personalized teaching, learning and social networking environment.

Citation

Kotsidis, K. & Anastasiades, P. (2023). The Social E-Learning environment: Integrating Learning Social Network use in Online professional development for K-12 teachers. In G. Marks (Ed.), Proceedings of International Journal on E-Learning 2023 (pp. 23-42). Waynesville, NC USA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved June 8, 2023 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/218489/.

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