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This chapter synthesizes findings from the reviews of education using Web 2.0, social networking, mobile learning, and virtual worlds, in light of the earlier chapters on context, technology, pedagogy, content, and design. Benefits and issues associated technology-enhanced learning are generalized, with an important finding being the quite different ways that different technologies contribute to each. Twenty technology-enhanced learning design principles are derived from abstracting the Web 2.0, social networking, mobile learning, and virtual worlds literature. The benefits, issues, and technology-enhanced learning design principles are then related to one another by virtue of 13 clusters of concerns, namely pedagogy, access, communication, content representation, collaboration, motivation and engagement, vicarious learning and reflection, digital learning capabilities, assessment and feedback, student-centered learning, learning communities, protecting students, and teacher support. The analysis enables the general learning technology literature to be linked to concrete examples and evidential sources, so that educators and researchers can construct a deep and connected understanding of technology-enhanced learning design.

Social networking platforms such as Facebook have infiltrated the lives of many students, and as such it is natural to consider how they can be effectively used to enhance learning. This chapter provides a comprehensive review of social networking in education from a design perspective. Social networking is defined based on Boyd & Ellison’s seminal definition of connected profiles, and is distinguished from social media for the purposes of investigation. Facebook, Edmodo, and other social networking platforms are briefly described, before summarizing the wide variety of social networking usage reported in the research literature. The various benefits of social networking in education are distilled from the literature, including their capacity to facilitate community building, collaboration, reflection, and expedient access to learning. Issues surrounding the educational use of social networking are also organized into themes, for instance privacy concerns, distraction, cyber-safety, and technical constraints. The implications of findings from the social networking literature are synthesized into learning design and implementation recommendations. The chapter concludes with a discussion of open questions and areas for further investigation.

The purpose of this paper is to establish a model for adopting social networked learning in higher institutions of learning in developing countries of Africa.

Mixed methods research methodology involving survey and interviews was adopted in the collection of data for building the model. The model was theoretically underpinned by the Technology Acceptance Model and the social constructivist learning theory, and was built and validated using structural equation modelling and Delphi techniques respectively.

Adoption of social networked learning in developing countries of Africa requires self efficacy, reliable technical and administrative support, infrastructure, system interactivity, adequate budgeting and accountability, and a flexible organisational culture.

The model provides a framework for integrating social software tools with the traditional learning systems of developing countries of Africa. This has a positive outcome of providing social constructivist information and communication technology (ICT) supported learning at low or no cost.

The model has the potential to encourage formation of communities of practice to encourage development of social learning and a student‐centered pedagogy.

The novelty of this research lies in the extension of the traditional technology acceptance models with constructs for proper budgeting and accountability and organisational culture. Time and other resources need to be devoted to developing social networked learning and the model takes this into account.

This is paper is concerned with the learning outcomes associated with connectivity through online networks, open online exchange and wider changes associated with contemporary information practices. The theme of connectivity is used here to capture both the detailed specificity of relations that define networks of learners and the ambient effect of wide accessibility to resources and people through open, online forums.

The paper follows the idea of a network from the ground up, outlining the social network perspective as a way to consider the foundational bases of learning and networks, as well as the effect of ambient influence. The paper addresses the ways learning may be viewed as a social network relation, an interpersonal relationship and an outcome of interaction and connectivity, and how network connectivity can be used as input for design for learning.

The paper presents a range of perspectives and studies that view learning from a social network and connectivity perspective, emphasizing both the person-to-person connectivity of a learning tie and the impact of contemporary data and information sharing through the dynamics of open contributory practice.

The outcome of connectivity in the service of learning is bound up with digital information practices, including individual practices of search, retrieval, participation, knowledge dissemination, knowledge construction and more. This paper provides a network perspective on learning relations that accommodates analysis in online and offline environments, but incorporates attention to the open, online retrieval and contributory practices that now influence learning practices and which may support design of new learning environments.

This paper offers insight into the way social networks and connectivity combine to show network relations, relationships, outcomes and design input at the actor, network and societal levels.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the influence of the social network of the members of top management teams affects the firms’ innovation performance through organizational learning in cultural and creative industries in China.

Based on cultural and creative industries, this paper focuses on how the social network of members of top management teams affects innovation through organizational learning. Using upper Echelon theory and social capital theory, the paper puts forward the relationship between the top management team’s social network, organizational learning and innovation performance.

Drawing on the paradigm of organizational strategy duality (input-process-output), this paper constructs the conceptual model of “relational network – organizational learning − innovative performance” and attempts to reveal the relationship between the network, represented by the senior management network and organizational learning, and the mechanism behind their role in innovation performance. Finally, future research prospects are explored.

Based on the analysis of the internal mechanism between the top management team network, organizational learning and innovation performance, the influence mechanism framework for the cultural and creative industries’ executive team social network on enterprise innovation is finally obtained, which provides theoretical guidance and a practical operation path for enterprise management innovation.

This research makes a theoretical contribution to the duality of organizational strategy and provides a practical operation path for enterprises to build a social network, and thereby promote innovation capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate students' social networking strategies based on learning values in the social context of Iranian universities.

This research has used the case study method to investigate students’ networked learning (NL) strategies among students of four different universities in the context of Iran. They were explored by semistructured in-depth interviews about the nature or current conditions of their study life. The data were analyzed by the qualitative analysis method based on the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin (1998).

The researchers in this study found the special concept of NL in the social context: “NL as a continuous process of thinking to understand the environment through multiple/ diverse careers of learning knowledge and skills for environmental modeling towards creating added-value.” According to this definition, various networked strategies were identified as follows: 1) interactive and multidimensional searching, 2) multidimensional studying and learning, 3) environmental and social management, 4) studying and social wandering.

Designing dynamic curriculum, which integrates various careers of learning, multidimensional knowledge and abilities and subject matters with environmental events and social structures of the society. Given the exploratory nature of the research, the paper cannot provide empirically justified findings.

The research had identified diverse approaches of networking strategies, which do not appear just as a positive instrument to improve learning conditions. However, there is such an extreme degree of social wandering among students in universities that makes their efforts useless.

This paper aims to identify the effects of social learning and network externalities by conditioning on product quality and early sales momentum. This approach is demonstrated using film sales data.

This study used econometric modeling approach.

It was found that both social learning and network externalities have significant and comparable impacts on film choice. We show that the relative effects of network externalities and social learning in the film market are robust to different momentum and quality definitions and to alternative estimation methods.

Scholars have long argued that social learning plays a key role in new product diffusion. In some product categories, consumer choice may also be influenced by network externalities, meaning that purchasing popular products may provide the consumer utility above and beyond that derived from product usage directly. We propose a novel identification approach to help quantify the relative magnitude of these two effects on new product sales.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss empirical findings from a study that investigated the work practices within an education network, with the aim of understanding the processes of knowledge development and learning process.

The research is interpretatively positioned through a qualitative case study methodology. This enabled a holistic portrait of the network activity using three different methods of data collection. These were a preliminary focus group, followed by documentary analysis of a significant number of artefacts/documents produced by the network which were triangulated with data from interviews using a cross-case analytical framework.

Empirical insights are provided into the practice of the network through a lens of social capital. It suggests that having a strong bonding social capital is an informal learning factor which develops the individual participants “skills and knowledge” within the framework of Boyers scholarly practice. The findings also indicate a “dark side” to this informal learning factor which impeded collective learning through exclusivity and a maintenance of the status quo within the network.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

The paper considers social capital within a network and the implication that this has on learning and development.

This paper provides insight into informal learning factors employed within work-related learning and the duality of social capital. It also offers a novel approach in understanding how nurse academics frame work-related learning through scholarly practice.

The purpose of this research is to shed light on the impact of implicit social networks to the learning outcome of e‐learning participants in an industrial setting.

The paper presents a theoretical framework that allows the authors to measure correlation coefficients between the different affiliations that exist in an organization and the final learning outcome. The correlation between learning outcome and the communication intensity in the implicit social network of the e‐learning participants is also observed. For the quantification of the communication intensity and affiliation network position of e‐learning participants, the methods from the graph theory are applied.

The values of the correlation coefficients between communication intensity and learning outcome show the significance which motivates the authors for further research on engineering of the social networks in the e‐learning environment.

This case study is performed in an industrial setting.

The results of this case study influence the further development of the e‐learning system that has been used in the experimental setup in this paper, especially the user management module. The algorithm for matching the trainees with tutors is in development.

The impact analysis of the influence of the social network position of the learner in e‐learning environment by comparing the test results before taking the e‐learning course and after taking the course (learning outcome) is provided by measurements of the correlations between the social network position and communication intensity of the learner with the learning outcome.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between learning and the social networks employed within the context of emergency management. It hypothesises, using social network theory as a framework for analysis, that changes to interconnectedness between actors are implicated in the potential for those actors to learn and improvise in dynamically changing and emergent conditions.

To test the hypotheses, survey data were investigated which were collected as part of a research study with the support of the Australian Bushfire Co‐operative Research Centre (CRC). This survey was completed by experienced personnel reflecting on a number of indicators in an emergency event.

Results show that increases in actors’ involvement within the social emergency management network influences the ability of those actors to engage in learning‐related work activity. The paper infers that by developing learning related resources within the context of their social interactions these emergency personnel are better able to adapt and improvise in complex emergency events.

As an area of further research, it would be useful to apply the existing theoretical model to the context of another domain, preferably one that shares characteristics of uncertainty and unstable environments.

Most existing studies of learning theory in human networks have focused on learning in situations requiring stable working relationships with no environmental uncertainties. In this paper, it is argued that the designs of existing models are useful as a building block, yet flawed for application within the context of disaster management. By presenting a model of learning‐related work activity, as an ongoing aspect of network connectedness, personnel within emergency services organisations can strengthen their capacity to be flexible and adaptable.