Gifts

The exchange of gifts can be a powerful source of bonding and trust but also allows individuals to build personal reputations as particularly helpful or generous gift givers (see Zeitlyn 2003). Dan, again provides useful insight into the nature of such exchanges:

Dan: I think people are motivated to support each other because of the way we each build up our social status by demonstrating our knowledge. People who only "take" don't seem to get much. People who "give" get given a lot in return. This is a very real alternative economy, and helping others increases your social currency.

This discussion of an alternative economy in which exchanges of information or advice is a form of gift-giving connects to Jenkins, Ford and Green’s (in press) concept of “spreadable media”.

When asked about how their own learning occurs within social media (question 10, shown in Fig. 9), responses seem to support the importance of sharing such virtual “gifts” with the sharing of news, articles and research – all highly “spreadable” and sharable information objects – particularly prominent.

Figure 10: Chart showing responses to question 10: “How do you learn in these social media spaces?”.

But is the sharing and exchange of these information objects - even with accompanying commentary - a rich enough interaction to indicate that engaging or reflective learning processes take place?

Some participants did connect exchanges of artefacts to their own ongoing CPD activities whilst others, such as Anna and Eva, suggest that, for some individuals, learning from these artefacts takes place as a separate and individual process away from the social media theatre of exchange:

Anna: A great deal of my formal learning is spurred by links shared by friends/colleagues on Twitter and Google+

Eva: Twitter is really important for my cpd - I find links to new resources, events, discussions etc.

However the concept of artefacts and tools as extensions of the self, as routes to connect to and learn from society (Vygotsky and McLuhan as discussed in Viseu 2000) appears to be a reality for some participants. Rosemary articulates her own sense of extending the self in her discussion of the on-demand nature of social media:

Rosemary: …if I go out and look for it the information is there or comes to me. People are sending this information out to everyone obviously not just me. I have discussed subjects with other professionals and gained great insight which again are discussions I've instigated rather than a specific forum as such.

Rosemary’s comment indicates the potential of social media as a route for self-motivated learners to discover and access information as they need it, and reflects views voiced by many participants, whether they held intensely positive feelings towards social media as a learning space, or whether they used social media as informed skeptics.

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