16. Networking (and Novelty)
16.1. Networking and Novelty in Course Design
In earlier versions of the SECTIONS model, ‘N’ stood for novelty. This was to recognize the importance of teachers and instructors trying something new to improve on their practice, in this case, to try new technology and see how well it worked for them. Also, the ‘hype’ surrounding new developments in technology often provides a supportive environment for innovative teaching. This is still an important issue; without experiment and trying new ways of teaching and new technologies for teaching, there will be no improvement in practice.
However, more recent developments in social media raise another, increasingly important, question that needs to be asked when selecting media:
How important is it to enable learners to network beyond a course, with others such as subject specialists, professionals in the field, and relevant people in the community? Can the course, or student learning, benefit from such external connections?
If the answer to this is an affirmative, then this will affect what media to use, and in particular, will suggest the use of social media such as blogs, wikis, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google Hangout.
Five different ways social media are influencing the application of networking in course design are described below.