Learning, Unlearning, and Relearning - E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning - page 301

Enculturating Students through
Microsharing and Social Networking

tioners, and develop positive professional
reputations.

• It helps students express themselves in

professional and articulate ways. It also
requires them to make time for writing, or-
ganize their writing, and develop a habit of
writing.

Learning—and, therefore, lifelong learning—is a
social process that is situated in a context (Brown,
Collins, &Duguid, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991).
When learning activities are contextually situated,
students participate in the authentic culture of the
discipline they are studying—using the physical
and mental tools of the discipline. In order for stu-
dents to use the “physical and mental tools of the
discipline” they must develop their self-directed
learning skills and metacognitive awareness.
Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989) explain that
“to learn to use tools as practitioners use them,
a student, like an apprentice, must enter that
community and its culture. Thus, in a significant
way, learning is…a process of enculturation” (p.
3). The process of enculturation—and becoming
effective self-directed, metacognitively-aware
learners that can grow and thrive in, and contribute
to, the discipline—becomes especially important
in postsecondary programs. For postsecondary
programs that aim to prepare students to work
in a specific discipline—and for the culture that
the discipline is situated in—students need to
learn not only “about” a field of study but also
how “to be” a full participant in a particular field
(Brown & Adler, 2008). Educators can reinforce
and encourage enculturation—participation in a
legitimate community of practice as self-directed,
metacognitively-aware learners—through:

• It helps students develop the skills and dis-

positions needed to use technology in sup-
port of self-expression, inquiry, knowledge
construction, and collaboration; and, of
course, use these technologies to support
lifelong learning endeavors.

In our graduate program, students use blogs
as academic and professional portfolios. Via
their blogs, our students present their work (e.g.,
presentations, instructional materials, podcasts,
videos, design documents, and research reports);
write opinion pieces and summaries of readings;
build repositories of design ideas and resources;
and archive coursework and course materials.
Their blogs are public, and therefore are accessed
by the local community (e.g., faculty, students,
and alumni of the program) and the professional
community of practice. The activity of public
sharing and professional contribution that occurs
with their blogging involves students in reflec-
tive activities—such as goal setting, identifying
valuable learning resources, self-evaluation, and
collaboration—that support the development of
their self-directed learning skills and metacogni-
tive awareness for lifelong learning (Dunlap, 2005;
Dunlap & Grabinger, 2003).
Blogging is one way to promote lifelong
learning through the development of self-directed
learning skills and metacognitive awareness.
Microsharing and social networking are other
legitimate—and arguably often overlooked—
strategies that can support the development of
students' lifelong learning skills and dispositions.

• Practice with cultural exemplars including

solving authentic problems, putting knowl-
edge they acquire to use, and transferring
knowledge and skills to new problems
(Dunlap, 2006, 2008; Dunlap & Grabinger,
1996; Tishman, Jay, & Perkins, 1993);

• Cultural interactions where students as-

sume the roles of members of a commu-
nity of practice in solving the problem and
engaging in the culture's thinking and pro-
cesses (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989;