From a sociological point of view, human beings are social animals and therefore create a concept of community. Whether in ancient times, people lived in groups and had similar ideas. The article mentions that “in practice, community traditionally has been place centered, where individuals within the same physical space have identified with each other” (Major,2015). However, our community concept has changed due to the development of network technology. We can learn by grouping online through social media. Even if you are not in the same physical space, you can form a learner community through the Internet even if you don’t live in a very close place. Today’s learning is closely related to social media, especially online teaching. All communication is done through the Internet. Teachers can arrange homework and online testing. And organize online learning groups, just like the learning pod. Generally speaking, after students have finished face-to-face classes at school, if there is a group task, believe me, a large number of students will communicate through social networks, not face-to-face communication. For me, my communication with the team members is through Facebook or Skype. We agreed to study at the same time and with voice or video. We don’t need to book any place. We don’t need to arrive a place for 30 minute‘s meeting from work place or home. For me, this is actually a face-to-face communication. It is the same, not the lack of participation and the scene environment mentioned in the article. The emergence of social media is only more convenient for the communication and communication of the learning community. So I think there is a lot of connection between social media and the learner community. It plays an important role in online teaching, and students can search for anything on social media. For example, YouTube’s many video tutorials are even more clear and easy to understand than traditional face-to-face teaching. Just search for keywords to display video teaching of many related content. Many teachers who teach at school also post their own videos on the Internet. They also recognize the feasibility of social media learning.
Reference
Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching online: A guide to theory, research, and practice. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.