• There is a century of rich literature on
  social learning from the fields of education,
  psychology, and sociology characterizing a
  wide variety of practical applications such
  as instructional techniques, consumer
  behavior conditioning and determining
  criminal motives. Most sources credit that
  social learning theory is based on research
  by the French sociologist, Gabriel Trade
  who lived from 1843 to 1904.
• One issue with today’s offerings for social
  software in education is that they are being
  presented as “social learning” solutions, but
  they are not being designed, packaged or
  integrated with the greater concepts of
  social learning theory in mind.
• Until there is a
  serious effort to create a holistic online
  learning platform that is based on
  facilitating the fundamental principles of
  social learning theory, the term “social
  learning” should not be used to describe
  learning platforms which simply include
  social media capabilities.

Written by: Stephen Gilfus and Frank Ganis, © Gilfus Education Group