Groups, networks and collectives in social software for e-learning

Understanding the affordances, effectiveness and applicability of new media in multiple contexts is usually a slow and evolving process with many failed applications, false starts and blind trails. As result, effective applications are usually much slower to arise than the technology itself. The global network based on ubiquitous Internet connectivity and its uneven application in both formal education and informal learning contexts demonstrates the challenges of effective use of new media. In this paper we attempt to explicate the effective use of the Net for learning by differentiating three granularities of networked social organization. These are defined as the Group, the Network and the Collective. The paper explores the consequences of this perspective, observing that each has both strengths and weaknesses in different contexts and when used for different applications.