When education is on the Net

Abstract

So-called “internet studies” have highlighted the importance of pedagogy, also declined as a philosophy of education, as a science able to provide, along with other human and cultural sciences, a significant contribution to the understanding of the implications and educational potential of social networking for the human being in the age of infosphere. In recent years, from this interdisciplinary context, has emerged a new pedagogy focused both on curriculum and training. This pedagogy has been called the “social networking pedagogy.”

This pedagogy aims to identify the interaction that takes place, for example, in social networks seen as environments for communication. Moreover, it aims to identify the possibility of developing a learning and training model that not only opens up new scenarios for the education of the future through new media but also allows us to understand, through a critical approach, the whole contemporary culture.

Therefore, from the analysis of this scenario and by using a theoretical methodology based on approaches that will be mainly hermeneutical-deconstructive and historical-dialectical, the paper will outline the possible epistemological framework for the social networking pedagogy within the internet studies. Also, it will identify the main problems and issues of this specific pedagogy and highlight how this latter can be seen as a “cultural pedagogy” characterized by a positive and optimistic approach to new media (with a particular focus on social networks).

Actually, the social networking pedagogy, after identifying advantages and disadvantages of social networks and new media, aims to bring out from them their pedagogical instances and help teachers and educators transform them into effective educational content and communication tools for the curriculum.

The article will also examine in-depth the contributions of critical pedagogy scholars David Trend and Henry Giroux, who can be considered the pioneers of social networking pedagogy. The article will conclude by highlighting the importance of ethics as a pedagogical practice that, through a process of control, regulation, and supervision of communication interactions within the net and social networks, paves the way for their conscious and educational use.