An Evaluation and Implementation of Collaborative and Social Networking Technologies for Computer Education

We have developed a collaborative and social networking environment that integrates the knowledge and skills in communication and computing studies with a multimedia development project. The outcomes of the students’ projects show that computer literacy can be enhanced through a cluster of communication, social, and digital skills. Experience in implementing a web-based social networking environment shows that the new media is an effective means of enriching knowledge by sharing in computer literacy projects. The completed assignments, projects, and self-reflection reports demonstrate that the students were able to achieve the learning outcomes of a computer literacy course in multimedia development. The students were able to assess the effectiveness of a variety of media through the development of media presentations in a web-based, social-networking environment. In the collaborative and social-networking environment, students were able to collaborate and communicate with their team members to solve problems, resolve conflicts, make decisions, and work as a team to complete tasks.  Our experience has shown that social networking environments are effective for computer literacy education, and the development of the new media is emerging as the core knowledge for computer literacy education.

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