Educational design for online social and teacher presence: the reciprocal relationship between social and technical infrastructure using social media and e-Learning 2.0

In this paper we will outline our approach to the design of the New Technologies of e-Learning 2.0 course, which has involved four modules each with a pedagogical focus on ‘My Learning’, ‘Collaborative Learning’, ‘Mobile Learning’, and ‘Multimodal Learning’ respectively. We will also discuss how we have worked to establish the social infrastructure of the course and in particular the role and functioning of the social networking community environment that we have adapted to suit the needs of the course participants. In particular we will focus on the reciprocal relationship in the design and development process between the technical infrastructure and our aims for the social infrastructure. In relation to the latter, we have been especially interested in designing for social and teacher presence (Hudson, 2008b). This paper will address the question of the ways in which the design process has resulted in developing the intended affordances related to social and teacher presence and it will also address the nature of the associated constraints. In doing so, it will draw on data from a range of sources including questionnaires, interviews, analysis of online communication and also of the documentation by participants of their own action research projects