Systemic Approach to Learning Paradigms and the Use of Social Media in Higher Education

The implementation of social media in learning, teaching and cooperation is an innovation process which has implications at many levels in networking universities. eLearning developers and educational designers need to be aware of social media related technological prospects to be able to determine how to benefit from new possibilities. They also need to be aware of related pedagogical possibilities, competences and attitudes among students, teachers and tutors. Soft System Methodology (SSM) has been applied to investigate the problem area more deeply. One can see three development challenges at each level: (1) paradigms and paradigm shifts, (2) teaching and learning competences and related culture, (3) infrastructure and technology related services and innovations. The ViCaDiS Project is used to concretise the systemic approach of SSM. As a result of the SSM analysis one can find a useful framework to start analysing development challenges in the context of one university or universities working together.