Social Network Sites

Since the Internet is now used for everything in daily life, why not online learning? Even though sites like second life are starting to use this kind of tool to reach students, this is a kind of learning that in my opinion is still in its infancy. This seems like the logical next step since society has already seen the adaptation of twitter, facebook, second life and so many more that I could not even begin to list them here (nor do I even know them all!!) One area of particular interest to me is instructional communication in the online classroom and more specifically how teacher immediacy and social presence relate to student motivation in the online classroom. One of the really cool things about online learning is the interpersonal dynamic that has to be accounted for-that is, how do instructors promote a "climate" for learning when there is no classroom and students are in a virtual world? Verbal immediacy is a good tool to use as it is more difficult to use nonverbal in this sort of learning environment. What I would love to see in the future of online learning is more research and study into the ways student motivation is shaped in this sort of classroom. Are students motivated the same way as they are in the traditional classroom? More motivated for learning? Perhaps less? Fascinating stuff indeed!!!