Social Media based learning from a European perspective: A Framework for Social Innovation

This paper presents our experience in developing an online curriculum dedicated to promoting the use of social media in an educational context on a European scale. We describe ‘social media based learning’ as a new form of using old technology. Our focus is not based on the technology itself but rather the engagement with technology that positions this as a social innovation. The term “social innovation” describes new intentional social practices that are aiming at better satisfying or answering needs and problems. “An innovation is therefore social to the extent that it is socially accepted and diffused (...)” (Howaldt, J. & Schwarz, M. 2010, 26).