THE ROLE OF AN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK IN INFORMAL LEARNING

Online social networks have changed a way of information sharing among people. The possibility of online participation, immediate feedback, sharing opinions or photos makes online social networks very popular. Students use online social networks also to share knowledge related to school learning e.g., knowledge related to their school assignments, seminar papers, school team projects and more. Students build social learning relations, and this process is also reflected in the interactions and relationships in an online social network. Online social network has more capacity to disseminate information than conventional educational web platform and it is particularly suitable for communication among members of school class. Our paper deals with the research of the educational information sharing processes on online students' informal social networks (i.e., processes of informal learning taking place on online social networks). The results can be used to enrich the whole educational process and improve the quality of communication among students, and among students and teachers.