Social media allow for such a middle ground, but only if as teachers we have a clear pedagogy or educational philosophy to guide our choices and use of the technology.
Is this easier said than done? Teacher training seems important to help teachers develop clear pedagogy for technology use. Also, what are clear pedagogies?
learners can be taught the skills needed to become independent learners
What are the skills learners need and how can they be taught? E.g. skills to identify relevant and irrelevant information, self-regulated learning skills?
educational social media use and computer-based learning or online collaborative learning to justify treating social media as a separate medium
The extent of control over learning is an important distinction between social media use in education and online collaborative learning. Social media give learners more control over the content and there are less rules in what can or cannot be done.
information pushed to us during spells of formal education towards a more flexible situation in which we pull resources and information to us as we need them
The "push" and "pull" is an interesting concept to me. I wonder how much of the information is "pushed" or "pulled" in recommender systems? How well are learners able to "pull" information that are relevant? Should learners be taught skills to "pull" information in order for them to be successful online social learners?
changes in technology do not necessarily imply changes in pedagog
I agree that advances in technology do not imply changes in pedagogy. Instead, it will expand pedagogical approaches. In order for educators to make informed decisions, educators need to consider pedagogy, content, technology aspects. TPACK framework (http://matt-koehler.com/tpack2/tpack-explained/) suggest that the three aspects work together, and technology is not the only driver.
The focus must be not only on learners, but also on their tools and contexts.
Learners, tools, and context are important for understanding learning! This can be related to Zimmerman's triadic analysis of self-regulated learning: personal, behaviour, and environment. Environmental factors play an important role in how students would regulate their learning.
potentially actionable, behaviours and patterns in the learning environment that signify effective process
What exactly is an effective process? If effective process = effective performance, shouldn't performance be measured to validate the process as effective?
This model is familiar within settings such as schools and universities, but it is less relevant in the context of online social learning, which involves lifelong learners drawing together resources and connections from across the Internet to solve real-life problems, often without access to the support of a skilled teacher or accredited learning institution
While online social learning involves learners using different online resources and connections to solve problems, individuals do contribute to a different extent to the process of problem-solving (prior knowledge or experience). Therefore, in my opinion, there are two layers of performance indicators in online social learning: the group level as well as the individual level. This would perhaps mean that individual performance is not less relevant but just as relevant.