Metaphors in social research and training

Metaphors enable people to unpack complex ideas in a simple visual form.

immersive-learning-technologies2

 A Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser (Wikiorg, 2002).  The first ever wiki site was created for the Portland Pattern Repository by Ward Cunningham in 1995. His “WikiWikiWeb” (a name inspired by the Hawaiian word wiki, which means quick) is still in operation today and now holds tens of thousands of pages.

Wikipedia is the largest and most popular wiki.  A key to it’s success is the ‘community’  created to write and support it.   As Sayers, Owen, Facer and Grant (2006, p.16) state, ” The principle behind the operation of wikipedia is that the knowledge of the group is greater than that of an individual, and that the group who use it are also the group who create it”.

Examples of wiki sites

 Wikis enable learners to develop their own construction of knowledge, providing a deeper engagement with learning materials and collaboration with other learners towards shared learning goals.  This leads to learners regulating each other’s performance. The pedagogical potential of wikis are the building of knowledge over time (through versions and groups), progressive problem-solving, particularly for communities of practice, explaining diverse and contrary ideas, critical reading and reflection and encouragement of objective observation and avoidance of premature judgement (Fountain, 2005).

Some of the challenges of wikis from an educators perspective are: the voluntary aspect of contribution, potential for vandalism, plagiarism and copyright violation. 

 Examples of educational wikis discussing Web 2.0 are:

•  Tikiwiki for Education
•  WikEd
•  digital chalkie

Blogs

 A Blog (WeBlog) is a website that contains dated entries , generally in reverse chronological order.  They often function as online journals, such as this one, and can be written by one author or by a group of contributors.  Blogs are effective at attracting readership because they engage people in knowledge sharing, reflection and debate (Educause Learning Initiative, 2006).  The simplicity of blogs facilitates immediate discussions on topics and the growth of learning communities.

Aside from the blog you are current visiting, examples of Blogs containing content on Web2.0 and education can be found by visiting edublogs and teacher2. 

 Wikis vs Blogs

 There are similarities between wikis and blogs, however wikis are more suited than blogs for collaborative and group writing and editing.  Information is organised differently in the two applications.  Blogs have temporal databases, which are databases built on time based principles, including transaction time. whereas a wiki is built around a spatial database, which has the ability to store and query varying objects in addition to numeric characters. With this in mind, blogs are best used for ongoing personal or group reflection or for incremental gathering and feedback of information, whereas wikis are more useful for compiling a vast array of information.

Bringing it all together

Whilst creating individual Blogs, Wikis, Instant Messaging and Podcasts is common, remembering individual site addresses and password is less than desirable.  Yahoo! 360  is an example of an application that enables a user to do it all from the one site and acts as the binding glue for the different technologies on offer (wikis, blogs, photoblogs, podcasts and vodcasts).

References:

Fountain, R. 2005. Wiki Pedagogy. Retrieved from: http://www.profectic.org:16080/dossiers/dossier_imprimer.php3?id_rubrique=110

7 Things You should Know about…. Blogs, (2006).   Retrieved from: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7006.pdf

What is Wiki?”, 2002.  Retrived from: http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

Sayers, S., Owen, M., Facer, K. and Grant, L. 2006. Social software and learning. Futurelab Journal

Web 2.0 is a phrase that refers to a second generation of web based communities and services, such as social networking sites, wikis, blogs and folksonomies – created with the intention of facilitating collaboration and sharing between users.

Web 2.0 Technology

One of the key drivers for the evolution of this technology in the internet has been the need for organisations to increasingly rely on their websites to increase brand loyalty and generate revenue.  As consumers have become more sophisticated, so to have the websites, in a bid for companies to maintain consumer interest and differentiate themselves from competitors. 

Figure 1: Evolution of Web Design

Increasingly, organisations are expanding their reach to broader audiences and delivering more dynamic content.  This has been been made possible through Web applications such as Rich Internet Applications (RIAs).  Examples of RIAs are: Macromedia Flash, Flex and AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML).  Examples of an AJAX-based applications are: Google Maps, Flickr and Gmail.   Whilst ‘this blogger’ does not pretend to understand the code behind such programs, the development of these tools has changed the way in which we interact on the net.  Refer to Gutman’s vodcast on ‘What is WEB 2.0?’ in the Web2.0 Vodcasts for a brief description of the technology and common applications. 

According to Gartner (Driver, Valdes & Phifer, 2005), by 2010, at least 60 percent of new web application development will include RIA technology, and at least 25 percent of those will rely primarily on RIAs.  That being said, one of the challenges being faced currently with sites heavily loaded with dynamic content, such as RIAs is the time content takes to load in a web page.  For example, on first using Google Maps a delay is experienced as the map loads.  Delays continue to occur with each click on or dragging of the map, as the site attempts to update the information by calling back to the application or data centre.  This issue can only continue to increase with the growing traffic to websites. 

 Types of Web 2.0 applications and services

Social Networking

Social Networking sites were created to assist people to discover new friends, business colleagues or love interests, primarily by providing opportunities to articulate shared interests and skills. Examples of social networking sites are: MySpace, Facebook and linkedIn.  These social networking sites provide the user the opportunity to express themselves,communicate and project themselves in a way they wish to be perceived by others.  Taking this concept further to an advanced level of social networking is secondlife. 

Figure 2: Secondlife resident

Figure 3: SecondLife Events Calendar

Secondlife is an internet based virtual world that enables its users, “residents”, to interact with each other through avatars.  Residents are able to socialize, participate in group activities (refer to figure 3), create and trade items and services from each other.

Wikis

A wiki is a web application designed to allow multiple authors to add, remove and edit content.  Wikis work on the basis that whoever is in that particular wiki’s community will edit and add to the information available. Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is one of the best known wikis.

IM (Instant Messaging)

IM is a form of real time communication between two or more people using online text messages, conveyed via computers or mobile devices connected over the internet.  IM allows for instant and generally casual communication.  The majority of IM services require you to subscribe and add contacts in as “buddies”. The programs are generally free and are an effective way for people to stay ‘connected’. Some of the more popular Instant Messaging services are:

• www.ninemsn.com.au   and follow the MSN messenger links
• www.aim.com
• www.google.com/talk/
• www.twitter.com

Using a service such as Meebo allows a user to communicate with friends or colleagues across a number of different networks.  Meebo can be added as a web widget to a blog or wiki site.  Have a look at my meebo widget in the left tool bar.

 Webinar

A webinar is a type of web conference, generally comprised of an asynchronous one-way presentation, such as a webcast, from the presenter to the audience. A webinar can be be designed to be interactive by using tools such as polling, question and answer sessions or by incorporating synchronous meetings using a phone line, VoIP or webcam.  Several platforms exist that provide this technology including:

• WebEx
• Eluminate Live

Listserv

 Listserv or distribution lists are lists of users who, by means of electronic mail, hold a discussion about a particular subject.  When a subscrition is made to a mailing list, the listserv will automatically add the address and distribute future email messages to the email address along with others on the list. Generally distribution lists are free and they are a very effective way of coordinating the activities of people who are interested in a particular subject. The primary feature of a Listserv, compared to other distribution lists is tha no intervention is required by an individual.  Messages are managed by software.   Examples of listservs are:

• L-Soft
• ListProc
• Majordomo
• JangoMail                

Podasts and Vodcasts

 Podcasts are digital media files, audio or video (“vodcast”) that are distributed over the internet and downloaded for playback on computers and mobile devices, such as ipods. The term podcast was coined as a combination of ‘ipod’ and ‘broadcast’, due to the fact that the Apple ipod was the first portable device for which podcasting was developed. 

After numerous attempts to link podcasts to this site, this blogger has conceeded defeat and invites you to vist podcastalley at http://www.podcastalley.com/search.php?searchterm=what+is+podcasting to sample some good audio casts on ‘podcasting’.  

Tagging

A tag is a word, or words assigned to a piece of information (such as a picture, article or video clip) that describes the content of the item and allows you to search and cross reference information online. Tagging is useful to remember web pages,cross reference information and find additional information through other people’s tags.

Reference sites for tagging are:

• http://del.icio.us
• www.technorati.com/tag
• www.flickr.com/photos/tags

 References:

Driver, M., Valdes, R., Phifer, G, 2005. Rich Internet Applications Are the Next Evolution of the Web. Retrieved from: http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument;WebLogicSession=G24dz31J9JhJJWGhnhRZfRMv5png25vQRR4WhYvvX9SXYTrpg28Y!-29342719?doc_cd=126924

Gutmans, A. 2006. What is Web 2.0?.  Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LzQIUANnHc&eurl=http://learninglab08.wordpress.com/

    Is this the classroom of the future?

The Age reported, May 22 2008, on two Queensland Universities using the virtual world to reach students. 

         The University of  Queensland has commissioned a builder to construct a virtual Great Hall on the three-dimensional online virtual world Second Life – where millions of ‘residents’ from across the world build their homes, go shopping, go on holiday and interact with each other.

University of Queensland joins Queensland University of Technology in a growing trend globally to provide alternative learning to students seeking greater social interaction in distance and online learning.  

In April 2008 the Jokaydia Project  was conceived with the purpose of creating a virtual classroom  to allow educators an environment in which to design spaces for learning. The Jokaydia site is a great resource for information  on virtual learning environments, containing meeting opportunities, blogs, wikis, events and a virual environment in Second Life, ‘ The islands of jokaydia’.

Sarah Robbins, Ball State University, (2007) has compiled a wonderful presentation on Immersion and Engagement in a Virtual Classroom: Using Second Life for Higher Education’ available through the following link: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI07216.pdf.  In this presentation Sarah illustrates the rich and complex learning environment for learning in Second Life and the vast array of subjects that can be effectively taught through this technology. 

Whilst there are many supporters for virtual worlds, critics argue that enthusiasts can spend upwards of twelve hours a day engrossed in a virtual existence.  Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus and author of the Second Life Insider Blog , suggests that virtual worlds are disruptive and insideous (Cross, O’Driscoll & Trondsen, ND).  

General discussion themes about the use of virtual world technology in education stipulate the need to fully understand what the technology can deliver rather than merely resorting to automating existing approaches to learning. 

Aside from the obvious opportunities and adoption of virtual worlds amongst higher learning institutions, several corporations have also dipped their toes in the virtual world; experimenting with training and education.  These include IBM, Apple, New Media Consortium and several large Pharmaceutical companies (Cross, O’Driscoll & Trondsen, ND).  

Whilst debating the merits of virtual worlds, Cross et al, raise a very interesting point,

        “The bonanza comes when VWs support learning in ways that current methods cannot, i.e. when the horseless carriage becomes the car and the icebox becomes a refrigerator. At the end of the day, VWs afford more freedom as we think about how to apply it to make learning more engaging and memorable”.

  Web2.0 Libraries

Libraries of the future? ‘Library 2.0′ appears to be a term coined my Michael Casey in his (1)  librarycrunch blog.  Following on from the creation of virtual classrooms and campuses is the availabillity of virtual Libraries.  Casey is joined by a community of librarians expressing their views on new technologies in (2) Library 2.0 Ning, a social network for Librarians.  

The SirsiDynix Institute have a quality event archive of audio podcasts available to be downloaded.  The archive on (3)  ‘The Info Island Project on Second Life’, delivered by Michael Sauers and Rhonda Trueman on virtual libraries is particularly interesting.  They state: 

     “One of the central tenets of Library 2.0 is “go to where the users are”. The online, 3D virtual world Second Life has more than 1.5 million residents all potentially needing the services that a library can provide.”

Take a visit to the 3D virtual library at secondlife library.  You will need to set yourself up as a resident in Second Life to navigate past the SL link.

 In conclusion, whilst I am a fan of the concept of virtual worlds and I find Second Life a fascinating alternative reality, I  found navigating the virtual library cumbersome, time consuming and ultimately unrewarding for the content I was searching for.  With some refinement however I believe that it would be a worthwhile and useful resource, assuming access issues, hardware requirements and bandwidth can be satisfactorily resolved.  

References:

Casey, M. (2006b). LibraryCrunch: bringing you a library 2.0 perspective. Accessed Sep 5, 2008, from http://www.librarycrunch.com/

Cross, J., O’Driscoll, T., and Trondsen, E. (ND). Another Life: Virtual Worlds asa Tools for Learning. eLearn Magazine. Retrieved from: http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=44-1