Designing a Collaborative Project Using Social Software

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• Designing a Collaborative Project Using Social
  Software

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• http//www.villagevoice.com/arts/0515,edsuppdayal,
  62903,12.html

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Our Agenda

• Explore collaborative work in general (sans
  technology)
• What works?
• How does it work?
• Social Software Review
• Design Considerations
• Working Timego to it!

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A Few Questions to Consider

• What types of collaborative projects do you
  currently incorporate into your courses?
• What thought went into the forming of these
  projects?
• Do they work? What makes them work?
• What is the reaction of your students?

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What is social software?

• Threaded Discussions
• Blogs
• Wikis

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In its nature

• The very nature of computer conferencing (like
  the capacity to support interaction between and
  among students and instructors) promotes a
  collaborative approach to learning. There can be
  a negative effect if communication becomes
  unfocused and students lose their train of
  thought.

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Constructivist Approach

• Of course, it is the encouragement of
  peer-to-peer networking and buddy learning, so
  central to a constructivist learning approach,
  which has made discussion forums the mainstay of
  Web courses in most disciplines.
• Language Learning Technology
• Vol. 7, No. 2, May 2003

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• Threaded Discussions

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What is a threaded discussion?

• Web-based electronic bulletin board consisting of
  posts responses
• A series of posts and responses creates a
  thread
• Each thread usually marks a new topic

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When working with discussions

• Students tend to procrastinate
• Encourage peer-to-peer learning
• Physical proximity enables fine grained
  interactions
• Support or create a social presence
• Provide sufficient context and some detail of the
  decision making process
• Create timelines

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Discussion Board Considerations

• Provide students with handouts or training, then
  make them responsible for familiarizing
  themselves and each other with the technology
• Create multiple discussion boards. One
  board/forum per one focused topic
• Students should be aware that each board
  environment has its own standards of (verbal)
  behavior

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Some examples

• Role playing exercise
• work through a case study in small teams
• analyze information
• interview key persons via either a private
  bulletin board forum set up for each team or
  through a real-time chat session (logged by most
  CMSs).
• critique research articles
• provid a private bulletin board forum in which to
  complete the assignment
• groups post collaborative critique to a
  whole-class forum

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• Blogs

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Whats a Blog?

• According to Merriam-Webster, it is "a Web site
  that contains an online personal journal with
  reflections, comments and often hyperlinks
  provided by the writer.
• Blog was the most looked-up word of the year
  2004.

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How can blogs be interactive or collaborative?

• Rich use of hypertext, to connect to what others
  have written on a topic or to resources on the
  Web
• Readers reactions through comments functions
• Group blogs - easily linked and cross-linked, to
  create larger on-line communities.

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Connecting with Blogs

• Weblogs are not special because of their
  technology but because of the practice and
  authorship they shape. And it is a practice that
  will require a weblog author to be connected to
  processes, discourses and communities.
• Oliver Wrede Weblogs and Discourse

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• Blogs are useful teaching and learning tools
  because they provide a space for students to
  reflect and publish their thoughts and
  understandings. And because blogs can be
  commented on, they provide opportunities for
  feedback and potential scaffolding of new ideas.
  Blogs also feature hyperlinks, which help
  students begin to understand the relational and
  contextual basis of knowledge, knowledge
  construction and meaning making.
• Content Delivery in the 'Blogosphere'
• By Richard E. Ferdig, Ph.D., and Kaye D.
  Trammell, University of Florida
• TIE Journal May 2005

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Ideas for Collaborative Projects Using Blogs

• Proposing test/assessment questions per group
  individuals post, members comment, group forms
  consensus and posts to main blog of course or CMS
  board.
• Group posts daily events gleaned from other news
  sourcescomments about validity
• Group collaboratively builds a knowledge
  repository
• Use as a meeting point for an in-class
  presentation (info gathering)

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Examples Blogs

• A weblog designed to disseminate articles,
  information and resources related to Accounting
  Information Systems (AIS) Education.
• IDD Course Blog (students each created a
  portfolio blog for this class)

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• Wikis

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What is a wiki?

• From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• A Wiki or wiki (pronounced w?ki?, wi?ki? or
  vi?ki?) is a web application that allows users
  to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also
  allows anyone to edit the content. Wiki also
  refers to the collaborative software used to
  create such a website.

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Wiki Considerations

• works with users serious about collaborating and
  willing to follow the group conventions and
  practices
• can be secured with password protection or other
  means
• Wikis have built-in safeguards against malicious
  behavior (page changes are logged, page deletions
  must be seconded to take effect)
• the goal of Wiki sites is to become a shared
  repository of knowledge, with the knowledge base
  growing over time

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Learning with Wikis

• First step develop a set of clear usage
  guidelines
• Example guidelines
• Post frequently, post well
• Be nice ?
• Wiki unto others as you would onto you (treat
  other group members as youd like to be treated)
• Remember that your contribution is critical to
  the success of the group

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Wiki Examples

• Designing the Human Experience
• http//me013n-2.stanford.edu/tiki/tiki-index.php?p
  ageDesigning20The20Human20Experience
• Brittish Poetry
• http//www.public.coe.edu/wakka/BritPoetry
• Holocaust Wiki Project

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Wiki Playtime

• Coes Current Wiki
• http//jade.coe.edu/twiki/bin/view

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Getting Started with Your Assignment

• What advantage does social software have for
  collaboration?
• Who are your students?
• What do you want them to learn?
• Is collaborative technology appropriate?
• How will you recognize success?

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The learning community

• Structured Group Guidelines
• How are teams structured and led?
• What authority does the team leader have?
• What responsibilities do other members assume?
• How are team projects graded?
• What is the role of instructor in arbitration?

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Setting Expectations

• Dont expect students to know how to collaborate.
  Allow for discussion forums on group conflicts
  and group dynamics.
• Dont make hasty allowances for students'
  perceived incompetence of dealing with computers.
• Firm dates/firm expectations

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Evaluating

• Did students learn what you wanted them to learn?
• Was the chosen technology effective?
• Were the learning objectives met?
• Would parts of the content be better understood
  if students worked individually?
• What would change?
• What would you keep the same?
• How will you revise this lesson?

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Working Time

• Consider your courses
• When do you assign collaborative projects?
• How do you assign collaborative projects?
• How could social software help your groups?

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resources

• Resource List
• Computer-Mediated Communication
• Relationships On the Line by Joan Cashion
• What is Computer-Mediated Communication? by Gerry
  Santoro
• Online/Virtual Learning Environments from Teresa
  d'EÁa
• Digital Divide Network
• using a Web-Based Course Management Tool to
  Support Face-to-Face Instruction
• Chat and Discussion Forums
• Adjusting to MOOs by Nick Carbone
• Rationale for Chat in Language Learning from
  Vance Stevens
• Some CMC Clients Promoting Language Learning
  Through ChattingOnline from Vance Stevens
• To Chat or Not to Chat in the ESL Classroom from
  Teresa Almeida d'EÁa
• Introducing EFL Students to Chat Rooms by Jo
  Mynard
• Internet Audio Communication For Second Language
  Learning A Comparative Review of Six Programs
  from LLT, by Gary A. Cziko and Sujung Park
• Blogs
• InstaPundit.com well-known blog by Glenn Reynolds
  
• Seb's Open Research on how to make weblogs work,
  from Sbastien Paquet
• Peter Murphy's Panoramic VR Weblog weblog with
  panorama pictures
• Publishing a Project Weblog article describing
  creation and use of a weblog

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• "Hi! Welcome! Teaching Wiki aspires to be a
  community for college-level faculty. We imagine
  our primary audience to be faculty who are
  interested in writing instruction, perhaps
  technorhetorians but (as we invoke the wiki way
  here), we invite all college faculty and
  instructors to be wikiteachers with us...  We
  invite you to use Teaching Wiki to support your
  teaching efforts." Teaching Wiki

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• http//www.criticalmethods.org/collab/v.mv?d1_53
• Threaded Discussions Resources
• http//mywebspace.quinnipiac.edu/PHastings/bac.htm
  l
• Blogging Across The Curriculum
• Directories of academic bloggers are maintained
  at http//rhetorica.net/professors_who_blog.htm
  and http//www.henryfarrell.net/blog/
• http//blog.educause.edu/default.aspx?termID406
• Educause Blogs
• Scholars Who Blog article in the Chronicle for
  Higher Ed http//chronicle.com/free/v49/i39/39a01
  401.htm
• http//www.criticalmethods.org/collab/v.mv?d1_30
  Blogs info
• http//www3.essdack.org/socialstudies/blogs.htm
  more blogs resources

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SOME ACADEMIC BLOGS TO NOTE

• Title InstapunditURL http//instapundit.comAut
  hor Glenn H. Reynolds, professor of law at the
  U. of Tennessee at KnoxvilleFirst post August
  5, 2001Average daily hit count 100,000Recent
  topics persecution of bloggers in Iran
  federalism and the problem of combating prison
  rape in state correctional systems "The E.U. --
  Haven for Cat-Skinners?"

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SOME ACADEMIC BLOGS TO NOTE

• Title The Volokh ConspiracyURL
  http//volokh.comAuthor 12 authors, of whom the
  first among equals is Eugene Volokh, a professor
  of law at the U. of California at Los
  AngelesFirst post April 10, 2002Average daily
  hit count 8,000Recent topics the gun
  industry's political clout (or lack thereof)
  ugly red judicial robes in Maryland and Germany
  the differences between awards in economics and
  awards in political science

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SOME ACADEMIC BLOGS TO NOTE

• Title OxBlogURL http//oxblog.blogspot.comAuth
  or three graduate students (two of whom are
  Rhodes scholars) at the U. of OxfordFirst post
  April 23, 2002Average daily hit count
  3,400Recent topics reconstruction and
  "nation-building" in Iraq North Carolina Gov.
  Mike Easley's hapless experiment with Nascar
  driving free-speech controversies at Yale

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SOME ACADEMIC BLOGS TO NOTE

• Title Critical MassURL http//www.erinoconnor.o
  rgAuthor Erin O'Connor, an associate professor
  of English at the U. of PennsylvaniaFirst post
  March 14, 2002Average daily hit count
  1,800Recent topics thefts of student newspapers
  at the U. of California at Berkeley allegations
  of grade inflation at Brooklyn College
  animal-dissection policies at the U. of Illinois
  at Urbana-Champaign

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SOME ACADEMIC BLOGS TO NOTE

• Title The Invisible AdjunctURL
  http//www.invisibleadjunct.comAuthor
  anonymousFirst post February 28, 2003Average
  daily hit count 347Recent topics union
  organizing at the U. of Pennsylvania adjuncts'
  morale at the for-profit U. of Phoenix Leo
  Strauss and neoconservatism

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SOME ACADEMIC BLOGS TO NOTE

• Title Thoughts Arguments and RantsURL
  http//philosophyweblog.blogspot.comAuthor
  Brian Weatherson, an assistant professor of
  philosophy at Brown U.First post October 30,
  2002Average daily hit count 250Recent topics
  the gender imbalance in academic philosophy the
  boundaries of the U.S. Midwest rankings of
  philosophy programs (A companion site,
  http//philosophypapers.blogspot.com, allows
  visitors to comment on draft papers in philosophy
  by scholars throughout the world.)

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SOME ACADEMIC BLOGS TO NOTE

• Title Kieran HealyURL http//www.kieranhealy.or
  g/blog/Author Kieran J. Healy, an assistant
  professor of sociology at the U. of ArizonaFirst
  post May 21, 2002Average daily hit count
  2,400Recent topics the mechanisms behind
  occupational gender segregation plagiarism the
  absurdity of economists' claims to monopolize
  scientific rigor in the social sciences

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• http//www.ibritt.com/resources/wp_blogs.htm
• Excellent and full website with TONS of
  links/resources