Topic 6

Exercise 6.1

Purpose	People	Community size
Subject using the forum gives students a sense of focus	The CSU forum overcomes geographical and time boundaries which allows unrestricted discussion at anytime	The class sizes are smaller than they are outside the University Forum which is good for subject specific discussion.
The CSU forum is reliable and secure	Students can answer each others questions without having to email the lecture.	Some subjects rarely have activities that promote the use of the CSU forum so its use is limited and thus ideas are not shared
The CSU forum encourages sharing of ideas	Computer technical problems or age of home computers or level of IT skills can keep users from accessing the forum. They could feel left out and miss important messages about assessments and exams.	The CSU forum allows students to build up professional contacts

Exercise 6.2
• What is it about the design of the wiki and Moodle that you liked or disliked?
Moodle is an excellent platform for educational purposes. It is similar to the CSU forum where details about subjects, assessments and student forums can be found at anytime. However, Moodle may disadvantage students who are not self motivated learners and require prompting by teachers in a class room setting.
What features do wiki and Moodle have in common and what are the differences (eg a Wiki, Forum and blogtool is also groupware design feature inside a Moodle site) ?
Moodle is a great tool for managing a whole subject. It provides information about topics within subjects, subject calendar, subject resources, forum and class enrolments. Moodle provides the exchange of large amount of information between enrolled students and teachers. Wiki on the other hand is a simple tool used within a subject for simple exercises that require student collaboration. It can be accessed by any internet user for small information exchange.
Is the presence of likeable features also a combination of the design tips for usability, sociability and sustainability, as advocated by Preece and Kim in earlier topics?
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/preece.html
http://www.linezine.com/4.1/interviews/ajkbgswoc.htm

Moodle and Wiki are free and keep their opening login page very simple which draws users into participating in their site. When these sites are used in education their online community is restricted to a school population, providing socialisation amongst pupils and teachers on common ground. This provides a secure online environment from external users. The combination of ease of use and school IT curriculum, Moodle and Wiki can be sustained in an educational setting.


Exercise 6.3
SocialGO is an online community that is similar to Facebook and Myspace as they are all free to join or have a trial service and are self explanatory to use. The familiar usability between these social networks supports the credibility of SocialGO. The site provides businesses and social groups a variety of existing tools for users to socialise such as videochat, photo sharing and blogs. Users can also find out what events and communities their associates are involved in for off line communication. SocialGO allows users to control which associates they want to communicate with which builds on the trust and safe reputation of the site. Online technical support is also available when required.
However, SocialGo would offer a different level of security, than CSU interact. SocialGo provides the user the option to reveal personal information by customising their login page unlike CSU interact where communication is mainly focused on exchanging subject information. Users can trust that the CSU site is secure because only members that are enrolled in the University can communicate on the site keeping the online community population smaller than SocialGO. Being a University site, it is a highly reputable site for students and lectures to exchange course information and assessment. It uses familiar communication tools such as forums and chat which eases sociability.

Assessment item 2: Sustaining an online community

Mash up video

web 2.0 glossary

benefits of web2.0


video applying web2 to school

1. Issues with using social networks for professional development

Pros	Cons
Work related questions can be resolved using blogs	Time wasted navigating web 2.0 sites reading feeds
Conferences and events can be found using Upcoming.org	Only place work related information on your social network to avoid exposing embarrassing information to co workers
Join groups related to your business	Lack of technical expertise for some professionals
News feeds can be refined to alert you of important work related updates	Plagiarism
Create a profile similar to what your work desk looks like to show your personality
Communicate to co workers across the world with out restrictions of time differences and geography
Social networks encourages individual employee contributions to business

2. Web 2.0 compliment social networks
Work from home to reduce office space
Internal business blogs and forums for workers to communicate work related ideas.
A variety of tools allows a variety of information to be shared eg video, podcasts and digital images
Builds up a interlaced web of connected thoughts
Closer contact to clients
Web 2.0 allows 'word of mouth' advertising to potential clients
Reduces spam


3. Work related network developed an sustained
Technical support provided to maintain IT equipment and provide assistance to workers.
Appropriate content to allow flow of discussions.

Twitter

I became a member of twitter and have customised my home page

Assessment item 1

Assessment item 1: Building an online community

Adam Curry and Dave Winer are both pioneers in the development of online communities. They envisioned a society that could communicate personal thoughts and world wide events using the freedom and accessibility of online communities.

Adam Curry’s entertainment career got him into IT by experimenting with the Net and was then involved in the development of podcasting. Since the 1980s, he used IT to inform the world of the latest events in the celebrity world. In the 1990s his IT consulting businesses merged from one to another until Answerthink Inc was created. In 2000, helped initiate podcasting and in 2005 helped established http://www.mevio.com/about/ a site for documentaries and footage involving celebrities.

Dave Winer graduated in Computer Science and like Adam Curry, helped distribute modern day events through the web. In 1990s, Winer was a constructive software developer in America and he developed RSS, MetaWeblog and worked with Adam Curry on podcasting. He was acknowledged as one of ‘Top Ten Technology Innovators’.

Both Curry and Winer are thorough change managers. They continue to implement new and developing communication technologies to benefit from a constant evolving IT industry. Curry regularly contributes to his podcast No Agenda and Winer uses his Scripting News to update users about his life and business.

Curry and Winer have been successful at implementing IT and online communities into society that it has become common place in house holds. Society has benefited from this technology because of the variety of ways that society can maintain contact. Blogs and wikis allow people to maintain contact and exchange personal information using video and photos.

In NSW, the Digital Education Revolution (DER)program is incorporating these technologies into education as the government issue laptops roll out into schools this year. Blogs, Wikis, Pod casts, video footage and digital photos are being used as tools to engage students in learning the curriculum. Instead of exercise books, students will be using their laptops to blog subject information, participate in subject online chats and submit creative more purposeful assignments. Students and teachers will have access to working with a wider network of learners, not limited to the geographic area. Collaborating with guest speakers and other schools from interstate or across the world improves learning by providing expert knowledge and cultural exchange.

As a teacher, I am glad that the Department of Education has finally caught up with the idea to use online communication in education which is currently being used successfully in Universities as well as in the general society. Schools will become platforms of sharing ideas where everyone can provide input and be acknowledged. This generates more positive, engaged and creative learning which is the quality teaching educators want to achieve.

Jenny Preece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Preece

http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/

www.id-book.com

Dave Winer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Winer

http://www.sigmainfotech.com.au/articles/web-development-how-to-create-an-RSS-web-feed.html

Adam Curry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curry

http://www.mevio.com/about/

Ward Cunningham

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham

http://www.aboutus.org/Ward_Cunningham

Topic 5

Exercise 5.1
Online identities
myCSU ebox
Gmail
Hotmail
Blog
Wiki
Facebook
MOODLE
Etherpad

I maintain a baseline persistent identity across all the above identities such as name and employment. Depending on the requirements and appropriateness of each online community above will depend how much information I give. Due to Griefers and spys , personal information such as home address, phone numbers and financial information is hidden.

Exercise 5.2

1. Social architects are designers of an environment for human interaction.
2.

Community	Objective	Rules	Features
Photograb	A game where you can admire shared photos by finding objects on photos whilst being timed.	Simple. A little tutorial guides you quickly through to start the game. Each level you achieve lets you add your own photos from Facebook and create your own game.	Sign in as a Facebook member and your profile shift across to Photograb so you don’t have to create a new identify.
Whyville	Its like a children’s version of Second life. Children learn the skills of communicating in online communities with simple rules of engagement.	The Safety Tools icon provides clear rules on behaviour in Whyville. Parental permission and a chat licence is required before children can join.	Creating your own cartoon profile was fun and allowed freedom to represent yourself .