Collaborative Online Learning

               Online forum

• Equivalent to traditional bulletin board and a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system
• People participating in an Internet forum may cultivate social bonds and interest groups for a topic made from the discussions.
• Most Online forums require registration to post.

                Troll

• Is a user that repeatedly and intentionally breaches netiquette, often posting derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics in an established online community to bait users into responding, often starting flame wars

Spamming

• Is a breach of netiquette where users repeat the same word or phrase over and over, but differs from multiple posting in that spamming is usually a willful act which sometimes has malicious intent.

                    

User groups

• Privileges and rights are given based on user groups. The privileged is set by the administrator.
• An unregistered user of the site is commonly known as a guest or visitor.
• Guests are typically granted access to all functions that do not require database alterations or breach privacy.
• A guest can usually view the contents of the forum or use such features as read marking, but occasionally an administrator will disallow visitors to read their forum as an incentive to become a registered member

Moderator

• The moderators are users of the forum who are granted access to the posts and threads of all members for the purpose of moderating discussion and also keeping the forum clean.
• Have access to all posts and threads
• Moderators also answer users' concerns about the forum, general questions, as well as respond to specific complaints. They also can do anything to lend a helping hand to a user in need.
• Moderators themselves may have ranks: some may be given mod privileges over only a particular topic or section, while others (called 'global' or 'super') may be allowed access anywhere. Common privileges of moderators include: deleting, merging, moving, and splitting of posts and threads, locking, renaming of threads, banning, suspending, unsuspending, unbanning, warning the members, or adding, editing, removing the polls of threads.

Administrator

• The administrators manage the technical details required for running the site.
• Promote members to moderators, manage the rules, create sections and sub-sections, as well as perform any database operations.
• Administrators often also act as moderators.

Thread

• A thread (sometimes called a topic) is a collection of posts, usually displayed – by default – from oldest to latest, although this is typically configurable:
• A thread is defined by a title, an additional description that may summarize the intended discussion, and an opening or original post (common abbreviation 'OP', which can also mean original poster) which opens whatever dialogue or makes whatever announcement the poster wished. A thread can contain any number of posts, including multiple posts from the same members, even if they are one after the other.

Private message

• A private message, or PM for short, is a message sent in private from a member to one or more other members.
• Private messages are generally used for personal conversations.

Emoticon

• Emoticon or smiley is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form. Forums implement a system through which some of the text representations of an emoticons (e.g. XD, :p) are rendered as a small image. Depending on part the world the forum's topic originates (since most forums are international) smilies can be replaced by other forms of similar graphics, (e.g. *(^O^)*, (^-^)b).

• A wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki Web site, using only a plain-vanilla Web browser without any extra add-ons.
• Wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making page link creation almost intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target page exists or not.
• A wiki is not a carefully crafted site for casual visitors. Instead, it seeks to involve the visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes the Web site landscape.

Editing wiki pages

• Ordinarily, the structure and formatting of wiki pages are specified with a simplified markup language, sometimes known as "wiki text".
• The style and syntax of wiki texts can vary greatly among wiki implementations, some of which also allow HTML tags.
• Wikis therefore favor plain text editing, with fewer and simpler conventions than HTML, for indicating style and structure
• Clicking “Edit” link, the script sends the raw text file to your browser in an editable form, allowing you to modify the content of the page.
• Pressing the “Save” button sends the modified text back to the wiki server, which replaces the existing text file with your changed version for all to see.
• Offer powerful yet flexible collaborative communication tool for developing content-specific Web sites.
• Because wikis grow and evolve as a direct result of people adding material to the site, they can address a variety of pedagogical needs—student involvement, group activities, and so on.
• It is easiest and most effective Web-based collaboration tool in any instructional portfolio.
• Provides direct (and immediate) access to a site’s content, which is crucial in group editing or other collaborative project activities.
• These collaborative projects help promote “pride of authorship” and ownership in the team’s activities.
• In addition, wikis are being used as e-portfolios, illustrating their utility as a tool for collection and reflection.
• It can be used to collaborate on projects, whether editing a textbook, preparing a journal article, or assembling a syllabus or reading list.
• Wiki enabled projects can provide various levels of site access and control to team members, offering a fine-tuning element that enhances the teaching and learning experience.

Podcasting

• A podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication.
• Podcasting is a method of publishing audio files (usually MP3s) to the Web, which are then made available through subscription and automatically downloaded to a personal computer or portable MP3 player.
• The mode of delivery differentiates podcasting from other means of accessing media files over the Internet, such as direct download, or streamed web-casting
• Commonly used audio file formats are OggVorbis and MP3
• A list of all the audio or video files currently associated with a given series is maintained centrally on the distributor's server as a web feed, and the listener or viewer employs special client application software known as a pod catcher that can access this web feed, check it for updates, and download any new files in the series.

Podcasting in Education

• One obvious use of podcasting in an educational context is to create an archive of class lectures that students can listen to at their convenience.
• As podcasting is relatively new, educators everywhere are still exploring the possibilities.

Podcasting could be used for:

                • news/updates;

                • guest lectures;

                • student presentations;

                • student-produced podcasts;

                • interviews with guest experts;

                • tours/fieldwork;

                • internships/residencies;

                • feedback/evaluation of student work;

                • supplementary material such as speeches, music, or other audio recordings; and

                • short language lessons, or other lessons that help students develop listening and speaking skills.

 Issues

• Podcasting involves a shift from e-learning to m-learning.
• E-learning, or electronic learning, refers to any computer-based learning that enables students to access and make use of course materials at a distance and at their convenience.
• M-learning, or mobile learning, capitalizes on the increasing ubiquity of wireless networks and devices such as laptops, PDAs, wireless phones, MP3 players, and of course, iPods.
• While podcasting does not require an iPod or other MP3 player, podcasts are usually listened to on devices that are easily portable.
•  Podcasting is a time-shifting technology. Learners can download an audio file to a portable device and listen to it at their convenience.
• The mobility and time shifting afforded by podcasting enables learners and instructors to expand the boundaries of the classroom and bring together course content and the world outside the campus.
• In an educational context, instructors might create guided audio tours for field trips, or perhaps commentary or instructions for an internship or residency. Conversely, students can create podcasts to report their observations or conduct interviews.
•  “Push” technology is an essential feature. In other words, podcasting does not only make audio files available to students; it makes audio files available automatically via subscription.
• The “push” feature suggests potential uses such as news updates from departments or course updates from the instructor. A question to consider is whether automated distribution of course content is advantageous or necessary.

Things to be considered:

• The reasonable expectations of students and how they make use of their time. For example, requiring students to listen to recorded lectures too frequently may be more of a burden than help.
• Long recordings such as lectures may work better as a supplement students who want to refresh their knowledge of course content.
• Since podcasts are portable and facilitate mobile learning, you also might consider whether it is best to create shorter podcasts that can be listened to during moments of downtime, or a longer podcast that requires a longer time commitment and more focused concentration.
• Podcasting raises copyright issues. The creation of content raises copyright issues that are often complex and can involve considerations of University policies, federal statutes, and consultations with experts.
•  See http://dmc.umn.edu/IP/ for help.

• In Second Life participants use avatars, virtual selves that reflect the creators’ personalities, to interact with one another within the online environment.
• A free client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars.
• Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world
• Through this feature Second Life can bring people, ideas, and subject matter together in a fuller representation of real human relationships.
• Second Life enhances social presence that can support collaborative online activities and enrich interpersonal understanding among their participants.
• In terms of educational practice, this virtual world allows for a re-imagining of the classroom as one that meets the new needs of online instruction while providing students with a sense of belonging to a learning community.
• For example, Second Life allows for online interactions that mimic the face-to-face conversations of the campus classroom while minimizing the formality that usually prevails in academic discussion forums.
• The flexibility of Second Life also makes it an ideal vehicle for constructional pedagogy.
• In Second Life entirely new communities can be created by the participants, allowing for the power of human relationships to be integrated more freely in the learning process.
• Using Second Life as a virtual-learning community as opposed to merely a virtual-learning environment focuses attention on relationships, growth, and development (Cooper 2003).
• Building relationships with students in this fashion leads to greater communication as well as "reflection and self-discovery, which is absolutely necessary for building a learning community" (Robbins 2006, 38).

Education

• Second Life is used as a platform for education by many institutions, such as colleges, universities, libraries and government entities.
• Instructors and researchers in Second Life favor it because it is more personal than traditional distance learning.
• Research has uncovered development, teaching and/or learning activities which use Second Life in over 80 percent of UK universities.
• New educational institutions have also emerged that operate exclusively within Second Life, taking advantage of the platform to deliver a high quality service to a world wide audience at low cost.