housekeeping items - oct 03 class - online, asynchronous

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Telecommunications in Education: Examining

Distributed Teaching and Learning Environments (EDER 677 L.91 )

Computer Mediated Communication Systems

for the Asynchronous Class from Calgary, October 3

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Housekeeping Items - Oct 03 Class - Online, Asynchronous

1. Your group Web page with the two lists surveying/linking to Good Screen Design is due today (please email me the URL in WebCT email if you have not already done so).

2. The related discussion thread on Web Page Design is very interesting. Simplicity seems to be the main theme, and you have explained the value of simple, clean screen design (and linkages, navigation systems) in an education website very well. Please try to include URLs in your discussion as you find them, to support your findings and to lead us to your fountains of information. 677 students can compile an awesome distance ed bookmark list from our collective findings - this is very helpful to you in other courses.

3. Albert will summarize the thread and email the results to me, and they will appear as a hot link on his name in the “Discussion Thread Student Leaders” column on the Course Home Page.

4. As promised, tonight’s class is a reading class, to allow you to ponder your paper and to read about, on your time, the dimensions of CMC through literature. Keep asking each other questions, and asking me too. (I am caught up in my email!)

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Notice:

Please check out the lesson plan on the Course Home Page

for This week’s

Core readingsAssignment

extra resource links

at

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~ekowch/677/Oct3class/oct3lesson.html

Though Provoking Question:

Distributed Science Education: Could this be done with adult

(non-teacher) supervision in the room for safety?

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Goals of this Session

• To Define the key terms associated with computer mediated communications (CMC)• Understanding types of asynchronous CMC systems

• Electronic Mailing Lists (E-mail, distribution lists, listservs)• Threaded Discussion Forums

• Understanding types of synchronous CMC systems• Chat• Multi-User Dimension (MUD) and Multi-Object Oriented (MOO)• Virtual Classrooms

• CMC teaching/learning activities and issues

Accreditition for parts of this evening’s course content goes to Norm Vaughan, who just became a doctoral student in our EdTech specialty here at the U of C, and toDr. Bill Hunter, who designed the backbone of this presentation for the 677 class in the past.

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CMC Terminology: Two Classes of Online Discourse

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)• Is communication facilitated or mediated via a computer

I. Asynchronous Communication • A delay in time between communicator Source and Receive

(S-M-C-R) resulting in• Communication sourcing and feedback happening out of

sync.

II. Synchronous Communication • Occurs simultaneously between the learner and teacher or

vice versa - the sender and the reciever.No time delay exists between Source and Reception and Feedback. (SMCR)

• Also called “real time” or “live” communication

For more resources on this topic - Click here

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The “push” and “pull” features within two kinds of Asynchronous

Communication Systems

1. Electronic mail systems – push information “to” you without you directly requesting it. 1) Electronic Mail Systems – push

– individual e-mail correspondence and links

– mailing lists (majordomo, listserv, listproc)

– moderated and un-moderated systems

2. Threaded discussion forums - pull information “to” you without you directly requesting specific information… (organic discourse can occur).

Asynchronous

Rhetorical Question: How do you manage out-of-sync push and pull information that is a necessary part of the teaching and learning discourse? (Design and Delivery issues).

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1. Electronic Mail Systems

Push - a) Mailing Lists/List Servers • uses email; there is no public interface aside from a web page advertising its

existence (this is your local information)• can have open subscription or be a closed list • can be moderated or un-moderated (as in discussion or chat systems)

Examples and Resources:Instructional Technology Forum Listserv Web Sitehttp://itech1.coe.uga.edu/ITForum/home.htmlThe Distance Education Online Symposiumhttp://lists.psu.edu/archives/deos-l.html

This article has a great definition of “push” technology - do you agree or disagree with the author’s view of the “future” of “push”? (Learning Objects are a higher form of this thinking… ask your classmates, we have a Learning Object expert among us!) http://www.darwinmag.com/learn/curve/column.html?ArticleID=43

Rhetorical Question:

Do you know why so many companies

want to host email service?

Asynchronous


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1. Electronic Mail Systems (cont.)

Push - b) Mailing Lists/Listservs with a Hypermail web interface

• allows visual representation of threads in web space (like WebCT)• (otherwise hidden) mailing list has a public face, either for reading or

participation

• same issues as above as to openness and moderation

Example:

World Wide Web Course Developers mailing list/listserv at the University of New Brunswick

http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/wwwdev/logs/http://www.unb.ca/web/wwwdev/

Asynchronous


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2. Threaded Discussion ForumsPull - Type (a) Threaded conversation space without usernames and passwords• threading helps keep conversations together over time

• lack of passwords and user accounts makes it more inviting to public / anyone can join in

• can be less focused and more difficult to hold long term users because content is not “led”

Example:

AERA Leadership Thread

http://www.cquest.utoronto.ca/env/aera/aera-lists/aera-a/99-04/

• Pull - Type (b) Threaded conversation space with usernames and passwords• gives users sense of belonging and membership • can discourage occasional posters, lurkers and one-time visitors

• can be more intensive to maintain Example: EDER677 – WebCT Discussion Forums

http://webct-a.ucalgary.ca/SCRIPT/EDER_677/scripts/student/serve_bulletin?MMSG

Asynchronous

Response To idea

#1

ResponseTo idea

# n


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Threaded Discussion Forums

Common CMC design Issues• Public vs. private : Design Issue: Who “gets” to interact?

: Political Issue: Whose voice is heard?• Unstructured vs. Threaded/Structured? To lead or not to lead…?• Cost? (freeware/shareware/payware) To pay or not to pay…?• Searchable or Archiveable? To keep or not to keep…?• Can incorporate hypertext? To link outside (reference), or not…?

• Can threads be moderated? Should they be moderated..…?– Sometimes education discussions need structure.. Other times they do not.

Asynchronous

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Asynchronous Communication Systems

Other Options - Proprietary Conferencing Software• much more powerful software, fully featured and fairly easy to use • often requires more than just a web browser to participate (e.g. client

software)… can be expensive

• quite plausible for an “online course” as run by U of C (SoftArc’s First Class) and Athabasca (IBM Lotus Notes)

Conferencing Sofware Vendor Examples:SoftArc’s First Class - http://www.softarc.com/

IBM Lotus Notes - http://www.lotus.com/

Asynchronous


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Teaching Activities using Async Comm (CMC): Electronic Penpals (interpersonal communication)

http://www.epals.com/ Individual and Cooperative Research Projects (gather and/or

share information from and with on-line sources) Electronic Mentoring (on-line subject matter experts) Parallel Problem Solving (remote classes working on similar problem sets) Electronic Field Trips (e.g. Virtual Field Trips via the WWW) Group Development of Products

(e.g. chain letters, stories, scripts, multimedia constructions) Social Action Projects (e.g. peace projects, social issues)


See if you can find examples of these online….

Asynchronous


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Issues:Motivation for student participation

1. Extrinsic motivation (idenfity clear expectations and marking rubric for the online discussion)

2. Intrinsic motivation (clear relevance and connection of the online discussions with the course content and expectations)

3. Variety (online discussions are ‘fun’ and not repetitive, and deep enough for the group to be interested, engaged)


Asynchronous

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1) Online Chat2) Multi-User Dimension (MUD) and Multi-Object

Oriented (MOO)3) Virtual Synchronous Classrooms

Synchronous Communication Systems

Synchronous

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Online Chat (CMC)

1) Options• plain text chat(one to one)

• plain text chat (one or many to many)

• audio chat (one to one)

• audio chat (one to many)

• ability to moderate, lead discussions through technological methods

• shared whiteboards / multimedia capabilities

Synchronous


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1) Options (cont.)• file sharing capabilities

• sharing URLs, web touring

• ability to capture chat session to disk for archiving purposes

• ability to specify IP addresses allowed to join chat

• platform independence (through java or else multiple platform client versions)

Online Chat

Synchronous


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1) Common Issues

• server based chat (one or many to many) vs. one-to-one chat

• realtime (usually java or special client) vs. slight lag (perl or other server-side scripting)

• low cost, low functionality vs. high cost, high functionality solutions

• ease of use vs. level of interaction

• Who is liable for inappropriate chat?

Example:

EDER677 – WebCT Chat Rooms

http://webct-a.ucalgary.ca/SCRIPT/EDER_677/scripts/student/serve_chat.pl?START+972581775

Online Chat

Synchronous


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MUDs and MOOs

2) Multi-User Dimension (MUD) and Multi-Object Oriented (MOO)• living verbal environments - you can become anything you want (or not)• time consuming to up-keep (like mingling at a big wedding)• text only (telnet) and graphical/sound environments• band-width and technology constraints

Examples:MUDs and MOOs- http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent/380/webproj/taryn5.htmlLove online… who says CMC has to be boring? (yikes)

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent/380proj/380web.htmhttp://joint.mccaig.ucalgary.ca/vc/definitions.htmBibliography of Electronic Sources: MOOshttp://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/bibliog.html

Synchronous


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Online Synchronous Environs

3) Synchronous Web Based – Virtual Classrooms (you know this well, gentle reader…)

Centra System

http://www.centra.com

• Centra eMeeting Trial Service

http://www.centranow.com

• Vclass http://www.elluminate.com/products.html

• LearnLink

http://www.learnlink.com/products/live_elearning/learnlinc/

Synchronous


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Teaching Activities:• flexible office hours

• flexible meeting hours

• Student group work possible

• Web tours (via features in the controller)

• Some application sharing (bandwidth problems will be solved soon).

• Student presentations (interactive, self directed, fun)

• Debates (live, requiring another layer of comm “rules”)

• Role Playing

Online Synchronous Environs

Synchronous


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Teaching Issues:• Meeting in ‘real-time’ in cyberspace

• Bandwidth, computer hardware and software issues

• Monitoring and coordinating the online interactions

•Home school implications

•Holiday implications

•Security implications

•Implications for students with socialising preferences

Synchronous Teaching and Learning (CMC) Environs

Synchronous


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More advanced CMC readings and resources for EdTechnology Masters and Edtechnology Doctoral Students

(and budding Distributed Learning Architects of all sorts)..

This information is collected as a response to interests you are expressing in certain areas… optional reading…

Developing personal relationships using CMC: Can you build community online?• http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1998/may/chenault.htmlA great collection of CMC focused articles: Can you deconstruct “media” well?• http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Functions/mcs.htmlHow humor works in CMC education: one person’s view - challenge it.• http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol1/issue2/baym.htmlCMC portal - a wonderful, peer reviewed resource• http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/CMC portal for academics across disciplines: teaching across the curriculum.• http://www.december.com/cmc/info/Telecommuting and CMC : Is “the building” still your idea of “school”?• http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~dbrandon/Telecommuting.html

Asyncrhonous and Synchronous

Futher Resources - Click here

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“To Do” List Next Class ( Oct 10)

• Go to the Home Page, and see the Core Readings and Assignment for this week, along with a summary of deliverables.

• Keep an eye on the Home Page, - readings for the next topic, Telecommunication Modes, could be online slightly ahead of Thursday, Oct 10th.


housekeeping items - oct 03 class - online, asynchronous

Documents