Visualizing Informal Learning Behavior from Conference Participants Twitter Data

Heli Aramo-Immonen1, Jari Jussila2, Jukka Huhtamäki3,

Tampere University of Technology,1 Industrial Management in Pori Unit

2 Department of Information Management and Logistics3 Intelligent Information Systems Laboratory (IISLab)

This paper was introduced in

TEEM2014 International ACM-conference in Salamanca, Spain

Overview of the study• The aim of this research was to explore the

informal learning behavior in project context especially by analyzing and visualizing informal learning behavior from conference participants Twitter data

• Case study– Project of organizing the CMAD2014 (Community

Manager Appreciation Day) conference held during 27 January 2014 in Hämeenlinna, Finland

– Tweets from the registered participants two weeks before the conference

– 225 people participated in CMAD2014 during the day

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cmad.fi

Community of Practice

• A community of practice is a collection of people who engage on an ongoing basis in some common endeavor. (Eckert, 2006)

• Organizations are made up of communities of practice

• If organizational learning is to take place, then Informal learning in communities needs to be stimulated. (Ropes, 2010)

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Theoretical discussion

• Concepts of informal and formal learning,• Activity theory based informal expansive

learning, • Internal and external memory aids, • Motivation to learn • Context of communities of practice as

informal learning environments

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Informal Learning• Icinformal learners usually set their own

learning objectives.• They learn when they feel a need to know. • The proof of their learning is their ability to do

something they could not do before.• Informal learning is often a pastiche of small

chunks of observing how others do things, asking questions, trial and error, sharing stories with others, and casual conversation.

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According to García-Peñalvo, Colomo-Palacios and Lytras (2012),

Activity theory

• According to the socio-cultural historical activity theory, there has to be a triggering action, such as a conflictual questioning of the existing standard practice in the organization in order to generate expansive learning

• Expansive learning produces culturally new patterns of activity.

Engeström, Y, (2000)

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Expansive Learning

• In Twitter communities is the freedom to be critical concerning contemporary ways of doing things.

• In other words, individuals do tend to criticize and express their feelings more easily in social media than in face-to-face contact.

• This could be trigger for a change in organization.

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Motivation to Learn• An individual moves through a number of

stages in the process of becoming learning-oriented (Bucler, 1996; Koskinen & Aramo-Immonen 2008)

1. Ignorance

2. Awareness

3. Understanding

4. Commitment

5. Enactment

6. Reflection

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Assessment of how does learning motivation stages differ in online and face-to-face informal learning environments. Based on our observation during this study. (online/face to face is marked in the table X=exists and - =does not exist)

Motivation stages

Before conference

During conference After conference

Ignorance x / - - / - x / -

Awareness x / - x / x x / x

Understanding - / - x / x - / x

Commitment x / x x / x - / x

Enactment - / - - / - - / x

Reflection - / - - / - x / x

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Top 5 hashtags that CMAD2014 participants used during two weeks before the conference day. Interactive version is available: http://bit.ly/chashtags

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Hashtag metrics of people tweeting during two weeks before the CMAD2014 conference day. Interactive visualization available: http://bit.ly/hcmatrix

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Hashtag metrics

• In the matrix the discussions are clustered based on the choice of sorting parameter: volume, partition and total number of co-occuring tweets.

• From the co-occurrence of hashtags matrix, and sorting by partitions, we identified 7 larger different partitions, representing 7 different subgroups of discussions inside the community of community managers.

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Figure 3. Interactive visualization of people tweeting and their hashtags during two weeks before the conference day. Interactive visualizations is available: http://bit.ly/cnetwork

Interactive Visualization

• The figure 3 can be used by people to find people with similar interest, to network with and share knowledge even before the conference.

• For the organizers the figure 3 gives clues which people should be e.g. seated at same tables at lunch to generate fruitful further discussions

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• Proposition 1: Discussions in social media network can perform as virtual informal collaborative learning environments.

• Proposition 2: Physical informal learning environments can be build based on information gained from interactive visualization of people’s behaviour in social network before and during the event.

• Proposition 3: Before event virtual discussions can increase the motivation to learn informally during the conference.

Propositions

CONTACT

Heli Aramo-Immonen, heli.aramo-immonen@tut.fi

Twitter: @AramoHeli, LinkedIn, Facebook

Blogi: http://heliaramoimmonen.wordpress.com/

Jari J. Jussila, jari.j.jussila@tut.fi

Twitter: @jjussila

Jukka Huhtamäki jukka.huhtamaki@tut.fi

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research is sponsored by Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Projects “Soila”; Innovative Value Creation and Business Models of Social Media in B2B Networks, and “Reino”; Relational Capital for Innovative Growth Companies).