Web 2.0 communities for lifelong learning: a case analysis

Antonio Fini & Maria Ranieri [email_address] [email_address] Web 2.0 Communities for Lifelong Learning. A Case Analysis AACE E-Learn 2009 – Vancouver (BC)

Background Lifelong Learning Informal learning Web 2.0

Lifelong Learning and e-learning
A multi-level structure
Calvani, Bonaiuti e Fini, 2008

Group, Network, Collective Dron e Anderson, 2007 Group Conscious Membership Leadership and organization Rules Time limited Network Shared interests Fluid Membership Friend of a friend.. Reputation and altruism Rules and structures are emergent Collective Synergic aggregation Lack of membership Lack of rules Wisdom of crowds

Telling stories…
We tell stories about other people and for other people. Stories help us to keep tabs on what is happening in our communities.
Scientific American, 2008

The context: LTE
Laboratorio di Tecnologie dell’Educazione Educational Technology Lab
Università di Firenze - Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione, Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Educazione, dei processi culturali e Formativi
Active since 1985
Graduate courses
Teacher training
Adult students
Teacher interested in Ed.Tech.
www.scform.unifi.it/lte

LTE as a community
Staff
Collaborators and res.fellows
Course participants
Professors
Students
Former students ( Alumni )
Others.. (colleagues of…, friends of.., ecc.)
Needs/Intentions/Wishes:
Keep in touch!
“ The course is over.. And now? Please keep in touch …”
Share and collaborate
A “personal” (e-portfolio) and “social” environment
Beyond the LMS..
Manage informal learning, beyond and after the “course”
Support for a professional network
LTE Staff Collaborators Students Alumni T eachers Others

Bridging…
Our working hypothesis:
Formal
Course management
Moodle
Informal
Blog, e-portfolio, story-telling, social networking
Elgg

LTEver: An Elgg based solution Tosh, 2005
Open Source
Technologies:
Php/mySQL
RSS
FOAF
OpenID
Main Site: elgg.org
Similar experiences:
Athabasca Univ . (Canada)
Univ. Of Brighton (GB)

LTEver www.lte-unifi.net/elgg Home page Multiuser Blog Tag cloud

Main features of LTEver
Blog
A personal web space for reflection and telling stories
Aggregate other personal blogs / any external RSS based system
Support for podcasting/video/foto sharing
Tagging
Dashboard
A “showcase” customizable with widget s
Files
A personal repository of files (also shareable)
RSS
Including relevant external feeds via RSS
Profile
Each word becomes a tag!
Network
Friends, colleagues, mentors, animators
Communites
Each uses can create open/closed communities
Semi-openness: each user can invite colleagues
A system-wide feature:
User Access Control

Semi-open community
No self-registration – only invitation
Importance of the invitation
Co-optation / Reputation / Trust
Service offered by a University
Implicit reliability and visibility
Added Value: professional usefulness , filter operated by trusted people
Sense of community
Special features Why not simply ?

Quantitative
Data from Elgg database and logs
Qualitative
Surveys
Interviews
Social Network Analysis
Usability
Research

Something from stats..
Participation
Nielsen and the 1-9-90 theory
In LTEver (december 2008 ) :
66% of content created by 10% users;
59% of active users wrote less than 10 posts/comments;
26% only one
The long tail

Other interesting data
Posts from external blogs
From 41% in 2007 to 62% in 2008
Not the “primary place” in the net but a sort of “repeater”
Blog posts and comments as c onversations ?
… yes…
33% with at least one comment
… but only in the short time:
88% less than 7 days between post and last comment
66% less than 3 days
17% same day

Users’ voice
Why did you join?
Curiosity
Connectedness
Professional development
Sharing
Why to be active?
Sharing
Pleasure
Reasons for inactivity
Lack of time
Inadequacy
Is it a learning environment? (75%: Yes)
Could be a good support for LLL?
For education field: 70% Yes
Other fields: 60% Yes
From the 2008 survey

Some criticism
“… go beyond simple “sharing”; inside communities nothing grows without someone who takes care of nurturing and development...”
“… I don’t know how but we should develop a stronger membership. Sometimes it seems a showcase in which everyone shows off . To be a real community we haven’t yet a common goal …”

An experience “in the middle”
Between formal and informal
Between institutional and personal
Between groups, networks, and collectives
Between social software and LMS
Between university and job
Further research
Sustainability
Pre-requisites of participants
Key figures
Generalizability and transferability to other domains
Conclusion

Thank you!
Contact:
Antonio Fini
LTE - Laboratorio di Tecnologie dell’Educazione
Università di Firenze
www.scform.unifi.it/lte
[email_address]
www.lte-unifi.net/elgg/anto
This work is published under a Creative Commons License

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Web 2.0 communities for lifelong learning: a case analysis

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