Karlsruhe, 30.01.2008
Martin Memmel
German Research Center for AI
Kaiserslautern, Germany
www.dfki.de/~memmel

Spell with flickr: http://metaatem.net/words/

Spell with flickr: http://metaatem.net/words/

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

http://elearningnuts.de

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pavel1998/407853059/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pavel1998/704036529/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=36bXgqmQ6rE

http://del.icio.us/search/?fr=del_icio_us&p=learntec&type=all

http://www.slideshare.net

http://www.facebook.com

http://www.redesignme.org/

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/knowhow/

We are experiencing a
paradigm shift!

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html

From Traditional Media to Social Media
• more democracy, less control
• it‘s about the user
• users are active, contribution is easy
• everybody can reach a broad audience
• networking, communication
• open, public, sharing

Which types of
user generated content
do exist?

Which types of UGC do exist?
• Resources
• blogs, wikis
• object-centric networks (flickr, youtube)
• user-centric networks (facebook, myspace)
• Metadata
• tags, comments, ratings…
• helps to filter the abundance of available content
• not just anonymous content, gives an understanding
of the individuals who contributed

Human Computation

http://www.espgame.org/

http://recaptcha.net/

Collective Intelligence

http://www.flickr.com/photos/azlijamil01/231592469/

Why are people
generating content?
How can we encourage them?

Why are people generating content?
(How can we encourage them?)
• it’s fun (& it’s easy) adequate interfaces
• personal benefit
• they like to help
• attention
• status
• rewards
• ok, sometimes also altruism ;-)

E-Learning &
User Generated Content
[I won’t talk about ROI and business goals]

Traditional Learning
• delivered by centralized, monolithic systems (LMS)
• learner management, not learning management
• specified curriculum, course-centric
• has to be completed at a predetermined time
• led by an instructor

E-Learning 2.0 [Downes05]
• New users are different
• capture information quickly from multiple sources simultaneously
• operate at high speed and expect instant responses and
feedback
• prefer on-demand access to media
• communicate constantly with friends
• create their own media
• E-Learning 2.0:
• ‘learner-centered’ or ‘student-centered’ design
• control of learning is out into the hands of the learners
• greater autonomy
• emphasis on active learning with creation, communication
and participation

E-Learning 2.0 & User Generated Content
• people use any kind of digital resources to learn
• active learning (learning by doing)
• people create content available also for others
• resources, conversations, …
• people help to filter content
• tags, communication, social browsing

Personal Learning Environments
• not a tool - also not a diagram ;-)
• ‘a set of tools, customised to their needs and
preferences inside a single learning environment’
[Milligan et al 06]

Experts, Machines, and
User Generated Content

http://aloe-project.de

ALOE – Some Features
• upload and share arbitrary types of digital resources
• share and organize bookmarks
• tag, rate, and comment on resources and bookmarks
• initiate groups and communicate with other users
• publish as private, public, or only for certain groups
• find resources with different types of search filters
• rank search results according to different criteria
• associate arbitrary metadata sets with resources
• Web Service API (SOAP, REST)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fliegender/sets/1161829

Thank you for your attention!
http://www.dfki.de/~memmel
http://elearningnuts.de
http://aloe-project.de