Social tagging and learning resources in a multilingual context CELSTEC/NELL colloquium June 4 2009 Riina Vuorikari

Presentation Introduction: who, context of my PhD work Ecology social search metadata ecology Crossing contexts Cross-repository tagcloud

Introduction: who, context of my PhD work

Ecology

social search

metadata ecology

Crossing contexts

Cross-repository tagcloud

Intro: who? Riina Vuorikari Master’s in Education (Finland) DEA in Hypermedia (France) now PhD student as "buitenpromovendus” Since 2000 worked in European Schoolnet with TEL topics

Riina Vuorikari

Master’s in Education (Finland)

DEA in Hypermedia (France)

now PhD student as "buitenpromovendus”

Since 2000 worked in European Schoolnet with TEL topics

European Schoolnet (EUN) 31 Ministries of Education (MoE) in Europe Created in 1997 Leads the way in bringing about change in schooling through the use of new technology Digital content; school collaboration; policy making Stichting Kennisnet Ict op School as Dutch member

31 Ministries of Education (MoE) in Europe

Created in 1997

Leads the way in bringing about change in schooling through the use of new technology

Digital content; school collaboration; policy making

Stichting Kennisnet Ict op School as Dutch member

Digital Resources and LORs exist on local and national level Content in different languages Comply to local/national curriculum and educational standards (especially in K-12) Variety of pedagogical approaches Sharing of resources and/or metadata on the repository level (e.g. federation of repositories, harvesting metadata)

Digital Resources and LORs exist on local and national level

Content in different languages

Comply to local/national curriculum and educational standards (especially in K-12)

Variety of pedagogical approaches

Sharing of resources and/or metadata on the repository level

(e.g. federation of repositories, harvesting metadata)

Typical “old school” LOR =Learning Object Repository Metadata used for indexing and describing resources Library background Studying the use and reuse through different metrics (e.g. downloads, views) Digital libraries, datamining, web metrics, attention metadata,..

Metadata used for indexing and describing resources

Library background

Studying the use and reuse through different metrics (e.g. downloads, views)

Digital libraries, datamining, web metrics, attention metadata,..

Typical “old school” LOR Reuse around 20% (Ochoa, 2008) Resources seldom have link-structures to cross-reference -> use of PageRank type algorithms impossible! Often not found by Google either

Reuse around 20% (Ochoa, 2008)

Resources seldom have link-structures to cross-reference -> use of PageRank type algorithms impossible!

Often not found by Google either

New kid on the block: tagging Triple (user, item, tag) (item,tag) describing the item that they are related to (item, user) as a parameter of the interaction between a user and item (user,tag) as part of a user model

Triple (user, item, tag)

(item,tag) describing the item that they are related to

(item, user) as a parameter of the interaction between a user and item

(user,tag) as part of a user model

Activity Theory as a conceptual framework to investigate the LORs and communities LOR as a single system, rather than as a loose set of instruments, subjects, objects and outcomes LORs as participatory environments where knowledge is co-constructed rather than exchanged and consumed (1) the social origin of learning; (2) the mediation of learning by tools; and (3) the goal- oriented nature of learning activities.

Activity Theory as a conceptual framework to investigate the LORs and communities

LOR as a single system, rather than as a loose set of instruments, subjects, objects and outcomes

LORs as participatory environments where knowledge is co-constructed rather than exchanged and consumed

(1) the social origin of learning; (2) the mediation of learning by tools; and (3) the goal- oriented nature of learning activities.

Learning Resource Exchange for schools http://lreforschools.eun.org Learning Resource Exchange - Riina Vuorikari 03/03/2009 Conventional search «From teachers to teachers» Tags in multiple languages Ratings and comments by the European Commission’s eContentplus Programme

Tagging as a conceptual tool for co-construction of knowledge Learning Resource Exchange - Riina Vuorikari Add to Favourites Add a tag

Tagging for co-construction of knowledge Learning Resource Exchange - Riina Vuorikari Digital traces to follow!

by Stiphy “ Social” makes trails visible..

and guides the way

Activity system (Cole and Engeström, 1991)

How can SIR help discovery of resources in a multilingual context? Social Information Retrieval: e.g. social navigation, ranking, recommender systems Study the system “ecology”: How does tagging in multilingual context affect on the discovery of resources? How does tagging interplay with LOM? Crossing contexts: Tagging to help discovery across contexts

Social Information Retrieval: e.g. social navigation, ranking, recommender systems

Study the system “ecology”:

How does tagging in multilingual context affect on the discovery of resources?

How does tagging interplay with LOM?

Crossing contexts:

Tagging to help discovery across contexts

Cross-boundary use of educational resources Existing literature cites many barriers, Curious if it does exist and to what extent? Notably lower than general reuse Vuorikari, R., Koper, R,. (submitted) Evidence of cross-boundary use and reuse of digital educational resources. http://dspace.ou.nl/handle/1820/1709

Existing literature cites many barriers,

Curious if it does exist and to what extent?

Notably lower than general reuse

Exploratory study into tagging: resources through tags Resources with user tag «interactive» Tag «interactive» Vuorikari, R., & Ochoa, X. (2009). Exploratory Analysis of the Main Characteristics of Tags and Tagging of Educational Resources in a Multi-lingual Context. Journal of Digital Information, 10(2). http://journals.tdl.org/jodi/article/view/447.

Resource provider Tag «optics» Exploratory study into tagging: content from providers connected through tags

Exploratory study into tagging: users from different countries connected through tags Austria Hungary Finland Resource that «Travels well»

Ecology: social search Attention metadata; 82 users; 2,5 months Vuorikari, R., & Koper, R. (2009). Ecology of social search for learning resources. Campus-Wide Information Systems, 26(4). http://hdl.handle.net/1820/1799

Attention metadata; 82 users; 2,5 months

Vuorikari, R., & Koper, R. (2009). Ecology of social search for learning resources. Campus-Wide Information Systems, 26(4). http://hdl.handle.net/1820/1799

Users interact differently with tags (*) - tag but don’t use for search - tag and search - only search - don’t tag nor search

Hypotheses to be tested H1: Can search strategies based on Social Information Retrieval (SIR) make the discovery of learning resources more efficient for users? H2: Can Community browsing help users discover more cross-boundary resources? Yes No

H1: Can search strategies based on Social Information Retrieval (SIR) make the discovery of learning resources more efficient for users?

H2: Can Community browsing help users discover more cross-boundary resources?

Ecology: interplay between tags and metadata? (*) Vuorikari, R., Sillaots, M., Panzavolta, S., & Koper, R. (2009). Are tags from Mars and descriptors from Venus? A study on the ecology of educational resource metadata. In Advances in Web-Based Learning - ICWL 2009, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 5686). Springer. hdl.handle.net/1820/1849

(*) Vuorikari, R., Sillaots, M., Panzavolta, S., & Koper, R. (2009). Are tags from Mars and descriptors from Venus? A study on the ecology of educational resource metadata. In Advances in Web-Based Learning - ICWL 2009, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 5686). Springer. hdl.handle.net/1820/1849

“Thesaurus tags” Characteristics: 11.3% of distinct user-generated tags exist in the LRE multilingual Thesaurus 30.6% of tag applications Popular: On average, these tags were reused 11.8 times (other tags 2.5 times) Add properties to tags e.g. relation to a concept in multilingual Thesaurus, language Add connections, e.g. all the other resources related to this thesaurus term

Characteristics:

11.3% of distinct user-generated tags exist in the LRE multilingual Thesaurus

30.6% of tag applications

Popular:

On average, these tags were reused 11.8 times (other tags 2.5 times)

Add properties to tags

e.g. relation to a concept in multilingual Thesaurus,

language

Add connections, e.g. all the other resources related to this thesaurus term

Link-structures that did not exist before: descriptor - LOM

Link-structures that did not exist before: different tagging platforms Comparison of 3 different tagging tools Comparison of tags in educational context from 5 different platforms Vuorikari, R., Poldoja, H., & Koper, R. (2009). Comparison of educational tagging systems – any chances of interplay? To appear in IJTEL

Comparison of 3 different tagging tools

Comparison of tags in educational context from 5 different platforms

Vuorikari, R., Poldoja, H., & Koper, R. (2009). Comparison of educational tagging systems – any chances of interplay? To appear in IJTEL

Tag-item structure interesting for social navigation across platforms Vuorikari, R., Poldoja, H., & Koper, R. (2009). Comparison of educational tagging systems – any chances of interplay? To appear in IJTEL

Vuorikari, R., Poldoja, H., & Koper, R. (2009). Comparison of educational tagging systems – any chances of interplay? To appear in IJTEL

Cross-repository tagcloud Tags create interplay between repositories Builds on social interactions among users in terms of co-construction of tags From institutional and private resource collections

Tags create interplay between repositories

Builds on social interactions among users in terms of co-construction of tags

From institutional and private resource collections

Cross-repository tagcloud But also: Tags create number of underlying link-structures between content in heterogeneous content platforms and thus opens novel ways for PageRank-type algorithms for better cross-language discovery

But also: Tags create number of underlying link-structures between content in heterogeneous content platforms and thus opens novel ways for PageRank-type algorithms for better cross-language discovery

Conclusions

Epistemological level - how tagging can support discovery - creation of new ways to interact with the discovery process, i.e. SIR

Methodological level - new methods for structuring the communication in the context: tags

Social assistance level -new forms of assistance to correspond better to communities needs (e.g. own vocabularies, topical and lingual tag clouds)

social bookmarks Metadata LOM tags folksonomy ecology multi-linguality social classification thanks ! for your attention learning resources Tags user communities resource discovery questions ? teachers social navigation social traces paths , trails http://elgg.ou.nl/rvu