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
© E. Kowch 2002 1
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!)
© E. Kowch 2002 2
Though Provoking Question:
Distributed Science Education:
Could this be done with adult
(non-teacher)
supervision in the room for safety?
Notice:
Please check out the lesson plan
on the Course Home Page
for This week’s
Core readings
Assignment
extra resource links
at
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~ekowch/677/Oct3class/oct3lesson.html
© E. Kowch 2002 3
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.
© E. Kowch 2002 4
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
© E. Kowch 2002 5
Asynchronous
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).
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).
© E. Kowch 2002 6
Asynchronous
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)
Rhetorical Question:
Examples and Resources:
Instructional Technology Forum Listserv Web Site
http://itech1.coe.uga.edu/ITForum/home.html
The Distance Education Online Symposium
http://lists.psu.edu/archives/deos-l.html
Do you know why so many companies
want to host email service?
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
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 2002 7
Asynchronous
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/
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 2002 8
Asynchronous
2. Threaded Discussion Forums
Pull - 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
Response
To idea
#1
Response
To idea
#n
• 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
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 2002 9
Asynchronous
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.
© E. Kowch 200210
Asynchronous
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/
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 200211
Asynchronous
Asynchronous Communication Systems
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….
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 200212
Asynchronous
Asynchronous Communication Systems
Issues:
Motivation for student participation
1.
2.
3.
Extrinsic motivation (idenfity clear expectations and marking rubric
for the online discussion)
Intrinsic motivation (clear relevance and connection of the online
discussions with the course content and expectations)
Variety (online discussions are ‘fun’ and not repetitive, and deep
enough for the group to be interested, engaged)
© E. Kowch 200213
Synchronous
Synchronous Communication Systems
1) Online Chat
2) Multi-User Dimension (MUD) and MultiObject Oriented (MOO)
3) Virtual Synchronous Classrooms
© E. Kowch 200214
Synchronous
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
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 200215
Synchronous
Online Chat
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)
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 200216
Synchronous
Online Chat
1) Common Issues
•
server based chat (one or many to many) vs. one-toone 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
For more resources on this topic - Click here
http://webcta.ucalgary.ca/SCRIPT/EDER_677/scripts/student/serve_chat.pl?ST
ART+972581775
© E. Kowch 200217
Synchronous
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.html
Love online… who says CMC has to be boring? (yikes)
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent/380proj/380web.htm
http://joint.mccaig.ucalgary.ca/vc/definitions.htm
Bibliography of Electronic Sources: MOOs
http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/bibliog.html
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 200218
Synchronous
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/
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 200219
Synchronous
Online Synchronous Environs
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
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 200220
Synchronous
Synchronous Teaching and Learning (CMC) Environs
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
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 200221
Asyncrhonous and Synchronous
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.html
A great collection of CMC focused articles: Can you deconstruct “media” well?
• http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Functions/mcs.html
How humor works in CMC education: one person’s view - challenge it.
• http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol1/issue2/baym.html
CMC 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
Futher Resources - Click here
© E. Kowch 200222
“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.
For more resources on this topic - Click here
© E. Kowch 200223