YouTube as a repository : the creative practice of students as producers of Open Educational Resources

In this paper we present an alternative view of Open Educational Resources (OERs). Rather than focusing on open media resources produced by expert practitioners for use by peers and learners, we examine the practice of learners as active agents, producing open media resources using the devices in their pockets: their mobile phones. In this study, students are the producers and operate simultaneously as legitimate members of the YouTube community and producers of educational content for future cohorts. Taking an Action Research approach we investigated how student’s engagement with open media resources related to their creativity. Using Kleiman’s framework of fives conceptual themes which emerged from academics experiences of creativity (constraint, process, product, transformation, fulfillment), we found that these themes revealed the opportunities designed into the assessed task and provided a useful lens with which to view students’ authentic creative experiences. Students’ experience of creativity mapped on to Kleiman’s framework, and was affected by assessment. Dimensions of openness changed across platforms, although the impact of authenticity and publication on creativity was evident, and the production of open media resources that have a dual function as OERs has clear benefits in terms of knowledge sharing and community participation.The transformational impacts for students were evident in the short term but would merit a longitudinal study. A series of conclusions are drawn to inform future practice and research

Online communication and information technology education

Blended Learning, a learning facilitation that incorporates different modes of delivery, models of teaching, and learning styles, introduces multiple media to the dialog between the learner and the facilitator. This paper examines online communication as the link between established theory of learning and literature on e-learning in order to better understand the appropriate use of blended learning in an actual Information Technology course. First, previously defined theoretical constructs that utilize communication as a facilitator for learning are considered. Then, using the Interpretivist standpoint, we examine data gathered from focus groups and interviews to gauge the experience of staff and students who were participants in a Blended Learning course. There are four previously defined theoretical constructs of greatest relevance to blended learning. Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development highlights the importance of communication with capable peers who can provide stimuli and feedback to a learning individual. Wegner’s Communities of Practice are groups of individuals who share a common practice interest and rely on a dialogue to facilitate learning. Laurillard’s Conversational Framework includes a pragmatic 12- step model that teachers can use to structure their learning facilitation. Finally, Salmon’s EModeration considers five stages of online communication in terms of how the moderator might facilitate dialogue among learners. These four theoretical models form the basis for understanding the implementation of blended learning discussed here. The course studied was a part-time Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology (IT), delivered using Blended Learning. Students were required to attend one evening per week and make substantial use of Web based learning over a period of five years. Students were mature, some already working in the IT field. Forty students in a first cohort and eighteen students in a second cohort were studied during the first year of their course. While students in the first cohort who succeeded in the course often found the discussion boards to be of considerable value in discussing assignments and sharing learning, the boards also could discourage those with less technical backgrounds. There is data to suggest that a high rate of dropouts and failures among the first cohort after just one year may have been influenced by discouragement felt by those who could not keep up with the technical level of the discussion board posts. As a result of this data, for the second cohort, the number of online communications was reduced to one assessed online discussion that was closely monitored. As a result, discussions were more on-topic; however students reported significantly less sense of community. Again, a high dropout rate resulted. Our results suggest that communication is both a challenge and an enabler for facilitating a successful blended learning course. Blended learning is not simply a matter of the combination of face-to-face and online instruction, but it has to have elements of social interaction. It appears to be important to allow students to bond together and to socialize. Knowing each other eases the communication barriers and reduces the fear of posting messages into an open forum. At its best, online communication can provide study help, social interaction, and a sense of community. We have evidence that when students are required more frequently to cooperate online, they share a common problem and on some level create their own “problem solving” community. However, our data from the first cohort indicates that unguided communication of a Community of Practice can lead to undesirable effects. At the same time, our data from the second cohort indicates that a very structured approach is also undesirable. The ideal situation, it seems, is somewhere in the middle. However, the middle is not easily defined. Because the community depends on the individuals who are the main components of it, it is difficult to predict how the same environment would influence different individuals or different cohorts. Thus, the ultimate responsibility is on the lecturer to listen to the students and engage in continuous dialogue

Creating Sustainable Education Projects In Roat, Honduras Through Continuous Process Improvement

The investigators worked together with permanent residents of Roatán, Honduras on sustainable initiatives to help improve the island’s troubled educational programs. Our initiatives focused on increasing the number of students eligible and likely to attend a university. Using a methodology based in continuous process improvement, we developed tutoring programs, college preparation workshops, long-term plans for a local school, and solicited involvement by an island educational coalition.  Lessons learned from these initiatives may be used to expand other efforts on the island and can be generalized to other programs in Central America

Creating Sustainable Education Projects in Roatan, Honduras Through Continuous Process Improvement

The investigators worked together with permanent residents of Roatán, Honduras on sustainable initiatives to help improve the island’s troubled educational programs. Our initiatives focused on increasing the number of students eligible and likely to attend a university. Using a methodology based in continuous process improvement, we developed tutoring programs, college preparation workshops, long-term plans for a local school, and solicited involvement by an island educational coalition. Lessons learned from these initiatives may be used to expand other efforts on the island and can be generalized to other programs in Central America

The Application of Individual and Collective Rationality to e-Collaboration

This paper explains and discusses the outcomes from an action research study into on-line participation. Two, often countervailing notions of rationality are examined, firstly by deconstructing individually held, subjective constructs of trust and power and, secondly, by examining collectivist assumptions regarding the formation of online communities. We contest assumptions from the literatures, which over emphasise the importance of IT in ‘constructing’ online communities, stemming from the adoption of a wholly rationalist view of the human participants – as pursuers of knowledge, regulated and directed by rational principles

Knowledge Sharing Initiatives in a Chinese Professional Services Firm

Knowledge management has received increasing attention from both academics and practitioners in the past few years. However, much of what we know is limited to larger organisations in developed economies. In this study, we describe and analyse the impact of an knowledge sharing project in a medium sized Chinese professional services firm. Employing Canonical Action Research, we describe how we diagnosed the organisational situation, planned theory-driven changes, implemented a new knowledge sharing platform and then evaluated the outcomes of the implementation. Key findings relate to the importance of guanxi (relationships) between employees and the role of instant messaging technology. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for knowledge management in the Chinese context are discussed. Recommendations for future research and additional technology applications are identified

On The Research Approaches Employed at Recent European Conferences on Information Systems (ECIS 2002 - ECIS 2004)

European Information Systems research is reflected in the papers presented at the European Conference for Information Systems (ECIS). It seems that we employ a number of different approaches for research in the IS community. There has been a debate on methodological appropriateness and choice of research approach over the years. This paper adds to that debate by presenting a snapshot of what research approaches have been employed at recent ECIS. This paper presents a classification scheme for discussing research approaches and applies that scheme to analyse the papers presented at the three most recent ECIS. The results show that the proportion of studies employing qualitative interviews in combination with document studies has increased. The proportion of studies employing prolonged organisational engagement is relatively stable, while experimental studies where artefacts are constructed and/or tested are decreasing