Developing a Medically Informative and Socially Supportive Interactive Online Network (MISSION)

This thesis discusses virtual communities and social networks and their current and potential uses in health and medicine, proposing a novel virtual health network called a \u27Medically Informative and Socially Supportive Interactive Online Network\u27 (MISSION). The purposes of a MISSION are to 1) serve as an information resource for patients, 2) to facilitate conversation between patient and provider, 3) to potentially aid in office tasks (such as scheduling, billing, etc.), and 4) to aid in community-building acts in patients\u27 own local, physical communities. In this thesis, the concept of virtual communities and social networks are explored, the legal and ethical ramifications of a MISSION are surveyed, current applications similar to a MISSION are analyzed, and recommendations for designing a MISSION are offered. This thesis is intended for an audience of health care communication and information systems professionals who can help put a MISSION into action through working with health care providers and organizations

Building Creativity: Collaborative Learning and Creativity in Social Media Environments

Purpose: Using a systems-based approach to creativity and a sociocultural constructionist approach to learning, this study highlights how creative ideas emerge within a community and spread amongst its members. Design/methodology/approach: Using a design-based approach to research, this study took place within the social media environment, Quest Atlantis. Chat data was collected from 85 participants and screenshots were taken of the virtual architecture designed and built by players in the Quest Atlantis environment, in an effort to explore the nature of creativity and collaborative learning within the context of virtual 3D architectural construction. Findings: Findings illustrate the rise and spread of creativity in online communities and also point to the social and cultural nature of creativity. Research limitations/implications: As this is the first study of its kind, we focus on how creativity operates within a single community in order to draw implications about digital creativity more broadly. Practical implications: Implications for designing virtual and physical communities to promote creativity are discussed. Originality/value: Documenting and analyzing an entire creative system in the everyday world can be a challenging endeavor. Social media, by contrast, offers an opportunity to document, describe, and analyze creativity, extend Csikszentmihalyi’s work into the realm of social media and push back on current conceptions of digital creativity

Making Exhibitions, Brokering Meaning: Designing new connections across communities of practice

New media museum exhibits often see designers representing the research of expert content providers. Despite perceptions that such exhibits provide museum visitors with a greater depth and range of experience, differences in knowledge and practice between designers and content providers can see content development become an unruly, competitive process in which audience experience, digital mediation, visualisation techniques and meaning become contested territory. Drawing on Etienne Wenger’s theory of “communities of practice”, this paper argues that designers’ advocacy for audiences and distance from exhibition content well positions them to broker interdisciplinary goal setting so that exhibitions observe the representational objectives of content providers and meet the needs and preferences of museum visitors. A wide range of design literature already discusses the pragmatic benefits and ethical importance of user-centered design, while the literature on co-design suggests that designed outcomes are more successful if the design process considers the interests of all stakeholders. These discussions can be compelling, but the inherent challenges in engaging others’ perspectives and knowledge in the design process are less acknowledged, Wenger’s ideas on the social dynamics of group enterprise offering designers valuable insights into the actuality of negotiating designed outcomes with non-designer stakeholders. The paper has two main aspects. The first outlines the theory of communities of practice, focusing on the brokering of knowledge and practice between disciplines. This discussion frames an analysis of the design process for two museum exhibitions. Representing an original application of Wenger’s ideas, the discussion recognises the unique role of the designed artifact in brokering information visualization processes, transcending the actions and intentions of individual stakeholders. While accepting there are successful examples of interdisciplinary exchange in various areas of design, the interpretation of examples via Wenger contributes useful principles to the theorisation of co-design with non-designer stakeholders. Keywords: Information visualization; New media museum exhibits; Multidisciplinary projects; Communities of Practice; Brokering; User-centered design; Co-Design; Etienne Wenger</p

Designing for Online Collaborations and Local Environmental Action In Citizen Science: A Multiple Case Study

Traditional citizen science projects have been based on the scientific community’s need to gather vast quantities of high quality data, neglecting to ask what the project participants get in return. How can participants be seen more as collaborative partners in citizen science projects? Online communities for citizen science are expanding rapidly, giving participants the opportunity to take part in a wide range of activities, from monitoring invasive species to identifying far-off galaxies. These communities can bring together the virtual and physical worlds in new ways that are egalitarian, collaborative, applied, localized and globalized to solve real environmental problems. There are a small number of citizen science projects that leverage the affordances of an online community to connect, engage, and empower participants to make local change happen. This multiple case study applies a conceptual framework rooted in sociocultural learning theory, Non-Hierarchical Online Learning Communities (NHOLCs), to three online citizen communities that have successfully fostered online collaboration and on-the-ground environmental actions. The purpose of the study is to identify the range and variation of the online and programmatic functions available in each project. The findings lead to recommendations for designing these innovative communities, specifically the technological and programmatic components of online citizen science communities that support environmental actions in our backyards

A Case for an Online Educational Administrator Practicum Experience

The principal and superintendent practicum experiences have traditionally been entirely face-to-face (f2f) between university professors, interns and site mentors – typically a campus or district administrator (Figure 1). Advancements in technology combined with the exponential growth of online graduate programs give rise to additional incorporation of technology into the practicum experience

Homo ludens-designing tomorrow's games

In an electronic and cybernetic world, when one is faced with the task of devising different kinds of interaction among participants, it is worth reflecting that, out of the many and various activities which people engage in, there is one kind of activity which has been cultivated, practised and performed for thousands of years by all members of society. This is the playing of games

Designing for Online Collaborations and Local Environmental Action In Citizen Science: A Multiple Case Study

Traditional citizen science projects have been based on the scientific community’s need to gather vast quantities of high quality data, neglecting to ask what the project participants get in return. How can participants be seen more as collaborative partners in citizen science projects? Online communities for citizen science are expanding rapidly, giving participants the opportunity to take part in a wide range of activities, from monitoring invasive species to identifying far-off galaxies. These communities can bring together the virtual and physical worlds in new ways that are egalitarian, collaborative, applied, localized and globalized to solve real environmental problems. There are a small number of citizen science projects that leverage the affordances of an online community to connect, engage, and empower participants to make local change happen. This multiple case study applies a conceptual framework rooted in sociocultural learning theory, Non-Hierarchical Online Learning Communities (NHOLCs), to three online citizen communities that have successfully fostered online collaboration and on-the-ground environmental actions. The purpose of the study is to identify the range and variation of the online and programmatic functions available in each project. The findings lead to recommendations for designing these innovative communities, specifically the technological and programmatic components of online citizen science communities that support environmental actions in our backyards

Social Intelligence Design for Mediated Communication

Without abstract

Slacktivists or Activists?: Identity Work in the Virtual Disability March

Protests are important social forms of activism, but can be inaccessible to people with disabilities. Online activism, like the 2017 Disability March, has provided alternative venues for involvement in accessible protesting and social movements. In this study, we use identity theory as a lens to understand why and how disabled activists engaged in an online movement, and its impact on their self-concepts. We interviewed 18 disabled activists about their experiences with online protesting during the Disability March. Respondents' identities (as both disabled individuals and as activists) led them to organize or join the March, evolved alongside the group's actions, and were reprioritized or strained as a result of their involvement. Our findings describe the values and limitations of this activism to our respondents, highlight the tensions they perceived about their activist identities, and present opportunities to support further accessibility and identity changes by integrating technology into their activist experiences