Computer-mediated knowledge communication

New communication technologies enable an array of new working and learning scenarios in which knowledge is being communicated. This article deals with the question to what extent these technologies can impede or facilitate knowledge communication. First, the various computer-based communication technologies will be classified. Second, effects of the medium on knowledge communication will be discussed based on results of studies of the current special priority program "Net-based Knowledge Communication in Groups". Third and last, computer-based possibilities to facilitate computer-mediated knowledge communication will be reviewNeue Kommunikationstechnologien ermöglichen eine Reihe neuer Arbeits- und Lernszenarien in denen Wissen kommuniziert wird. Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich damit, inwiefern diese Technologien Wissenskommunikation einschränken oder fördern können. Dazu werden in einem ersten Schritt die verschiedenen computerbasierten Kommunikationstechnologien untergliedert. In einem zweiten Schritt werden Wirkungen des Mediums auf die Wissenskommunikation diskutiert. Dazu werden u. a. die Ergebnisse von Studien des aktuellen Forschungsschwerpunkts "Netzbasierte Wissenskommunikation in Gruppen" berichtet. In einem dritten und letzten Schritt werden computerbasierte Möglichkeiten zusammengefasst, computervermittelte Wissenskommunikation zu förd

3D virtual worlds as environments for literacy learning

Background: Although much has been written about the ways in which new technology might transform educational practice, particularly in the area of literacy learning, there is relatively little empirical work that explores the possibilities and problems - or even what such a transformation might look like in the classroom. 3D virtual worlds offer a range of opportunities for children to use digital literacies in school, and suggest one way in which we might explore changing literacy practices in a playful, yet meaningful context. Purpose: This paper identifies some of the key issues that emerged in designing and implementing virtual world work in a small number of primary schools in the UK. It examines the tensions between different discourses about literacy and literacy learning and shows how these were played out by teachers and pupils in classroom settings.Sources of evidence: Case study data are used as a basis for exploring and illustrating key aspects of design and implementation. The case study material includes views from a number of perspectives including classroom observations, chatlogs, in-world avatar interviews with teachers and also pupils, as well as the author’s field notes of the planning process with accompanying minutes and meeting documents.Main argument: From a Foucauldian perspective, the article suggests that social control of pedagogical practice through the regulation of curriculum time, the normalisation of teaching routines and the regimes of individual assessment restricts teachers’ and pupils’ conceptions of what constitutes literacy. The counternarrative, found in recent work in new litearcies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006) provides an attractive alternative, but a movement in this direction requires a fundamental shift of emphasis and a re-conceptualisation of what counts as learning.Conclusions: This work on 3D virtual worlds questions the notion of how transformative practice can be achieved with the use of new technologies. It suggests that changes in teacher preparation, continuing professional development as well as wider educational reform may be needed

StreamFunnel: Facilitating Communication Between a VR Streamer and Many Spectators

The increasing adoption of Virtual Reality (VR) systems in different domains have led to a need to support interaction between many spectators and a VR user. This is common in game streaming, live performances, and webinars. Prior CSCW systems for VR environments are limited to small groups of users. In this work, we identify problems associated with interaction carried out with large groups of users. To address this, we introduce an additional user role: the co-host. They mediate communications between the VR user and many spectators. To facilitate this mediation, we present StreamFunnel, which allows the co-host to be part of the VR application's space and interact with it. The design of StreamFunnel was informed by formative interviews with six experts. StreamFunnel uses a cloud-based streaming solution to enable remote co-host and many spectators to view and interact through standard web browsers, without requiring any custom software. We present results of informal user testing which provides insights into StreamFunnel's ability to facilitate these scalable interactions. Our participants, who took the role of a co-host, found that StreamFunnel enables them to add value in presenting the VR experience to the spectators and relaying useful information from the live chat to the VR user.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Online avatar based interactions

The gridWorld project attempts to utilize 3D to develop an online multi-user visual chat system. GridWorld address ideas of how conversations in a virtual environment can be facilitated and enhanced by an abstract visual interface design. The visual interface was developed from research and examination of existing ideas, methodologies and application for development of user-embodiment, chat/virtual space, and interface useability towards the visualization of communication

Attitudes and emotions through written text: The case of textual deformation in Internet chat rooms

Spanish Internet chat rooms are visited by a lot of young people who use language in a very creative way (e.g. repetition of letters and punctuation marks). In this paper, several hypotheses concerning the uses of textual deformation assess their communicative usefulness. The goal of these hypotheses is to check whether these deformations favour a more accurate identification and evaluation of the senders’ underlying attitudes (propositional or affective) and emotions. The answers to a questionnaire indicate that despite the supplementary level of information that textual deformation provides, readers tend not to agree on the exact quality of the sender’s underlying attitudes and emotions, nor do they tend to establish degrees of intensity related to the quantity of text typed. However, and despite this evidence, textual deformation seems to play a part in the eventual quality of chat users’ interpretations of the messages sent to chat rooms.Los chats españoles de Internet son visitados por muchos jóvenes que usan el lenguaje de una forma muy creativa (ej. repetición de letras y signos de puntuación). En este artículo se evalúan varias hipótesis sobre el uso de la deformación textual respecto a su eficacia comunicativa. Se trata de comprobar si estas deformaciones favorecen una identificación y evaluación más adecuada de las actitudes (proposicionales o afectivas) y emociones de sus autores. Las respuestas a un cuestionario revelan que a pesar de la información adicional que la deformación textual aporta, los lectores no suelen coincidir en la cualidad exacta de estas actitudes y emociones, ni establecen grados de intensidad relacionados con la cantidad de texto tecleada. Sin embargo, y a pesar de estos resultados, la deformación textual parece jugar un papel en la interpretación que finalmente se elige de estos mensajes enviados a los chats.The research for this paper has been supported by IULMA (Instituto Interuniversitario de Lenguas Modernas Aplicadas)

Exploring Community Building with an Awareness Display

In this paper, we present a field trial of a pervasive system called Panorama that is aimed at supporting social awareness in work environments. Panorama is an intelligent situated display in the staff room of an academic department. It artistically represents non-critical user generated content such as images from holidays, conferences and other social gatherings, as well as textual messages on its display. It also captures images and videos from different public spaces of the department and streams them onto the Panorama screen, using appropriate abstraction techniques. We studied the use of Panorama for two weeks and observed how Panorama affected staff members’ social awareness and community building. We report that Panorama simulated curiosity and learning, initiated new interactions and provided a mechanism for cherishing old memories

A Bandwidth-Conserving Architecture for Crawling Virtual Worlds

A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit via avatars. Content in virtual worlds such as Second Life or OpenSimulator is increasingly presented using three-dimensional (3D) dynamic presentation technologies that challenge traditional search technologies. As 3D environments become both more prevalent and more fragmented, the need for a data crawler and distributed search service will continue to grow. By increasing the visibility of content across virtual world servers in order to better collect and integrate the 3D data we can also improve the crawling and searching efficiency and accuracy by avoiding crawling unchanged regions or downloading unmodified objects that already exist in our collection. This will help to save bandwidth resources and Internet traffic during the content collection and indexing and, for a fixed amount of bandwidth, maximize the freshness of the collection. This work presents a new services paradigm for virtual world crawler interaction that is co-operative and exploits information about 3D objects in the virtual world. Our approach supports analyzing redundant information crawled from virtual worlds in order to decrease the amount of data collected by crawlers, keep search engine collections up to date, and provide an efficient mechanism for collecting and searching information from multiple virtual worlds. Experimental results with data crawled from Second Life servers demonstrate that our approach provides the ability to save crawling bandwidth consumption, to explore more hidden objects and new regions to be crawled that facilitate the search service in virtual worlds

Transition to 3D social networking

In this paper we analyse the theoretical under-pinnings underlying collaboration in virtual environments and propose a 3D Virtual World (VW) approach to the construction and facilitation of communities of practice within the context of social innovation. Although connected networks can emerge from 'flat' 2D Social Networks, while face-to-face meetings have been proven successful to undertake innovative entrepreneurial ventures, the 3D VW approach possesses affordances that can be exploited to augment the experience. We propose a model for a 3D Virtual World, as part of the Euro South Hub project, that facilitates the social innovation experience through collaboration and the setting up of communities of practice, using the Virtual Environment to move towards producing solutions for a better physical world.peer-reviewe