Communities of practice and virtual learning communities : benefits, barriers and success factors

A virtual Community of Practice (CoP) is a network of individuals who share a domain of interest about which they communicate online. The practitioners share resources (for example experiences, problems and solutions, tools, methodologies). Such communication results in the improvement of the knowledge of each participant in the community and contributes to the development of the knowledge within the domain. A virtual learning community may involve the conduct of original research but it is more likely that its main purpose is to increase the knowledge of participants, via formal education or professional development. Virtual learning communities could have learning as their main goal or the elearning could be generated as a side effect. Virtual communities of practice (CoPs) and virtual learning communities are becoming widespread within higher education institutions (HEIs) thanks to technological developments which enable increased communication, interactivity among participants and incorporation of collaborative pedagogical models, specifically through information communications technologies (ICTs) They afford the potential for the combination of synchronous and asynchronous communication, access to -and from- geographically isolated communities and international information sharing. Clearly there are benefits to be derived from sharing and learning within and outwith HEIs. There is a sense of connectedness, of shared passion and a deepening of knowledge to be derived from ongoing interaction. Knowledge development can be continuous, cyclical and fluid. However, barriers exist in virtual CoPs and these are defined by the authors and illustrated with quotes from academic staff who have been involved in CoPs. Critical success factors (CSFs) for a virtual CoP are discussed. These include usability of technology; trust in, and acceptance of, ICTs in communication; a sense of belonging among members; paying attention to cross-national and cross-cultural dimensions of the CoP; shared understandings; a common sense of purpose; use of netiquette and user-friendly language and longevity. The authors recognise the enormous potential for the development of CoPs through e-mail discussion lists and discussion boards but have themselves experienced the difficulties inherent in initiating such a community. These are corroborated and illustrated with text from interviews with academic staff. Much of the literature on CoPs emanates from outside Europe, despite the fact that e-learning articles have a large diffusion around Europe. The authors suggest further exploration of this topic by identifying and studying CoPs and virtual learning communities across EU countries

The Effectiveness of Common Language: A Contextual Analysis of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and Rev. Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail

MACK-ARTHUR TURNER, JR: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COMMON LANGUAGE: A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THOMAS PAINE\u27S COMMON SENSE AND REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING\u27S LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL ) People are different in several ways; however, we are also share many similarities. For example, we all have ways in which we can communicate others. One of the problems in communicating is connecting with one\u27s intended audience. The way that people construct their ideas and convey them could be effective based on the audiences\u27 ability to understand, interpret, and react. In this paper, I examine the way in which many powerful and influential American leaders have used a particular form of communication to inspire the masses. I analyze the way in which two powerful figures, Thomas Paine and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., use a form of common language to connect with certain audiences oftheir time and even now. After analyzing the authors\u27 text, Common Sense and Letterfrom a Birmingham Jail, I conclude that the language that they incorporate into their text is neither simple nor falls within the binary framework of elevated language or less elevated language, but is rooted in a third form of communication that I identify as Common Language. In the conclusion I identify the three essential characteristics ofCommon Language: nationalism, religion, and labor

The Effectiveness of Common Language: A Contextual Analysis of Thomas Paine\u27s Common Sense and Rev. Martin Luther King\u27s \u27Letter from a Birmingham Jail\u27

People are different in several ways; however, we are also share many similarities. For example, we all have ways in which we can communicate others. One of the problems in communicating is connecting with one\u27s intended audience. The way that people construct their ideas and convey them could be effective based on the audiences\u27 ability to understand, interpret, and react. In this paper, I examine the way in which many powerful and influential American leaders have used a particular form of communication to inspire the masses. I analyze the way in which two powerful figures, Thomas Paine and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., use a form of common language to connect with certain audiences of their time and even now. After analyzing the authors\u27 text. Common Sense and Letter from a Birmingham Jail, I conclude that the language that they incorporate into their text is neither simple nor falls within the binary framework of elevated language or less elevated language, but is rooted in a third form of communication that I identify as Common Language. In the conclusion I identify the three essential characteristics of Common Language: nationalism, religion, and labor

Femiliar: An Artistic Exploration of Feminism Through Comedy

This project seeks to examine feminism through the widely accessible means of comedic performance. I have written, created, and acted in a web series that I established for several reasons: namely, to diffuse information about the oppressions that female-identifying individuals face in their everyday life as well as in the larger scheme of existence, but also to attempt to create a community of intersectional communication and collaboration where women can go to express their grievances and inspirations as well as seek comfort for the issues that plague them by nature of their gender identification. The show, Femiliar, is a sketch comedy web series consisting of one-minute episodes, released weekly, that satirize problematic ideologies pervasive throughout modern society. I have been able to garner hundreds of views on the various videos I have released and hope to continue to inspire a change of thought in people who are not affected directly by these issues, and to foster a sense of hope for those who are. I have addressed common issues such as catcalling and pop culture’s portrayal of women, but also less-recognized problems like oppressive female clothing and the perceived ownership of women by their spouses and fathers

Port-all: Reproduction of the sense of companionship in a long-distance relationship

The long-distance relationship is a common phenomenon in contemporary society. Nowadays with the development of the Internet, we have various instant messaging software which gives us an effective way to keep communication with distant others. But it also brings a series of new problems. Due to the lack of physical contact, time difference, and high dependence on the Internet, people often experience negative emotions in long-distance relationships from delayed communication, suspicion, and misunderstanding of messages. Research shows that most couples feel tired and anxious for a long time in a long-distance relationship, and one of the core reasons is the lack of sense of companionship in their daily lives. The author will explore the design needs by analyzing the characteristics of the long-distance relationship and the psychological components of the sense of companionship, explore design possibilities by investigating existing science and technology, and illustrate the design opportunities by enumerating specific scenarios. As result, the author will propose a complete set of solutions, which could present companionship to help long-distance couples maintain their relationships

Understanding Different Cultural Patterns or Orientations Between East and West

Rudyard Kipling says in the Ballad of East and West: “East is East, and West is West; and never the twain shall meet.” Yet, he never expected that with the technological development in transportation and communication, the Westerners and Easterners that have quite different cultures respectively would meet so frequently nowadays in international settings. However, in a sense, Kipling is absolutely correct in that people with different cultural patterns (including beliefs, values, attitudes, norms, customs, and material aspects), especially those from East and West, do encounter communication difficulties, breakdowns, misunderstandings and even conflicts and confrontations just because they fail to understand each other in their intercultural communication. The study of intercultural communication is not something new. However, the perspective from which the author probes into the problematic interaction between Easterners and Westerners is something different. In the paper, the author compares some major cultural patterns: high-context communication vs. low-context communication, individualism vs. collectivism, equality vs. hierarchy, and assertiveness vs. interpersonal harmony. Each of these cultural patterns is defined by examples, two opposite patterns are contrasted, and then potential problems are presented, thus making quite obvious the differences between East and West and their possible consequences in the intercultural communication. Understanding these cultural patterns or orientations which underlie most common behavior of the Easterners and Westerners helps us to see beneath the surface to find out why people from East and West act as they do. This discovery may lead us to appreciate the rich diversity and genius that exist in different parts of the globe, avoid potential intercultural problems and become successful communicators in the interaction between East and West

MAINTENANCE OF DATA RICHNESS IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION DATA

Business negotiations – be they face-to-face or electronic – are conducted through communication enabling the declaration of negotiation objectives and active implementation of negotiation strategies to achieve pre-defined goals and the declaration of a successful or unsuccessful end of the negotiation. The processing of exchanged textual communication enables the automatic transformation of unstructured data into processable structured datasets and subsequently the analysis of textual content without losing the data richness of exchanged communication messages. For this purpose, the paper presents Text Mining-based pre-processing approaches and dimensionality reduction algorithms from Feature Extraction and Feature Selection in a research framework and evaluates those to counteract common dimensionality problems with textual processing. In doing so, the maintenance of data richness in communication data is considered as the overall goal to determine the dataset with minimal information loss. In this sense, various pre-processed and transformed communication datasets derived from dimensionality reduction are integrated as input data into selected classification models to measure the prediction performance regarding the final negotiation outcome with ROC analysis. The central results of the ROC show that quantified business communication generated by Optimized Selection delivers the best data based on Lovins’ stemming algorithm compared to stemming variations of Forward Selection and SVD

Modelling and Optimisation of GSM and UMTS Radio Access Networks

The size and complexity of mobile communication networks have increased in the last years making network management a very complicated task. GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN) systems are in a mature state now. Thus, non-optimal performance does not come from typical network start-up problems, but, more likely, from the mismatching between traffic, network or propagation models used for network planning, and their real counterparts. Such differences cause network congestion problems both in signalling and data channels. With the aim of maximising the financial benefits on their mature networks, operators do not solve anymore congestion problems by adding new radio resources, as they usually did. Alternatively, two main strategies can be adopted, a) a better assignment of radio resources through a re-planning approach, and/or b) the automatic configuration (optimisation, in a wide sense) of network parameters. Both techniques aim to adapt the network to the actual traffic and propagation conditions. Moreover, a new heterogenous scenario, where several services and Radio Access Technologies (RATs) coexist in the same area, is now common, causing new unbalanced traffic scenarios and congestion problems. In this thesis, several optimisation and modelling methods are proposed to solve congestion problems in data and signalling channels for single- and multi-RAT scenarios