The ECOSENSUS Project: Co-Evolving Tools, Practices and Open Content for Participatory Natural Resource Management

ECOSENSUS (Electronic/Ecological Collaborative Sensemaking Support System)[www.ecosensus.info] is an ESRC e-Social Science pilot project, using a Participatory Action Research methodology to evolve tools and work practices for collaborative work in environmental and natural resource management between a European-based team, and stakeholders involved in the region of concern, the North Rupununi District of Guyana. To promote long term capacity building in the region and beyond, the project's outputs will be disseminated as open source learning resources. Given the disparities in knowledge and power in such a project, central to our work are issues of stakeholder empowerment in the geographical modelling, interpretation and decision making practices that constitute environmental management. We argue that in e-Science, such factors have yet to receive much attention. This paper reports work accomplished to date: progress towards an environment which integrates GIS modelling with participatory deliberation about the implications of the models, and reactions from the indigenous Amerindians to this tool

The enhancement of collaborative learning through integrated knowledge management systems: E-learning model

There are still a few educational platforms that apply a Knowledge Management System (KMS) concept in conducting its operational work. In addition, several obstacles associated with e-learning implementation trigger the in-effectiveness of collaborative learning. However, the concept of Knowledge Management (KM) from a Sharia perspective has significant implications for education systems. This research, therefore, explored the relevance of the Learning Management System (LMS), KM theory, and Sharia education perspective on the development of the Integrated Knowledge Management System (IKMS) Framework. The IKMS components and structures are literature reviewed and then qualitatively justified through the focus group discussion which involved some students, lectures, and experts from two Sharia-based Universities in Indonesia. To verify and test the framework, an IKMS-Edu system was developed by focusing on the adoption of a controlling agent system in the online discussion. Herein, filtering and summarization technology was embedded into IKMS-Edu towards a smart controlling agent. This agent adopted the operational work of IKMS-Edu framework leveraging in four constructs activities viz., knowledge creation and knowledge acquisition (construct 1), knowledge organization and knowledge storage (construct 2), knowledge dissemination and knowledge retrieval (construct 3), and knowledge evaluation and feedback (construct 4). To date, the statistical evaluation of the IKMS-Edu system’s acceptance is conducted by disseminating the questionnaires. The mean scores revealed 40.45% of the respondents strongly agreed, and 42.18% agreed on the proposed framework and prototype system thus the framework aided in performing the IKMS during the collaborative learning activities. As such, this evidence provides the strong support that IKMS-Edu significantly enhanced the effectiveness of collaborative learning by considering the Sharia values of trust, knowledge, virtue, psychosocial, and civilization development into knowledge management activities

Mi-Learn : an evaluation of an m-learning management system

M-Learning is a novel concept concerned with delivering learning content over mobile devices, which today is being seen as a way to support for conventional and collaborative learning as well as for extending the scope of e-learning. This paper presents the work carried out on a research project named Mi-Learn, whose goal is that of gathering background knowledge within the field of m-learning, identification of related research problems, and creating an environment where solutions to these problems can be identified and evaluated. Pocket SCORM initiatives such as [ADL04] that are working towards a set of standards for m-learning have identified the restricted user interface and the requirement for offline learning sessions as the two major challenges in this area. The work presented in this paper forms part of the first phase of an m- learning research project and concentrates on the first of these challenges. By means of a pilot m-learning management system, an evaluation exercise was carried out in order to assess the impact of a restricted user interface on the learning experience. The evaluation carried out takes both the pedagogical and user interface aspects as the evaluation criteria. Evaluation results show that currently there seems to be a value for m-learning, but more as an extension for exiting e-learning programmes rather than a complete learning management system on its own. The results also helped in clarifying the research area and setting a direction for further research work.peer-reviewe

Topic Maps : a bibliometric study

Topic Maps is an international standard (ISO/IEC 13250) to describe and encode knowledge structures and associating them with relevant information resources. This thesis seeks to investigate what has been written about Topic Maps from year 2000 to 2011, as well as finding out the research and publication trend in Topic Maps. This study was based on quantitative methodology, which was bibliometric analysis. The data was collected from Scopus and Web of Knowledge databases. Search keywords used are “topic map”, “topic maps” and “ISO/IEC 13250”. A total of 356 publications (265 conference papers, 91 journal articles) from 2001 to 2011 taken into data analysis. The findings revealed that Topic Maps researchers had a preference to present their findings in conference rather than in journal. The authorship pattern was more towards coauthorship. Most researchers were coauthored locally, as international collaboration was very low. Computer science and library and information science related journals were the favourite publishing venue. Majority of the conferences were computer science and education related. The focus of the topic maps was on data integration and interoperability (2001-2004), information theory (2005 – 2008), knowledge and intelligent based system (2009 – 2011). Also, there were five themes identified, namely content management, repository, ontology, information architecture, retrieval and navigation, and semantic web. The future research areas will possibly be collaborative e-learning system, knowledge visualization system, visualization construction, semantic metadata creation from a relational database, knowledge navigation and retrieval improvement, intelligent topic map, distributed knowledge management based on extended topic maps, knowledge service system, knowledge representation modeling, and multi granularity and multi-level knowledge.Joint Master Degree in Digital Library Learning (DILL

E-learning as a Vehicle for Knowledge Management

Nowadays, companies want to learn from their own experiences and to be able to enhance that experience with best principles and lessons learned from other companies. Companies emphasise the importance of knowledge management, particularly the relationship between knowledge and learning within an organisation. We feel that an e-learning environment may contribute to knowledge management on the one hand and to the learning need in companies on the other hand. In this paper, we report on the challenges in designing and implementing an e-learning environment. We identify the properties from a pedagogical view that should be supported by an e-learning environment. Then, we discuss the challenges in developing a system that includes these properties

The Role of Group Learning in Implementation of a Personnel Management System in a Hospital

A new HR system was introduced in a Dutch hospital. The system implied collaborative work among its users. The project planning seemed to be reasonably straightforward: the system's introduction was intended to take place gradually, including pilots in different departments and appropriate feedback. After some time, the system was successfully adopted by one group of users, but failed with another. We conceptualize the implementation process of groupware as group learning to frame the adoption of the system, and analyze the qualitative data collected during the longitudinal case study. We found that in the user group with strong group learning, adoption of the system occurred effectively and on time. In another user group with rather weak group learning, the use of the system was blocked after a short time. The results provided a first confirmation of our assumption about the importance of group learning processes in the implementation of groupware

Mediating boundaries between knowledge and knowing: ICT and R4D praxis

Research for development (R4D) praxis (theory-informed practical action) can be underpinned by the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) which, it is claimed, provide opportunities for knowledge working and sharing. Such a framing implicitly or explicitly constructs a boundary around knowledge as reified, or commodified – or at least able to be stabilized for a period of time (first order knowledge). In contrast ‘third-generation knowledge’ emphasizes the social nature of learning and knowledge-making; this reframes knowledge as a negotiated social practice, thus constructing a different system boundary. This paper offers critical reflections on the use of a wiki as a data repository and mediating technical platform as part of innovating in R4D praxis. A sustainable social learning process was sought that fostered an emergent community of practice among biophysical and social researchers acting for the first time as R4D co-researchers. Over time the technologically mediated element of the learning system was judged to have failed. This inquiry asks: How can learning system design cultivate learning opportunities and respond to learning challenges in an online environment to support R4D practice? Confining critical reflection to the online learning experience alone ignores the wider context in which knowledge work took place; therefore the institutional setting is also considered