Learning to become an online editor: the editathon as a learning environment

This study explores Wikipedia as a site for learning. In particular it traces how people learn to become Wikipedia editors through engagement in an editathon, a training event for people who want to become a volunteer editor. The study is original in its emphasis on the various types of knowledge editors acquire as they develop expertise. Determining the knowledge needed to contribute to Wikipedia is significant in terms of understanding Wikipedia as a site for learning. Data was gathered from nine participants who took part in an ‘editathon’ event on the theme of the Edinburgh Seven. The study used a rigorous methodology, combining quantitative social network analysis, documenting the online activity of participants as they created and edited Wikipedia pages, with qualitative interviews, which recorded participants reflections on their participation in the editathon. A key finding is that conceptual and procedural knowledge are representative of the foundational knowledge needed to contribute to Wikipedia actively as an editor. However, this knowledge on its own is not sufficient. Editors also develop socio-cultural and relational knowledge forms of knowledge to enable them to operate and problem-solve effectively. The relationship between the physical and the digital is important, since socio-cultural and relational knowledge are developed through active experimentation as the editathon engage with physical objects to create the online wiki pages

The effect of reduced rates of crop protection agents and adjuvants on productivity, weed infestation and health of spring barley (Hordeum sativum L.)

A field experiment on the cultivation of spring barley was carried out in the period 2009–2011 at the Experimental Farm in Czesławice (central Lublin region) on grey-brown podzolic soil derived from loess (soil quality class II). The study included 3 rates of herbicides, growth retardant and fungicides (100%, 75% and 50%) as well as different types of adjuvant (oil, surface-active, mineral). Plots without adjuvant were the control treatment. A hypothesis was made that the reduction in rates of crop protection agents by 25–50%, with the simultaneous addition of adjuvants, would allow spring barley productivity to be maintained at a level similar to that obtained under the conditions when recommended rates are applied without adjuvant. It was also assumed that particular types of adjuvant would show different interactions with specific groups of crop protection agents. It has been proved that a rational reduction in rates of crop protection agents is up to a limit of 25%, especially when an adjuvant is added to such reduced rates. This allows spring barley productivity to be maintained at the level obtained after the application of full rates (without adjuvant). But a further reduction in rates of crop protection agents by 50%, in spite of the interaction of adjuvants, results in a significant deterioration of all spring barley yield components, since such conditions lead to increased occurrence of agricultural pests (weeds, fungal diseases) as well as increased crop lodging. Among the group of adjuvants tested in the present experiment, the oil adjuvant Atpolan 80 EC showed the best interaction with crop protection agents used

Knowledge dating and knowledge sharing in ad-hoc transient communities

This chapter will focus on the question of what rules and policies are conducive to the emergence of an adequate support infrastructure in the non-formal settings of a Learning Network. Once such an infrastructure is in place, a variety of ways again embedded in rules and policies may be used to guarantee its continued exis-tence. This was the subject of the previous chapter. Here the focus is on the phase of the emergence of social interaction and the formation of an incipient social in-frastructure. It is in this stage that the lone learner makes acquaintance with his or her online peers. More specifically, since learning through the exchange of knowl-edge is the ultimate objective of any Learning Network, we will present guidelines for effective and efficient knowledge dating in Learning Networks; ultimately, this should lead to knowledge sharing. During our discussion, we will introduce the notion of ad-hoc transient communities, temporal online gatherings of people fo-cused on a particular issue, which precisely because of their focus and transience help build a social infrastructure in a Learning Network. Ad-hoc transient com-munities may be seen as a knowledge dating and sharing service, offered in the context of a Learning Network

Training teachers for the multimedia age: developing teacher expertise to enhance online learner interaction and collaboration

This article considers the skills that enable teachers to foster interaction and collaboration in online language learning. Drawing on Hampel and Stickler’s (2005) skills pyramid for online language learning and teaching, it presents the pre-service and in-service training programme that associate lecturers in the Department of Languages at the Open University undergo in the context of teaching languages with the help of online communication tools. Two projects are presented that shed more light on the expertise required to teach languages in virtual learning environments. The first project highlights the skills that are needed to teach in a complex online environment; the second one, a teacher training study, aimed to examine distance teachers’ experience of facilitating online group work, identify development needs, try out the potential of specific asynchronous and synchronous tools to support collaborative learning and trial possible development activities. The paper concludes by describing the kind of training programme that tutors require in order to acquire the skills identified

Requests On E-Mail: a Cross-Cultural Comparison

This study investigates differences in request e-mails written in English by Chinese English learners and native American English speakers The results show that while Chinese English learners treat e-mail communications like either formal letters or telephone conversations, native American English speakers regard e-mail communications as closer to written memos It was also found that although the native American English speakers structure their e-mail request messages in a rather direct sequence, the linguistic forms they employ to express their requests are more indirect In contrast, the Chinese English learners structure their request messages in an indirect sequence, but the linguistic forms they use to realize their requests are more direct Given this contrast, it is not surprising that some of the request samples written by Chinese English learners were judged as very impolite by the native English speaking evaluators in this study The findings of this study thus demonstrate the importance of studying requests within the overall discourse in which they occur. Studying only the linguistic forms used in phrasing the request itself, as in the studies conducted by Blum-Kulka et al (1989), cannot provide us with a full picture of the cultural differences inherent in making requestsPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69055/2/10.1177_003368829802900206.pd

Analysing interactions in a teacher network forum: a sociometric approach

This article presents the sociometric analysis of the interactions in a forum of a social network created for the professional development of Portuguese-speaking teachers. The main goal of the forum, which was titled Stricto Sensu, was to discuss the educational value of programmes that joined the distance learning model in Brazil. The empirical study focused on the sociometrie analysis of the social interactions that take place in asynchronous online environments. This approach, according to literature, allows for new means to observe, analyse, and interpret the reality of a new social paradigm. This type of analysis tries to understand the relationship established between the different actors, seeking to verify if the roles they play in both the access to information and the construction of shared knowledge. The data collected allow the researchers to deduce that the indicators used in the analysis are important for understanding and intervening in the dynamics and functioning of the network to propose improvements in its structure and organisation. In the specific case of the aforementioned discussion forum, the results of the sociometrie analysis of the perceived interactions were not surprising, considering that the nature of the topic did not demand deep reflection to contribute to the debate.This work is funded by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the doctoral grant SFRH/BD/60677/2009

Towards ‘Onlife’ Education. How Technology is Forcing Us to Rethink Pedagogy

[EN] The objective of this chapter is twofold: on the one hand, to provide an explanation for the need we have today to rethink pedagogy based on new realities and the scenarios in which we live, also in education, generated by the technology of our time and, on the other hand, to point out the direction in which we can find a path that leads us to that reflection in the face of the inevitable convergence between technology and pedagogy in which we are today