1© E. Kowch 2002

Telecommunications in Education: Examining

Distributed Teaching and Learning Environments (EDER 677 L.91 )

Computer Mediated Communication Systems

for the Asynchronous Class from Calgary, October 3

2© E. Kowch 2002

Housekeeping Items - Oct 03 Class - Online, Asynchronous

1. Your group Web page with the two lists surveying/linking to Good Screen Design is due today (please email me the URL in WebCT email if you have not already done so).

2. The related discussion thread on Web Page Design is very interesting. Simplicity seems to be the main theme, and you have explained the value of simple, clean screen design (and linkages, navigation systems) in an education website very well. Please try to include URLs in your discussion as you find them, to support your findings and to lead us to your fountains of information. 677 students can compile an awesome distance ed bookmark list from our collective findings - this is very helpful to you in other courses.

3. Albert will summarize the thread and email the results to me, and they will appear as a hot link on his name in the “Discussion Thread Student Leaders” column on the Course Home Page.

4. As promised, tonight’s class is a reading class, to allow you to ponder your paper and to read about, on your time, the dimensions of CMC through literature. Keep asking each other questions, and asking me too. (I am caught up in my email!)

5. Next week (October 17), we will likely group up and create summaries of readings for presentation online in a jigsaw fashion, on the topic of Telecommunication Modes (that will be the basis for our discussion groups on Centra when we do that on October 17th.)

3© E. Kowch 2002

Goals of this Session

• To Define the key terms associated with computer mediated communications (CMC)• Understanding types of asynchronous CMC systems

• Electronic Mailing Lists (E-mail, distribution lists, listservs)• Threaded Discussion Forums

• Understanding types of synchronous CMC systems• Chat• Multi-User Dimension (MUD) and Multi-Object Oriented (MOO)• Virtual Classrooms

• CMC teaching/learning activities and issues

Accreditition for significant portions of this evening’s course content goes to Norm Vaughan, who just became a doctoral student in our EdTech specialty here at the U of C. Norm and Dr. Bill Hunter designed most of this presentation for the 677 class last year. Mount Royal has a great CMC introduction site, and you’ll browse it from here..

4© E. Kowch 2002

Key CMC Terms

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)• communication facilitated or mediated via a computer

Asynchronous Communication • time and distance delay involved in communication• delayed communication

Synchronous Communication • occurs simultaneously , at the same time• real time communication

5© E. Kowch 2002

The “push” and “pull” of two kinds of Asynchronous

Communication Systems

1. Electronic mail systems – push information “to” you without you directly requesting it.1) Electronic Mail Systems – push

– individual e-mail correspondence and links

– mailing lists (majordomo, listserv, listproc)

– moderated and un-moderated systems

2. Threaded discussion forums - pull information “to” you without you directly requesting specific information… (organic discourse can occur).

6© E. Kowch 2002

1. Electronic Mail Systems

Push - a) Mailing Lists/List Servers • uses email; there is no public interface aside from a web page advertising its

existence (this is your local information)• can have open subscription or be a closed list • can be moderated or un-moderated (as in discussion or chat systems)

Examples and Resources:Instructional Technology Forum Listserv Web Sitehttp://itech1.coe.uga.edu/ITForum/home.htmlThe Distance Education Online Symposiumhttp://lists.psu.edu/archives/deos-l.html

A great definition of “push” technology: http://www.darwinmag.com/learn/curve/column.html?ArticleID=43

Rhetorical Question:

Can you guess why so many companies want to host email service?

7© E. Kowch 2002

1. Electronic Mail Systems (cont.)

Push - b) Mailing Lists/Listservs with a Hypermail web interface

• allows visual representation of threads in web space (like WebCT)• (otherwise hidden) mailing list has a public face, either for reading or

participation

• same issues as above as to openness and moderation

Example:World Wide Web Course Developers mailing list/listserv at the

University of New Brunswick http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/wwwdev/logs/http://www.unb.ca/web/wwwdev/

8© E. Kowch 2002

2. Threaded Discussion Forums

Pull - Type (a) Threaded conversation space without usernames and passwords• threading helps keep conversations together over time

• lack of passwords and user accounts makes it more inviting to public / anyone can join in

• can be less focused and more difficult to hold long term users because content is not “led”

Example:

AERA Leadership Thread

http://www.cquest.utoronto.ca/env/aera/aera-lists/aera-a/99-04/

• Pull - Type (b) Threaded conversation space with usernames and passwords• gives users sense of belonging and membership • can discourage occasional posters, lurkers and one-time visitors

• can be more intensive to maintain Example: EDER677 – WebCT Discussion Forums

http://webct-a.ucalgary.ca/SCRIPT/EDER_677/scripts/student/serve_bulletin?MMSG

9© E. Kowch 2002

Threaded Discussion Forums

Common CMC design Issues• Public vs. private : Design Issue: Who gets to interact

: Political Issue: Whose voice is heard• Unstructured vs. Threaded/Structured? To lead or not to lead…• Cost? (freeware/shareware/payware) To pay or not to pay…• Searchable or Archiveable? To keep or not to keep…• Can incorporate hypertext? To link outside (reference), or not…

• Can it be moderated? Should it be moderated..…

10© E. Kowch 2002

Asynchronous Communication Systems

Other Options - Proprietary Conferencing Software• much more powerful software, fully featured and fairly easy to use • often requires more than just a web browser to participate (e.g. client

software)… can be expensive

• quite plausible for an “online course” as run by U of C (SoftArc’s First Class) and Athabasca (IBM Lotus Notes)

Examples:SoftArc’s First Class - http://www.softarc.com/

IBM Lotus Notes - http://www.lotus.com/

11© E. Kowch 2002

Teaching Activities using Async Comm (CMC): Electronic Penpals (interpersonal communication)

http://www.epals.com/ Individual and Cooperative Research Projects (gather and/or

share information from and with on-line sources) Electronic Mentoring (on-line subject matter experts) Parallel Problem Solving (remote classes working on similar problem sets) Electronic Field Trips (e.g. Virtual Field Trips via the WWW) Group Development of Products

(e.g. chain letters, stories, scripts, multimedia constructions) Social Action Projects (e.g. peace projects, social issues)

Asynchronous Communication Systems

See if you can find examples of these online….

12© E. Kowch 2002

Issues:Motivation for student participation

1. Extrinsic motivation (idenfity clear expectations and marking rubric for the online discussion)

2. Intrinsic motivation (clear relevance and connection of the online discussions with the course content and expectations)

3. Variety (online discussions are ‘fun’ and not repetitive, and deep enough for the group to be interested, engaged)

Asynchronous Communication Systems

13© E. Kowch 2002

1) Online Chat2) Multi-User Dimension (MUD) and Multi-Object

Oriented (MOO)3) Virtual Synchronous Classrooms

Synchronous Communication Systems

14© E. Kowch 2002

Online Chat (CMC)

1) Options• plain text chat(one to one)

• plain text chat (one or many to many)

• audio chat (one to one)

• audio chat (one to many)

• ability to moderate, lead discussions through technological methods

• shared whiteboards / multimedia capabilities

15© E. Kowch 2002

1) Options (cont.)• file sharing capabilities

• sharing URLs, web touring

• ability to capture chat session to disk for archiving purposes

• ability to specify IP addresses allowed to join chat

• platform independence (through java or else multiple platform client versions)

Online Chat

16© E. Kowch 2002

1) Common Issues

• server based chat (one or many to many) vs. one-to-one chat

• realtime (usually java or special client) vs. slight lag (perl or other server-side scripting)

• low cost, low functionality vs. high cost, high functionality solutions

• ease of use vs. level of interaction

• Who is liable for inappropriate chat?

Example:

EDER677 – WebCT Chat Rooms

http://webct-a.ucalgary.ca/SCRIPT/EDER_677/scripts/student/serve_chat.pl?START+972581775

Online Chat

17© E. Kowch 2002

MUDs and MOOs

2) Multi-User Dimension (MUD) and Multi-Object Oriented (MOO)• living verbal environments - you can become anything you want (or not)• time consuming to up-keep (like mingling at a big wedding)• text only (telnet) and graphical/sound environments• band-width and technology constraints

Examples:MUDs and MOOs- http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent/380/webproj/taryn5.htmlLove online… who says CMC has to be boring? (yikes)http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent/380proj/380web.htm

http://joint.mccaig.ucalgary.ca/vc/definitions.htm

Bibliography of Electronic Sources: MOOshttp://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/bibliog.html

18© E. Kowch 2002

Online Synchronous Environs

3) Synchronous Web Based – Virtual Classrooms (you know this well, gentle reader…)

Centra System

http://www.centra.com

• Centra eMeeting Trial Service

http://www.centranow.com

• Vclass (Mac compatable!!) :-))• http://www.elluminate.com/products.html

• LearnLink

http://www.learnlink.com/products/live_elearning/learnlinc/

19© E. Kowch 2002

Teaching Activities:• flexible office hours

• flexible meeting hours

• Student group work possible

• Web tours (via features in the controller)

• Some application sharing (bandwidth problems will be solved soon).

• Student presentations (interactive, self directed, fun)

• Debates (live, requiring another layer of comm “rules”)

• Role Playing

Online Synchronous Environs

20© E. Kowch 2002

Teaching Issues:• Meeting in ‘real-time’ in cyberspace

• Bandwidth, computer hardware and software issues

• Monitoring and coordinating the online interactions

•Home school implications

•Holiday implications

•Security implications

•Implications for students with socialising preferences

Synchronous Teaching and Learning (CMC) Environs

21© E. Kowch 2002

CMC - Advanced Readings relating to some of yourexpressed interests (optional)

Developing personal relationships using CMC• http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1998/may/chenault.htmlA great collection of CMC focused articles• http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Functions/mcs.htmlHow humor works in CMC education• http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol1/issue2/baym.htmlCMC portal - a wonderful, peer reviewed resource• http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/CMC portal for academics across disciplines• http://www.december.com/cmc/info/Telecommuting and CMC• http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~dbrandon/Telecommuting.html

22© E. Kowch 2002

Coming up…

• Contribute to this week’s discussion forum –Computer Mediated Communication (Andrea is the leader)

• Work on your web based student portfolio and your paper.

• Keep an eye on the home page - readings for the next topic, Telecommunication Modes, could be in ahead of Thursday, Oct 10th.