Participation/community network

In the McDonald article, the study propose that acceptance of lurking depends on the goals of the organizations or groups. For example, if the focus is on knowledge management then a lurker would be seen as not contributing to the group, while a learning organization would find lurking as acceptable learning approach. I agree with this claim and think that in any CoP, goals of community and expectations from the participants should be clearly stated in order to have a successful CoP. I believe that contributions from all the participants are very important in order to have an effective CoP. What if most of the participants are lurkers in a CoP? How would knowledge be constructed or learning occur?

The article by Lakhani was interesting to read and learn why people are motivated to provide free information and help services to online support/help systems. Some of the motivations mentioned in the article are: learning benefits from reading questions, gain valuable information for themselves by learning about others problems, enjoy programming, and enhance reputation by helping others. I wonder if any or all of these implications are true for online CoP or e-learning communities?

Week 8: Friendship and Relationships

In the article, McKenna said that relationships develop closeness and intimacy significantly faster over the internet than offline, because of the greater ease of self-disclosure. I think we cannot generalize this statement. If we reverse this statement it will be true for many other people. Wouldn't it take more time to develop closeness and intimacy because of the disinhibition and self-disclosure over the internet than offline? What if the other person is not expressing his/her real self?

McKenna also said in the article that relationships made on the internet last longer and become part of the real life. I wonder how would internet affect the existing F2F relationships once they become completely offline?

Week 7: Web 2.0 Behaviors

The Online Disinhibition Effect

The author (John Suler) explored six factors that affect how people self-disclose or act differently than in person. Moreover, he said that different means of communication (e-mail, chat, and video) as well as different environments (social, vocational, fantasy) facilitate diverse expressions of self. This made me think that how do these factors impact social computing? Specifically how would these factors effect (negative and positive) users themselves as compared to the other people interacting with them? and how to build trust and validate identity in online communication?

Social networking sites; Definition, History, and Scholarship

In Boyd and Ellison's article, authors mention (page 219) a research finding that I found very interesting that “where SNSs are gaining popularity worldwide, at the same time many companies are blocking their use by their employees.” I am wondering about the reasons behind this fact?

Week 6: Wikis and blogs

In NRC-CNRC article presented many usability problems with many of the Wiki features, for example, image/document uploading, link creation and management, basic computer skills, creating/editing pages, collaboration, and navigation etc. Based on the research, I wonder how much these problems are generalizable? and how age, context, and experience might impact the usability of wiki?

In the article, Lamb talks about the problems wiki activities face are similar to constructivist teaching philosophy. My question is: How much control does teacher need to have in order to create a meaningful collaborative or constructive activities?

Week 3: Learning Background

Ecological Psychology of Instructional Design

As Michael Young said in his article that according to ecological psychology “learning is defined as the education of intention and attention.” He describes that these can be induced through experience in the environment and interacting with other people. This made me think that how much prior knowledge and cognitive structures impact the education of “Intention and Attention.” What is the role of schemata in the education of intention and attention?”

“Information processing assertion is that based on the assumption that perceptions are bare and meaningless until interpreted and analyzed by stored schemas. In contrast, an ecological presumption is that a sensitive exploring agent can pick up the affordance of an environment directly through exploration, discovery, and differentiation.” p. 172
Q: Do we need prior knowledge and schemas in order to use affordances and meaningful exploration, discovery, and differentiation of an environment?

Learning in school and out

Lauren B. Resnick mentioned in the article that “there is an inadequate engagement with the tools and materials of work, and more time is given to the theoretical explanation than to building truly expert performance skills.” p. 17
Q: Do we need to create a balance between “theoretical learning” and “actual practice of the work environment” in order to become an expert? Does this balance depend on the individual learners, context, and content to be learned?

Week2: Introduction to social computing

On audience activities during presentation

In Evan Golub article, during the presentation the audience was divided into four different groups based on their choices of using or access to the technology. It made me think that “Is the success/value of back-channel discussions depend on the learning and computing style, social communication abilities, and accessibility of technology? Is social computing connecting or fragmenting people?

Social computing:

The author said in the article that, “social computing and online communities are changing the way people information and share knowledge.” How can we measure or evaluate the success of online communities?