Academia 2.0

Authors: Rob Procter, Robin Williams, James Stewart, Meik Poschen, Helene Snee, Alex Voss, Yuwei Lin, Marzieh Asgari-Targhi

Abstract

Over the past couple of years, the number of Web 2.0 tools being used for scholarly purposes has grown at unprecedented speed. Many of these suggest a real prospect of improving communication between researchers, increasing information flow between different research communities, increasing capacity building, enabling greater interaction between scientists and the general public, and disseminating research beyond academia. Web 2.0 tools bring the promise of environments that enable researchers to interact peer-to-peer, to create, annotate, review, reuse, recreate, and represent information in ways which seem to challenge (or subvert) traditional ways of producing and sharing scientific knowledge.

We are using a composite methodology consisting of three main components: a quantitative survey to acquire the demographic characteristics of the researchers who use Web 2.0 tools and statistics of adoption rates across UK academia, interviews with users and non-users, and case studies of selected Web 2.0 tools with further interviews to investigate adoption issues in more depth within particular user communities.

The main objective of the survey has been to assess the current contours of engagement with and use of Web 2.0 tools in different types of scholarly communication by UK academics: profiling use by age, position, discipline and gender. Distribution of the survey questionnaire to approximately 8,000 email addresses of UK academics began in May. So far, we have had approximately 530 completed responses.

In this paper we provide a summary of the survey data and an initial descriptive analysis. Within the analysis, we examine and compare the patterns of responses of a) all respondents; b) ‘early adopters’ and c) ‘non-adopters’.

Authors:
Isa Jahnke & Claudius Terkowsky

Abstract:
In 2001, we began to initiate computer-supported teaching and learning in higher education (HE) at our department. When transforming Web 2.0 into HE, we face different challenges. For instance, in leisure communities such as Wikipedia, Twitter, or Facebook, the people’s “me-centricity” is supported very well. It is a typical informal structure. People can use the system whenever they want, and they do not participate when they do not want. Regarding higher education, blended learning scenarios can promote open participation and opportunities for informal communication that means when the learners want to, and in particular what the learners want to discuss.  The average student will not be focused but the individual learner and her/his individual needs, problems and ideas within the teaching/learning process. We also argue that a socio-technical community (STC) can become such a platform, and support the individualization of learning also within huge classes. All what we need is a well-orchestrated design of teaching/learning arrangements, (didactical) methods and new media. The question is: what is a good combination that works and supports learning outcomes and competence development for the learners?

Position paper: “Reshaping teaching and learning with new Web 2.0″

Authors: Thorsten Jungmann and Dominik May

Abstract: The position paper describes the integration of Wiki technology into the course Industrial Project Management, which is part of the post-graduate programmes in Logistics, Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering at the Chair of Factory Organization at Technische Universität Dortmund. In the first section Blended Learning is outlined as a teaching and learning format in Higher Education. The second section focusses on the course concept of Industrial Project Management, which includes the use of aWiki as part of the educational strategy. The didactical concept of the course builds on research-based learning as educational principle. It aims at competence-oriented, student-centered and practice-integrating learning scenarios through active, self-dependent and reflexive learning. The course format is Blended Learning. It consists of three face-to-face sessions in University and two e-learning-based project phases. The Wiki is used as a learning instrument in the first e-learning-phase, in which the students collaboratively compose scientific papers in the format of Wiki articles. Thereby, they do not only learn about the subject of their articles, which is a special aspect of Industrial Project Management, but they build up competences in using web 2.0 applications for academic writing, research and discussion as well. The main difference to traditional settings, in which students would sit at their desks individually writing assignment papers, is that in case of aWiki being used as a learning instrument there is potential for collaboration, knowledge sharing, networking, learning with and from other students. Following the aim of competence orientation, the assessment concept needs to match the cource concept, as it is shown at the end of the paper.

File: Jungmann_May – Wiki as a Learning instrument