Collaborative Online Learning

As for this topic, I'm going to share about Online Forum, Wikis, Podcasting & Second Life

What is Forum?

According to the Oxford Online Dictionary, forum may be refer to few meanings which are:

• The public square or marketplace of an ancient Roman city that was the assembly place for judicial activity and public business
• A public meeting place for open discussion
• A medium for open discussion or voicing of ideas, such as a newspaper, a radio or television program, or a website
• A public meeting or presentation involving a discussion usually among experts and often including audience participation
• A court of law; a tribunal

What is Internet Forum?

Based from the Wikipedia internet forum is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.

There are few things we should know that fall under the Online Forum

Troll

User that repeatedly & intentionally breaches netiquette, often posting derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages about sensitive topics in an established online community to bait users into responding, often starting flame wars

Spamming

Is a breach of netiquette where users repeat the same word or phrase over and over, but differs from multiple posting in that spamming is usually a willful act which sometimes has malicious intent

User Group
 

Privileges & rights are given based on user groups. The privileged is set by the administrator. An unregistered user of the site is commonly known as a guest or visitor. Guests are typically granted access to all functions that do not require database alterations or breach privacy.

A guest can usually view the contents of the forum or use such features as read marking, but occasionally an administrator will disallow visitors to read their forum as an incentive to become a registered member

  

Moderator

 

The moderators are users of the forum who are granted access to the posts and threads of all members for the purpose of moderating discussion and also keeping the forum clean. Have access to all posts and threads. Moderators also answer users' concerns about the forum, general questions, as well as respond to specific complaints. They also can do anything to lend a helping hand to a user in need.

Administrator 

 

The administrators manage the technical details required for running the site. Promote members to moderators, manage the rules, create sections and sub-sections, as well as perform any database operations. Administrators often also act as moderators.

Post

A post is a user submitted message enclosed into a block containing the user's details and the date and time it was submitted. Members are usually allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Posts are contained in threads, where they appear as boxes one after another. The first post starts the thread; this may be called the TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). Posts that follow in the thread are meant to continue discussion about that post, or respond to other replies; it is not uncommon for discussions to be derailed.

Thread

A thread (sometimes called a topic) is a collection of posts, usually displayed – by default – from oldest to latest, although this is typically configurable. A thread is defined by a title, an additional description that may summaries the intended discussion, and an opening or original post which opens whatever dialogue or makes whatever announcement the poster wished. A thread can contain any number of posts, including multiple posts from the same members, even if they are one after the other.

Private Message

A private message, or PM for short, is a message sent in private from a member to one or more other members. Private messages are generally used for personal conversations. 

Emoticons

Emoticon or smiley is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form. Forums implement a system through which some of the text representations of an emoticons (e.g. XD, :p) are rendered as a small image. Depending on part the world the forum's topic originates (since most forums are international) smilies can be replaced by other forms of similar graphics, (e.g. *(^O^)*, (^-^)').

Now, let's move on to the Wikis  

What is Wiki?  

Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser.

Wiki is a combination of a CGI script and a collection of plain text files that allows users to create Web pages “on the fly.”

Wiki supports hyperlinks and has simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslink’s between internal pages on the fly.

Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.

Podcasting

A podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and downloaded through web syndication.

Podcasting is a method of publishing audio files (usually MP3s) to the Web, which are then made available through subscription and automatically downloaded to a personal computer or portable MP3 player.

The mode of delivery differentiates podcasting from other means of accessing media files over the Internet, such as direct download, or streamed webcasting. 

Commonly used audio file formats are Ogg Vorbis and MP3.

A list of all the audio or video files currently associated with a given series is maintained centrally on the distributor's server as a web feed, and the listener or viewer employs special client application software known as a podcatcher that can access this web feed, check it for updates, and download any new files in the series. 

Second Life

In Second Life participants use avatars, virtual selves that reflect the creators’ personalities, to interact with one another within the online environment.

A free client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars.

Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, or travel throughout the world.

 

Through this feature Second Life can bring people, ideas, and subject matter together in a fuller representation of real human relationships.

Second Life enhances social presence that can support collaborative online activities and enrich interpersonal understanding among their participants.

In terms of educational practice, this virtual world allows for a reimagining of the classroom as one that meets the new needs of online instruction while providing students with a sense of belonging to a learning community. 

For example, Second Life allows for online interactions that mimic the face-to-face conversations of the campus classroom while minimizing the formality that usually prevails in academic discussion forums.

The flexibility of Second Life also makes it an ideal vehicle for constructivist pedagogy.

Based from this topic, what would you say? Leave your comment down here...