TCC 2012 Proceedings

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/69138

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Googleries, oui oui oui!
(2012) Watson, Katherine; Katherine Watson - Coastline Community College
Google.com has risen to worldwide prominence as the preeminently visited site on the Internet. Besides having developed simply an uncluttered search engine, along with an unintimidating interface, Google is in continuous creative progress, conceiving an increasingly multifaceted set of Web-based products facilitating and expediting access to audio, video, or print data at any time anywhere and in multiple tongues. Serendipitously enough for students of language and culture online, these Google tools comprise user-friendly enhancements that demonstrably facilitate learning. At Coastline Community College, twenty self-selected learners of French language and culture online have participated in a project nicknamed “Googleries”, in which training and encouragement have been afforded in seven freely available “Googleries”; these comprise some of the most easily accessible Google tools designed and developed in the target language to enrich study. Besides learning vocabulary and grammar, Coastline Googleries project participants have acquired a new awareness of alternative linguistic pragmatics, worldviews, and technical skills.
Facebooking in Distance Education: Constructing Virtual Communities of Practice
(2012) Tucker, Virginia; Virginia Tucker - Old Dominion University, Texas Tech University
The growth of distance education warrants a closer look at how virtual communities of practice form in asynchronous online classrooms. Prior studies have sought to identify a process to virtual community formation, which may vary depending upon the media used for collaboration. This microstudy examines how one student group in a distance writing course used the popular social media site Facebook to construct community and whether the stages of virtual community development were observed in this setting. Findings suggest that revisions might be made to our current understanding of the process of building virtual community within small groups. “Othering” and social norming should be considered as an important step in the group’s progress toward a co-identity and knowledge-sharing community. The construction of social norms is so important to group co-identity that it transgresses the established norms of communicating through Facebook. Further, the use of a social media site for group communication may encourage social interaction and cyber-play among the group, to either the detriment of work-related discourse or benefit of friendship-making. Further, the process of virtual community formation is largely iterative where the quality of discourse depends on the nature of group tasks rather than time.
Managing Issues of Safety, Privacy, Copyright, and Technological Change in Web 2.0 Instruction: Lessons Learned from Teaching a YouTube Course
(2012) Snelson, Chareen; Chareen Snelson - Boise State University
In 2008, an online course called YouTube for Educators was created as an elective for a graduate program in educational technology. As of fall 2011, the course has been offered six times. Some of the most critical problems of student safety, privacy, copyright, and technical change encountered during the six iterations of the course are discussed in this paper together with the approaches taken to manage those problems. Lessons learned while developing, refining, and implementing the YouTube for Educators course over time include the need to: (1) use proactive strategies to promote safety and privacy, (2) emphasize copyright and legal media use, and (3) develop course policies and practices to manage technological change. This work may be of interest to those who develop courses featuring Web 2.0 or other rapidly changing social media technologies.
Visualizing Behavioral Data from a 3D Virtual Learning Environment: A Preliminary Study
(2012) Schmidt, Matthew; Laffey, James; Matthew Schmidt - University of Hawaii at Manoa; James Laffey - University of Missouri
This paper describes a preliminary study which attempted to apply learning analytics methods to usage data generated by students with autism spectrum disorders using iSocial, a collaborative, threedimensional virtual learning environment. Drawing from similar methods in the area of learning and content management systems, the work presented in this paper considers two types of user behaviors that are not present in LMS/CMS and are unique to 3D VLEs: avatar movement and spoken dialogue. The method developed for capturing avatar movements and spoken dialogue and writing these data to a log file is explained, along with a description of the process the research team underwent in order to transform the log data into graphical depictions of user behavior over time. Examples of five different visualization types are examined. Conclusions and directions for future research are provided.
Avatars’ Informational Preferences in a Virtual World
(2012) Mabrito, Mark; Mark Mabrito - Purdue University Calumet
There is a growing interest among educators in exploring multiuser-virtual environments (MUVEs), such as Second Life, as platforms for distance learning and other applications. Additionally, such virtual environments provide rich opportunities for constructivist approaches to teaching and learning. Yet, the notion that virtual worlds also provide an opportunity for writing instructors to teach about multimodal texts and new media literacies is an area that has received less attention. This study examined the informational preferences of avatars (students) who were members of a class that met online in the virtual world of Second Life. Specifically, the purpose was to assess avatars’ informational preferences from among three different media: print articles, machinima, and direct exploration within Second Life while enrolled in a course studying the virtual world of Second Life. Study found that avatars expressed a greater preference for information gathered from machinima and information gathered first-hand from Second Life than print-based information, although their subsequent discussions about the information varied in specificity, depending on the medium they were referencing.
Problem-based Learning applied to Team Environments: A Visual Literature Review
(2012) Lauridsen, Barbara; Barbara Lauridsen - Capella University
The purpose of the literature review is to document observations and research findings about the value of problem-based learning (PBL) experiences, especially for programs in Information Technology education. The focus reveals ways that facilitated PBL exercises benefit virtual teams who are collaborating, designing and producing an effective solution. This paper shares some relevant published evidence that active problem solving by learning teams contributes to critical thinking and effective team communications, which can be carried forward into professional roles in the work place. The curiosity and inspiration that inspired this conference paper was a research question “How does facilitated problem-based learning benefit a team of distributed learners when collaborating on designing and producing a practical solution?” This paper accompanies a visual literature review presentation to prepare for a live break out session to consider the complex problem of BYOD (bring-your-own-device) to a learning event.
The Fifth Dimension: How Augmented Reality is Launching Worlds within
(2012) DePriest, Desiree; Desiree DePriest - Kaplan University
Social media technology and corporate America are currently building an augmented reality (AR) dimension layered upon our everyday lives. A virtual world of augmented reality is being layered over advertisements, buildings, signs, clothes and more all over the world through the placement of indoor and outdoor tracking and the download of applications to your smartphones and tablets. 21st century activities such as device interaction, media management, gaming, and social networking are being combined with corporations to tag feeds to build “stories” among previously unconnected people. In physics, the term “fifth dimension,” is a hypothetical extra dimension beyond the usual three spatial dimensions and one time dimension of Relativity. The research suggests the transformative implications for 5th dimensional learning anywhere in the world are within our reach through the use of augmented reality. This paper discusses the current building of augmented reality blended with visual searches, facial recognition technology and real time data, and the inevitable arrival of the 5th dimension. It investigates the human clout or how to measure individual “spectrum” rights when your virtual encounters and identity are extracted and used to teach the world. The “Recognition-primed decision model” described as the learning that occurs through tacit knowledge gained through training, education and experience. Research on “situated cognition” or learning that is embedded into the social and physical context within which it will be used will also be explored.
OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources: Forward to Credentialed Learning Outcomes?
(2012) Caudill, Jason; Jason G. Caudill - University of Tennessee
OpenCourseWare (OCW), one part of Open Educational Resources (OER), is now past its first decade. Phenomenal growth has occurred in the first ten years and entering into the next phase of development there is now a movement to officially credential OCW experiences with certificates. This paper will explore the potential of this future movement and the possible implications for lifelong learning.

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