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Case Study 3
An Experiment in Social Computing
INTRODUCTION
NMC is an organization dedicated to finding a high-tech, high-touch system that leveraged technology to bring a community of practitioners together. In support of this, NMC partnered with several other companies (such as Macromedia) to conduct a real-time experiment in social computing. Their goal was to use common tools in new ways, and in the process bring people together in away that encouraged substantive interaction, dialog and knowledge sharing.
TECHNOLOGY USE
NMC used a number of tools to help focus the participants in the online conference. Virtual keynotes set the tone for each day for the four-day event, and daily presentations on selected themes provided the same intellectual richness the one expects in a face-to-face conferencing environment. Planners went so far as to provide virtual exhibit space for event sponsors and a daily virtual “happy hour” with presenter and attendees to discuss new ideas and future collaborative directions. The goal of all this was to make the event feel as much like a real conference as possible.
TECHNOLOGY AT MY SITE
Eventually, this type of technology will be useful for anyone that has internet access. Students can log onto their virtual school and navigate to their room. Inside their room there may be virtual blackboards, lab equipment, or even a library of books. Funding for this is minimal as the space and technology is already there… it would just take (a significant amount of) time to implement.
BENEFITS TO THE STUDENT
Students are certainly going to benefit from this type of arrangement. Notwithstanding the days that they are present at school, students that miss school or are away for longer periods can access their school and go to their classrooms virtually. If the teachers are on top of their game, they may have posted assignment s, displays, lectures, pictures, links, or videos. This would of course be of great importance in maintaining accountability and keeping the student abreast of their coursework… not to mention the cool factor!
TEACHER TRAINING
There would certainly have to be some teacher training. At a minimum, teachers would need to develop an idea about what type of content they wished to deliver (or make available) online. Those teachers that wished to enhance their site, would need to create rooms and take a hand in learning how to use basic to advanced (PowerPoint to Dreamweaver/Flash/Coldfusion/ASP) techniques to enhance their site. It would seem that this would be easy to implement as more teachers become technology proficient, there would be a shift to this type of technology.