The Expanding Role of Collaborative Technologies as the

Future Becomes the Present

Curt Bonk, Ph.D.

Indiana University

CourseShare.com

http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk

cjbonk@indiana.edu

Activities Learners Would Deem Highly Engaging and Useful

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Cases or JobReflections

Brainstorming

GroupProjects/Teams

ElectronicGuests/Mentoring

Students LeadingDiscussion

Percent of Respondents

Future of E-Learning SurveyMost Important Emerging Technologies:

1. Knowledge Management2. Wireless Technologies3. RLO4. Peer-to-Peer5. Mentoring6. Language Support

0 5 10 15

Number of Respondents

Instructor-Led

Self-Paced Learning

Team-Based/Peer Collab

Mentoring

Async Instructor-Led

Problem-Based Learning

Personal Online Coaching

Sync Instructor-Led

Other

Most Appropriate Training Methods for Your Organization in Next 24 Months

Bonk’s 5 Level Electronic Collaboration Taxonomy

Level 1. Email Collaboration

Level 2. Asynchronous Technologies

• Asynchronous or Threaded Discussions: Sitescape Forum, FirstClass, Blackboard

• Training the Trainer

Asynchronous Possibilities1. Link to peers and mentors.

2. Expand and link to alternative resources.

3. Involve in case-based reasoning.

4. Connect students in field to the class.

5. Provide e-mail assistance

6. Bring experts to teach at any time.

7. Provide exam preparation.

8. Foster small group work.

9. Engage in electronic discussions & writing.

10. Structure electronic role play.

Level 3. Synchronous Technologies

(Karrer, 2001, Online Learning Conference)

• Virtual Classroom: NetMeeting, Placeware, Centra, HorizonLive, WebEx

• Training the Trainer

• Web-Casts, Whiteboards, Chats, Live Surveys, Polls, Reports, Web Browsing, File Transfer, Application Sharing, Archives, Break-Out Rooms

Types of Synchronous Activities

1. Webinar, Webcast2. Guest speaker or expert moderated (or open) Q&A

forum3. Discussion plus expert chat4. Instructor-led discussion or training (general or

private discussions, testing, and tutoring)5. Peer Dialogue or Team activities or meetings6. Panels, Press Conferences, Symposia7. Role Play or Electronic Séance8. Quick Polls/Quizzes, Voting Ranking, Surveys9. Brainstorming ideas, What-Ifs, Quick reflections10. Graphic Organizers in Whiteboard (e.g., Venn)

Use Signals for Tech Checks & to Clarify Tasks

Level 4. Collaborative Writing Tools (Bonk, Medury, & Reynolds, 1994)

Level 5. Cooperative Hypermedia and Multimedia

(Karrer, 2001, Online Learning Conference)

• Virtual Classroom: NetMeeting, Placeware, Centra, HorizonLive, WebEx

• Web-Casts, Whiteboards, Chats, Live Surveys, Polls, Reports, Web Browsing, File Transfer, Application Sharing, Archives, Break-Out Rooms

The Future Note: any predictions are bound to

be too conservative!!!

14 Collaborative Technologies?

1. Human Resource Portals/Business Development Resources

2. Communities of Practice

3. Electronic Books4. Instructor/Trainer

Portals5. Knowledge

Management6. Intelligent Agents7. Online Language

Support

8. Online Mentoring

9. Online Simulations

10. Peer-to-Peer Collaboration

11. Reusable Knowledge Objects

12. Virtual Worlds/Virtual Reality/AI

13. Wearable Computing

14. Wireless Technology

1. Human Resource Portals/Business Development Resources

• Dial a job• Job matching• Resume sharing• Contract workers

=============• E-Learning Courses• E-Learning Instructors• Secure New Business

But What About RPF Matching Sites?

2. Communities of Practice

• Awareness of who is in the space– Roster of who belongs– Roster of who is currently viewing materials;

• Customization of the space for the group– a customized identifying banner

• Ability to interact in multiple synchronous and asynchronous ways.

• Place for a community to identify who they are– charter, principles, membership, goals, etc.

                                      

Community Space at Eli Lilly• an electronic environment designed

around expected community behaviors and attributes; the three B's of community:  believing, behaving, and belonging.

“The space is continuing to evolve, but the intention is to create a place that feels like you are with other people …CommunitySpace works best when we have spent time building a community environment as opposed to using the technology in isolation.  Building of relationships is critical to community success and we have found this difficult to do on-line alone.”

Expert Chat: Java Programmers

3. Electronic Books

4. Instructor/Trainer Portals

http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/

5. Intelligent Agents/AI

6. Knowledge Management

                              

7. Online Language Support (pronunciation, communication, vocabulary, grammar, etc.)

Instructor-Led Training(e.g., GlobalEnglish)

GlobalEnglish(Instructor-led and self-paced)

Typical Features (e.g., Englishtown (millions of users from over 100 countries)

• Online Conversation Classes• Experienced Teachers (certified ESL)• Expert Mentors• Peer-to-Peer Conversation• Private Conversation Classes• Placement Tests• Personalized Feedback• University Certification• Self-Paced Lessons

8. Online MentoringExpert mentors novice from remote location

Carnegie Mellon Univ.

Adventure LearningPurpose: engage in adventurous study of the global environment.(e.g., Telepresence or virtual fieldtrips, ask an expert forums, cross-classroom collaboration, debate forums, MayaQuest)

Peer Questions & Team Meeting

Peer Questions & Team Meeting

Peer Feedback System

9. Online Simulations (SimuLearn)

SimuLearn’s Virtual Leader Components

1. Power: explores the effects of informal (i.e., expertise and recognized alliances) and formal (e.g., title) power

2. Ideas: explores effective strategies for generating ideas

3. Tension: looking at how tension affects performance

• Once the 3 ingredients are aligned and balanced, the leaders commit to a course of action. (fosters creativity, role play, DM’ing)

Florio: simulation to see connection between individuals actions and overall corporate

performance

Wisdom Tools: Time-Revealed Scenarios (TRS)

Scenario Components

1. Story-Based: a contextually-rich format.2. Distributed: accessed anywhere, at any time.3. Collaborative: active sharing of ideas among users.4. Facilitated: raises probing issues, responds to questions.5. Integrated. embed work tools to overcome the disconnect between work and learning.6. Global and Diverse. characters custom-created to reflect company's culture & values.

eDrama (Front Desk Hiring)

Indeliq

Ninth House: Management Scenarios

10. Peer-to-Peer Collaboration(Group-enabled Project Management)

Possibilities:1. Data Sharing

(www.napster.com)2. Resource Sharing

(www.intel.com/cure/overview.htm)

3. Workgroup Collaboration (www.groove.net)

Grove creates a shared space to explain problems, receive assignments, post course updates, hold group meetings, write and edit papers, and teach students research methods.

Collaborative Project Management Software

Collaborative Web-Based Survey Research

11. Reusable Knowledge Objects

Figure 28. Organizational Interest in Knowledge Objects

Agree44%

Strongly Agree25%

Unsure17%

Strongly Disagree

3%Disagree

11%

“Appealing to the attention-deficit society…online learning will only be taken up by employees as part of continuous professional development if it is engaging, highly relevant and available in small doses.…A five-minute “learning object” can be digested in between phone calls or meetings.”

Sarah Murray, Dec 2001, Financial Times.com; interview with Terry Nulty, President, Element K

Displaying Learning ObjectsStephen Downes, New Tolles, New Media

“Consider the impact of a resource like Martindale’s Health Science Guide, a resource center listing 60,000 teaching files and 129,000 medical cases. Such a resource if made available to medical schools around the world, would greatly facilitate the creation of courses in medicine….” (as well as sustainable revenue for the center)

What is a Learning Object?

• “Learning Objects are small or large resources that can be used to provide a learning experience. These assets can be lessons, video clips, images, or even people. The Learning Objects can represent tiny "chunks" of knowledge, or they can be whole courses.”

Claude Ostyn, Click2Learn

12. Virtual Worlds/Virtual Reality

Avatars--representations of peopleObjects--representations of objects Maps--the landscape which can be exploredBots--artificial intelligence

Possibilities for Corporate Training

• Virtual seminars and presentations, with distant colleagues interacting within a virtual conference hall

• Demonstration of new building designs that people can explore, discuss and modify

• Demonstrations of processes or models that are difficult to understand with static graphs/charts

Virtual WorldsAdvantages• Reliable and scalable

technology exists

• Save travel time, expense b4 implement

• Ability to simulate objects

• Thousands of worlds and users

• Built in links to Web sites

Disadvantages• Time/expense of start-up,

development, customization

• Unfamiliar, awkwardness of non-3D interfaces

• Requires a change in thinking we may not be ready for

13. Wearable Computing

Keyglove

Build it yourself

Contacts on fingers allow to type by touching fingers

“chorded” keyboard

Mouse on back

Next version wireless to control up to 6 devices

IBM VisionPad

Created as a small laptop

Applications will determine how close it meets our model

IBM Wearable ThinkPad

14. Wireless Technology

Wireless Training

“The best kind of Performance Support keeps employees knowledge “fresh” and always within reach. Wireless technology makes that possible in ways that have never been possible before, and an area which presents completely new training and performance support options for companies.”

Collaborate or die!!!