EDUCATORS USING MICROBLOGGING FOR SELF-DIRECTED PROFESSIONAL LEARNING Confirmation Portfolio Carol Daunt Dip T, Grad Dip Dist Ed, B Ed, M Ed (Research) N1006771 Supervisor: Dr Alan Roberts Teaching Team Member: Dr Radha Iyer Faculty of Education Queensland University of Technology Submitted as proposed study for the degree of
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EDUCATORS USING MICROBLOGGING FOR SELF-DIRECTED PROFESSIONAL
LEARNING
Confirmation Portfolio
Carol DauntDip T, Grad Dip Dist Ed, B Ed, M Ed (Research)
N1006771
Supervisor: Dr Alan Roberts
Teaching Team Member: Dr Radha Iyer
Faculty of Education
Queensland University of Technology
Submitted as proposed study for the degree of
Education Doctorate
Faculty of Education
Queensland University of Technology
NOTES TO ALAN:
1. Ignore APA abnormalities – I’ll attack Endnote this week & sort those out.
2. Ditto the weird footers
3. Ditto Figure numbers – will sort those for final doc
4. Stop at 2.2.6 – I’ve put a large STOP there just in case you’re tempted to go further!!!
ABSTRACT
The World Wide Web (the Web) has grown into a global information space with more
than a billion users and is entering a new, more social and participatory phase where people
configure and manage online content rather than just viewing it. The Web is a place where
people communicate knowledge, share resources and participate in social networks. Online
social networking sites provide tools that allow people to identify, meet, connect, share
information and collaborate with other people. This study proposes a multiple case study
using a qualititative research methodology to investigate the use of microblogging (an online
social networking tool) for self-directed professional learning by educators.
The research design is based on a conceptual framework that uses activity theory as an
organizing structure and draws on concepts from constructivist learning theories, affordance
theories, systems theories, and self-regulated learning theories to support and elaborate on
Sliwka (2003), electronic means have facilitated networking across greater geographical
distances and are increasingly important to networking. Thus, social networks might be
locally bound, as in traditional neighbourhoods, or global as in those formed using online
social networking sites.
A fundamental change is occurring from place-to-place community to person-to-person
community, where people are personalising their own social networks with the help of the
Web (Wellman et al., 2002). In networked societies, boundaries are more permeable,
interactions are with diverse others, linkages switch between multiple networks, and
hierarchies are flatter and more recursive (Castells, 2000; Wellman, 1997). Rather than
relating to one group, people live and work in multiple sets of overlapped relationships,
cycling among different networks (Wellman et al., 2002).
Networks have a certain degree of self-management and are organic, dynamic
structures, changing in terms of type and number of participants and their roles, with the
participants in networks sharing a common purpose and staying active in the network only
as long as it delivers a profit for them (van Aalst, 2003). Electronic means both underpin
and enhance networking but networks are essentially human, operating with a high level of
human respect and built trust.
2.1.1 Social networks for learning
According to Engel (1993), almost all networking is characterised by four types of
activities: the provision of services, learning together, advocacy, and management. It is the
process of using networks for learning together that concerns this study. van Aalst (2003)
observed that learning in networks represented a special mode of knowledge production and
described four advantageous features of networks for learning:
Networks open access to a variety of sources of information.
Networks offer a broader range of learning opportunities than in hierarchical
organisations.
Networks promise a more flexible but also more stable base for co-ordinated
and interactive learning.
Networks help to create and access tacit knowledge.
Hopkins (2003) identified the common characteristics of networks in education as
being “the reduction of isolation; collaborative professional development; joint solutions to
shared problems; the exchange of practice and expertise; the facilitation of knowledge
sharing and school improvement; and opportunities to incorporate external facilitation” (p.
Confirmation Portfolio, Carol Skyring 12
154). As previously noted, this study is interested in interactions amongst educators for self-
directed professional learning. However in order to give a context for the study, an overview
of online social networking and the emergence of microblogging is provided.
2.1.2 Online social networking
boyd and Ellison (2007) defined social networking sites as:
… web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or
semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other
users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list
of connections and those made by others within the system. These sites
allow users to post a profile, to invite their friends, to join a variety of
‘groups’ with like interests and to make new ‘friends’ through searching for
others with like interests. (p. 211)
Online social networking sites provide tools that allow people to identify, meet,
connect, share information and collaborate with other people. Individuals are linked because
of their common interests and together they produce, collect, share and re-mix artefacts
(Dieu & Stevens, 2007). These sites enable interactions that may occur for professional,
learning and/or social reasons, but which also allow for relationships to be established
between people who would not otherwise ordinarily be in contact (Rablin, 2008). Online
social networking has focused on sharing information about one's personal life, however
online social networking also has the potential to connect learners to new resources and to
each other in new ways and to integrate online and offline experiences (Mejias, 2006).
Wellman (1999) described these personal communities as “an individual’s social network of
informal, interpersonal ties, ranging from a half dozen intimates to hundreds of weaker ties”
(p. 355).
After joining a social networking site, users start to build up their network by linking
with others – commonly termed “followers”, “friends”, “contacts” or similar. Most social
networking sites require a confirmation by both parties for the link to be made. Connections
are usually made public and this is an important component as it allows users to extend their
own networks by linking to “friends of friends”. It is common practice to search the linkages
of your connections to find new connections for your own network, thus extending the
network in a nodal fashion. Once connected, people can freely exchange messages, however
many of these exchanges are publicly visible and writers often write with the public
audience in mind - described by boyd and Ellison (2007) as “offering users an imagined
audience to guide behavioral norms” (p. 220).
Confirmation Portfolio, Carol Skyring 13
(Rheingold, 2008) identified three common, interrelated characteristics of participatory
media such as online social networking. These being that:
every person connected to the network can broadcast as well as receive from
every other person;
the value and power of these media derive from the active participation of many
people; and
information and communication networks enable broader, faster, and lower cost
coordination of activities in social networks.
2.1.3 History of online social networking
The idea of connecting people by using networked computers in order to boost their
knowledge and their ability to learn, dates as far back as Licklider (1960) who foresaw
interactive computing. The predecessor of the Internet appeared in 1969 with the emergence
of Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), a network developed and
used by the United States Department of Defense (Hart , Reed, & Bar, 1992). This nascent
Internet flourished during the 1980s and was opened to commercial interests 1988 (Leiner et
al., 2000). However, it was not until the 1990s that the Internet became widely available and
used, due to the work of Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau of CERN who proposed the
World Wide Web as a "web of nodes" storing "hypertext pages" viewed by "browsers"
which was launched in December of 1990 (Berners-Lee & Cailliau, 1990). Tim Berners-Lee
saw the Web as a collaborative workspace where everything was linked to everything and
the assumption was that everyone would be able to edit in this space (Anderson, 2007).
Rheingold (2000) was one who saw the potential of the Web for connecting people: “The
first time I saw the Web, I wanted to create communities there” (p. 334).
Parallel to these developments, computer bulletin boards that allowed people to read
and write messages to and from each other appeared in 1978 (Rheingold, 2000). This was
the beginning of the first “social” uses of the Web, which evolved during the 1990s when
tools such as listservs and discussion software were used to link people around the world
with common interests. The notion of online social networking first appeared on the Web in
the late 1990s, with services that allowed groups of people to coordinate and interact. The
first public online social networking site, SixDegrees.com, appeared in 1997 but the service
failed to attract a self-sustaining community (boyd, 2007). Many features of social
networking sites were available in differing formats before this time, but SixDegrees.com
was the first platform to combine all of these features. The uptake of social networking was
slow and it has been argued that it was not until 2004 that these sites became widely popular
Confirmation Portfolio, Carol Skyring 14
(boyd & Ellison, 2007). A historical overview of the emergence of online social networking
sites (Figure XX) indicates the proliferation of sites – from the introduction of one site
in1997 to a total of 35 sites in 2006. REDRAW THIS
Figure XX: Timeline of the launch dates of major social networking sites (boyd & Ellison, 2007)
Confirmation Portfolio, Carol Skyring 15
While there has been an expansion in the number of online social networking sites,
sites have also undergone a significant and important evolution since 2004. Hornik (2005)
described the online social networking sites that emerged in the late 1990s as not explicitly
social networks but as the underpinnings of users organising and communicating on the
Web through coordinated networks while the online social networking sites that have
emerged in the 21st century allow users to share conversations, ideas and music. Online
social networking has steadily been gaining momentum and will be a crucial element of
most online experiences in the future (Hornik, 2005).
The Web helps individuals maintain contact with members of their social network,
cultivate ties and garner aid and resources, including information (Kavanaugh, Reese,
Carroll, & Rosson, 2003) and also allows them to form ties across time, distance and
personal circumstance, connect with distant and local family, friends and co-workers, along
with strangers who share similar interests (Kraut et al., 2002). Online social networking sites
change the notion of the Web from the page metaphor to a model predicated on
microcontent; content blocks that can be saved, summarised, addressed, copied, quoted, and
built into new projects (Alexander, 2006). Such online social networking has been made
possible by the emergence of Web 2.0 and the affordances it offers.
2.1.4 The evolution of Web 2.0
The term "Web 2.0" was coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004 as part of a marketing
exercise for a conference (O’Reilly, 2005). Web 2.0 has been variously described as “a state
of mind, an attitude, a new business model, the next generation of Web-based software and
services, a set of development principles, a revolution” (Birdsall, 2007, p. 1). The
commonality among descriptions of Web 2.0 is the reference to the participatory role given
to users of the Web (Birdsall, 2007; Maness, 2006; Miller, 2007) and the underlying feature
of Web 2.0 software is that of harnessing collective intelligence (R. Mason & Rennie,
2008).
Web 2.0 is a set of applications that enable people to connect and contribute as much as they can consume, and these applications have changed the Web into a
participatory medium in which users are socially connected and can actively create,
evaluate and distribute information (Lerman, 2007). Web 2.0 enables users to collaborate and contribute to developing, extending, rating, commenting on, and distributing, digital content, and developing and customising Web applications (OECD, 2008). By changing the social interactions and the modes and
patterns of our lives, Web 2.0 can lead to changes in education (Aviram & Tami, 2004).
Confirmation Portfolio, Carol Skyring 16
With greater access to broadband services and Web 2.0 applications, new forms of
relationships and patterns of communicating and learning have emerged; where learners are
active participants, creators of knowledge, and seekers of engaging, personal experiences.
(McLoughlin & Lee, 2008b).
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, maintains that Web 2.0 is
just an extension of the original ideals of the Web and it does not warrant a special label
(Anderson, 2007). When asked in an interview about the common explanation that
Web 1.0 was about connecting computers and making information available; and Web 2.0 is
about connecting people and facilitating new kinds of collaboration, Berners-Lee replied:
Web 1.0 was all about connecting people. It was an interactive space, and I
think Web 2.0 is, of course, a piece of jargon, nobody even knows what it
means. If Web 2.0 for you is blogs and wikis, then that is people to people.
But that was what the Web was supposed to be all along. (Laningham,
2006)
This study will adopt the term Web 2.0 to mean a participatory medium that enables
users to connect and collaborate.
2.1.5 The emergence of microblogging
Microblogging is a form of online social networking which became available in 2006.
It enables people to share limited information about themselves via their profile and share
their activities in short posts distributed to the Web by instant messages, mobile phones or
email (Java, Song, Finin, & Tseng, 2007). Users are limited to 140 characters for each
posting which is displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who are
connected to them – variously known as “friends’, “followers” or “fans’ depending on the
microblogging service used. Senders can restrict delivery of their posts to those in their
circle of friends or allow anybody to read them.
Posts are made in response to the question "What are you doing?" In practice, that
question is usually interpreted as, "What interesting thought do you want to share at this
moment?" and the answers include messages of context, invitation, social statements,
inquiries and answers, news broadcasts and announcements (Makice, 2009). Many posts are
responses to other postings, pointers to online resources that the user found interesting,
musings or questions (Educause, 2007). Some common microblogging services are Twitter,
Plurk, Jaiku and Pownce. Figures xx, xx and xx illustrate examples of posts from two
microblogging services, Twitter and Plurk.
Confirmation Portfolio, Carol Skyring 17
Figure xx: Example of Twitter posts
Figure xx illustrates various types of postings that are typical to microblogging:
Sharing professional resources as in post 1: Social Media Tip.
Musing as in post 2: Juno Beach 1944 and post 3: Night at the Museum.
Replying to another user as in post 4: Yes, indeed I am!
Sharing a picture as in post 5: Shoes, Amsterdam, May 09.
Imparting social information as in post 6 about the party tonight.
Venting about a technical problem and directing readers to an article on that
problem as in post 7.
Plurk is similar to Twitter in that users can make posts which appear in a timeline
(Figure XX), but each post also has a drop down discussion area where comments can be
made by the user’s followers (Figure xx).
Confirmation Portfolio, Carol Skyring 18
Figure xx: Example of Plurk posts
Figure xx is an example of a Plurk timeline showing a variety of resource and
information sharing. The number beside each of the posts shows how many comments have
been made in response to that post. The posting to the left of the screen shows a drop down
discussion area containing responses to the initial post.
Confirmation Portfolio, Carol Skyring 19
Figure xx: Example of responses to a Plurk post
Figure xx shows an initial Plurk post “Why use blogs with students?” and a selection of
responses to this question.
Although the exact number of microblogging users is not known, Peeters (2008)
reported that the number of accounts in one of the microblogging services, Twitter, had
reached three million and was projected to pass seven million in February 2009. Peeters
represented this figure and projections with the diagram below.
Figure xx: Number of Twitter users (Peeters, 2008)
Microblogging activity is exponentially higher than membership (Makice, 2009) with
Twitter registering its billionth post in early November 2008 (Makice, 2008) and currently
averaging ten million posts per day, as revealed in Figure XX.
Figure xx; Tweets – 7 day moving average (millions) (Reed, 2009)
Individually, most microblogging messages are trivial, but the value of microblogging
is the cumulative effect of ideas shared between numerous people (Thompson, 2007).
Confirmation Portfolio, Carol Skyring 20
Comm (2009) believed that the power of microblogging was in its ability to build a network
of peers who share ideas and creativity and he stated that microblogging has brought him
advice and suggestions from experts he couldn’t have reached in any other way. This is
supported by (Makice, 2009) who felt that his connection with other people in his academic
program was constrained by time and space before he started microblogging. This ability to
keep in touch with people in a way that time and space normally make impossible was
described by Reichelt (2007) as "ambient intimacy".
Sarker, Sarker, Nicholson, & Joshi (2005) maintained that “conversations serve as the
vehicle through which knowledge workers discover what they know, share it with their
colleagues, and, in the process, create new knowledge for the firm” (p. 214). Woodruff
(1999) similarly suggested that, a “community is probably best defined as an amalgamation
of ideas” (p. 677). The exchange is a co-created context with value in the relationships
between parties who accept obligations within the network and reap the benefits of
participation (Lott, 2008). It involves a group of people who develop a sense of itself,
making possible feats of coordination (Parry, 2008) also described by Thompson (2007) as a
collectivist whereby one creates a shared understanding larger than oneself.
2.1.6 Microbloggers
Educators who are using microblogging would be considered innovators and early
adopters in Rogers’ (1995) diffusion of innovations theory which defines the five categories
of innovation adopters as innovators, early adopters, early majority, later majority and
laggards. This study will investigate how these early adopters are using the technology to
support their professional learning.
2.2 Professional learningSee: http://personal-learning-environments.wikispaces.com/
There is a shift away from single-source knowledge, that is, one learned “teacher”, with
learners turning to multiple knowledge sources (Masie, 2008). The true competence for a
learner of the knowledge society is the capability to stay connected and belong to digital
communities in which interests are continuously shared (Pettenati & Cigognini, 2007).
Learning is a social process in which interactions with the environment, both human and
non-human play an important role (Divjak, 2004) and it occurs not as a response to teaching,
but as a result of a social framework that fosters learning (Brown & Duguid, 2002).