Etec510finalreportbayles Grzeskowia Kam Smith

Running heau: TBINKSPACE: A N0LTIPLATF0RN LEARNINu ENvIR0NNENT
ThinkSpace: A Nulti-Platfoim 0nline Teaching anu Leaining Enviionment

Ashley Bayles
Colin Grzeskowiak
Colin Kam
Annette Smith
University of British Columbia
ETEC 510 65B
Professor Jeffery Miller

TBINKSPACE: A N0LTIPLATF0RN LEARNINu ENvIR0NNENT 2
ThinkSpace: A Nulti-Platfoim 0nline Teaching anu Leaining Enviionment

Concept Map of our Multi-Platform Project
Key Frameworks
The focus of our design project creating an online constructivist learning environment for
high-school aged students enrolled in online courses. The platform that we created for this
assignment, which is called ThinkSpace, is an example of an online school website with three
components: a Joomla-based website, a Moodle LMS, and a virtual meeting space. The Joomla
website is customized with a Moodle LMS, a wiki, a forum, and live chat. The collaborative
virtual space is in an immersive 3D world called Second Life, and is connected to the Moodle
with a series of devices called Sloodle. This allows students to interact with the content and the
social aspects of the platform from all three spaces. The unique element of Second Life [is that
it] has no set game play pathways or unchangeable content, such that designers are free to
TBINKSPACE: A N0LTIPLATF0RN LEARNINu ENvIR0NNENT S
refashion the video game tools into an open-ended social laboratory for experiential learning
(Haycock & Kemp, 2008, p.92).
The design of the website is to provide virtual spaces for students to collaborate in both
formal and informal ways, to solve complicated problems and to promote social interaction and
relationships among the students. As an example of course content that could be presented in this
environment we created a course in Media Studies, using a problem related to bias in gender role
representation in popular media, such as video games, to demonstrate how the environment
works.
Situating this Project in the Academic Literature
Intentional Learning and Expertise as a Process
In Scardamalia and Bereiter (1994) they discuss three lines of thought on creating
successful knowledge-building environments, intentional learning, the process of expertise, and
restructuring schools. They indicate that social support is required for intentional learning and
the process of expertise, but feel that first-order environments dont provide this social
support. When one is in a first-order environment Scardamalia & Bereiter believe that
adaptation to the environment requires learning, but the learning is asymptotic. One becomes an
old timer, comfortably integrated into a relatively stable system of routines (1994, pp. 266-267).
Our hope for the environment we are creating is for ThinkSpace to become a second-
order environment where what one person does in adapting changes the environment so that
others must readapt (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994, p. 267). Because of the social nature of the
environment we are creating and the collaborative nature of the communication and production,
what one student says or shares from their own learning, will change the nature of the discussion,
and cause the other students to adapt to the new knowledge that has been introduced into the
system. This is connected to what Hemmi, Bayne & Land (2009) argue; they say that Web 2.0
learning spaces act more as points of presence, or user-defined Web spaces, than as traditional
websites or discussion fora. Web content tends to be less under the control of specialized
designers and closer to Berners-Lees (2000) concept of the Web as a democratic, personal and
DIY (Do-It- Yourself) medium of communication (p. 20).
By asking the stuuents to solve less well-uefineu pioblems, like how to iefiame
meuia to ieuuce genuei bias, that have less cleai solutions, we aie asking them to both
cieate knowleuge, anu to leain the piocess of cieating knowleuge, oi to paiticipate in the
piocess of ueveloping expeitise.

Communities of Inquiry

(Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000, p. 88)

The community of inquiry model, described by Garrison et. al. (2000), proposes that
there are three elements which are crucial prerequisites to a successful educational experience.
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They are cognitive presence, social presence and teaching presence. Cognitive presence is the
extent to which the participants in any particular configuration of a community of inquiry are
able to construct meaning through sustained communication; and social presence is the ability
of participants in the Community of Inquiry to project their personal characteristics into the
community, thereby presenting themselves to the other participants as real people. The primary
importance of this element is its function as a support for cognitive presence (Garrison et al.,
2000, p. 3). In ThinkSpace we address the possibilities for this combination of platforms to foster
and develop these two aspects of the model.
Social Learning Theory
In an examination of social learning theory, Tu (2000) references Bandura (1977) by
saying:
Banduras social learning theory states that neither inner forces nor environmental
stimuli drive people as isolated influences. Behaviour and complex learning must
be explained in terms of a continuous reciprocal interaction of personal
environmental determinants...virtually all learning phenomena resulting from
direct experience occurs on a vicarious basis by observing other peoples behavior
and its consequences for them. (pp. 11-12)
Therefore, human behaviours are affected by observation and by direct experience (Tu, 2000
p. 30). Additionally, Tu (2000) found that that social presence is required to enhance and foster
online social interaction which is the major vehicle of social learning (p. 27).

Informal Learning and Communication
In ThinkSpace, informal communication is considered to be crucial to creating the social
presence that is a major component of the Community of Inquiry model and the social
cohesiveness of the groups. Because of this element of our social networks, and social spaces,
there will be a certain amount of digression from the actual content of the course, but this is
important to the development of the social connections that are so critical to the creation of
identity in online contexts. Our idea is that course content will be more structured at the start and
then can take a more student-controlled process based on discussion forum questions and
conversations, but students will be encouraged to have off-task conversations and
communication in all areas of the platform. This is the effective equivalent of hanging out in the
hallway between classes, or even passing notes in class. It is important in forming social
relationships with other students, and we think will support the social cohesiveness that may be
otherwise missing from a wholly online environment. In Nippard and Murphy (2007) it was
found that, digression allowed students, and to a lesser degree, teachers, to depart from the
structure of the content. It played a role in fostering the level of social presence in the WBSSC
because students exhibited much of their affective and interactive responses in this context (
Digressions, para. 1).
New social media entail a shift towards new, volatile forms of textual mediation and
subject formation and place increasing emphasis on collaborative modes of enquiry and the
importance of group self-regulation and self-explanation. They have the potential to alter
relations between process and artefact, permit fragmentation over cohesion, exploration over
exposition and the visual over the textual. They are characterized by a tendency towards endless
re-crafting, often involving rapid patterns of amendment, truncation, revision and addition
(Hemmi, Bayne & Land, 2009, p. 29).
We consider that the level of enjoyment and engagement is an important consideration
for high school students, and so would agree with Garrison et al. (2000) that when there are
affective goals for the educational process, as well as purely cognitive ones, (i.e., where it is
important that participants find the interaction in the group enjoyable and personally fulfilling so
that they will remain in the cohort of learners for the duration of the program), then social
presence is a direct contributor to the success of the educational experience (p. 3).

SECTIONS Analysis (Bates & Poole, 2003)
Bates & Poole (2003) outlines a framework for selecting and evaluating the best use of
technology for teaching and learning in an online learning environment using eight criteria of the
SECTIONS acronym:

Students:
As high school educators, we designed ThinkSpace with high school students in mind.
The vast array of features allows content to be delivered to students with varying learning styles
and learning needs. Understanding minds of adolescents, this learning space not only focus on
the learning aspects but also the social aspects of education. Students will feel as though they
have some say in the shape their learning takes and how they express themselves to their teachers
and classmates.
Ease of Use:
The main Joomla interface seamlessly integrates Moodle, MediaWiki, Kunena and
Shoutbox and Second Life. Although each component has its own learning curve, the overall
experience is intuitive to high school learners. Tutorials and troubleshooting resources are also
provided to those who are new to the aforementioned learning environments. The time it takes to
learn to platform has been taken into consideration and the creation of an introductory course
reflects this.
Cost:
The cost of the web 2.0 tools (Joomla, Moodle, MediaWiki, Sloodle, etc.), their plugs-in,
and their updates are free in terms of financial cost. The learning space does, however, require
internet access and a web server to host the files.
In terms of time costs, it took Colin Grzeskowiak about 2 to 4 weeks to design and test
the website. In the long run, ThinkSpace will require at least one skilled staff to train other staff
members, maintain the website, and troubleshoot reported problems. This person may cost up to
$85,000 per year.

There is the additional cost of the hardware that students will need to have in order to
access the platform. Second Life requires a download that has minimum requirements for the
operating system. If students have a very old computer they may not be able to update their
operating system to meet the minimum requirements.
Teaching & Learning:
ThinkSpace is designed to engage students and enhance learning through social
engagement. The integrated features provide the necessary support for teachers to create
meaningful activities that promote active learning. It allows teaching and learning to be a more
fluid experience with student feedback affecting the future of the courses and activities.
Interactivity:
The social aspects of ThinkSpace move the learner beyond reading, viewing, and
listening. For example, Moodle allows the facilitator to create activities such as discussion
forums to exchange ideas and receive feedback. Sloodle engages students as digital natives to
meet with other learners in a virtual 3-D environment, rather than a text-based environment.
Organization:
ThinkSpace is currently hosted at HostGator for $3.96 per month (for 36 months) on
shared servers. HostGator provides unlimited storage and bandwidth with less than 1% of
downtime. However, as the site traffic increases, it may be necessary to consider moving to
dedicated servers or other alternatives to ensure that speed and long-term stability.

Novelty:
Unlike other course management systems, ThinkSpace welcomes relief from instruction
that relies heavily on text. For example, Sloodle provides an integration of Moodle and Second
Life such that the course content can be presented and interacted in a virtual world. What
Haycock & Kemp discovered in their research is that Second Life offers students a place to
meet each other informally and enjoy a social setting away from formal study content but still
on campus (2009, p. 92).
Speed:
Moodle courses easily can be duplicated when teaching multiple sections or re-used later
in another semester, saving the course designer time. In fact, the web has many free Moodle
courses and templates for educators to use, modify and share.
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According to their documentations, Joomla and Moodle are relatively quick, easy and
safe to implement and update. However, both documents recommend that the SQL database be
backed up before updates, which may take a significant amount of time depending on the size (a
few minutes to several hours).

Intentions and Positions
We intend to increase social presence in a group of students, through social media and 3D
immersive world activity and to create opportunities for collaborative problem-solving related to
gender role bias in popular media and games. We hope to develop a constructivist learning
environment incorporating virtual social interaction across three platforms. The intention of the
social network is to provide for a social element which many online students indicate is a
missing element in online learning. According to Journell (2010), Students crave personal
interaction, even unfavorably comparing e-learning to their classroom experiences because of the
missing social component in their online course (p.76). Many of the students in the study had
social media tools open while they worked on their e-courses as they missed talking with friends
in class and they commented that they missed group activities as well.
Additionally, we hope to create a space that allows teachers to act as guides in student
interactions in social spaces. danah boyd discusses this in much of her research. Youth are being
pushed more and more out of public spaces and into private spaces. ThinkSpace is an attempt to
create a private educational space within the greater sphere of public spaces and ...by allowing
youth to hang out amongst their friends and classmates, social network sites are providing teens
with a space to work out identity and status, make sense of cultural cues, and negotiate public
life (boyd, 2008, p. 2). Students may choose to use this educational space for social reasons
through messaging their friends or classmates. We have created a set of guidelines to help
students learn how to use ThinkSpace appropriately, with the expectation that students will also
contribute to the creation of a culture for the space. An additional benefit to using social media
style communication and behavioural expectations, is the opportunity to teach students,
experientially, how to create an identity in an online, socially connected world, in a safe and
responsible manner. We often teach students in physical classrooms social and cultural norms,
and give them guidelines for respectful and safe interactions, but there is rarely time and space
for online street smarts. ThinkSpace can be used to teach digital citizenship, by giving students
a safe, partially protected, social environment in which to experiment with digital
communication, with guidance.
The social network is going to be used to support building relationships/community as
well as informal learning and identity creation. A counter argument to placing value on this
particular set of outcomes is that students may not engage with each other in the way we have
intended. Academic social networks are often difficult to start and even harder to keep students
consistently coming back. As Lang points out, relationships are central to getting learning to
happen in the context of a social networking site: if educators get these right, they stand a better
chance of creating the conditions of possibility in which learning can occur (2012, p. 8). Social
networks are very dependent on a community being formed and updated frequently and without
this the benefits of this component wouldnt be realized. We hope that the teens [will] ... add
video and images, change the color of their text, and otherwise turn their profiles into an
explosion of animated chaos that resembles a stereotypical teenagers bedroom (boyd, 2008,
p.6). By explicitly placing value on the more informal aspects of social interaction, and giving
students latitude in creating their profiles and avatars, ThinkSpace will give students the tools to
create expressions of themselves that are the online equivalent of decorating their lockers, or
putting stickers on notebooks. We want to create an authentic academic environment where
students feel they can safely express themselves as they make connections between their
personal lives and their learning.
One potential way of dealing with the difficulties in starting and maintaining social networks
in a school environment, would be to have this platform, or collection of platforms, available
across courses, and persist beyond any one subject or topic. While the project discusses media
studies as an example, this kind of platform would be used in a wider school environment to
allow students to maintain relationships after courses end, and with students that they may have
shared courses with in the past. Non-academic posts and communication with students who are
in different courses will be encouraged. While these activities, along with all other
communication, will be monitored, the policy of the administration will be to intervene only in
cases of inappropriate content, bullying, harassment or discrimination. This will help contribute
to creating a community, and relationships within the community. Student mentors would be
helping to facilitate this community. Student mentors would be older or more experienced
students, who had been a part of the school for a longer period of time. They will have moderator
privileges and will focus on constructive guidance for the other students, as well as bringing up
questions that would promote discussion based on students preconceived knowledge in a
particular area. The benefit of having older, more experienced students guiding some of the
social interaction would be similar to having older students taking leadership roles in clubs and
teams in a physical school. They can pass cultural and social norms on to younger students, and
take some of the responsibility for coaching from the adults and instructors. This system, which
TBINKSPACE: A N0LTIPLATF0RN LEARNINu ENvIR0NNENT 1S
is a little like apprenticeship, has worked well in physical schools, and we feel that with support
and encouragement can work in ThinkSpace.
According to Lang (2012), The real learning for social networking is the ability to learn
from each other regardless of geography and moves away from limited and linear models
towards a different kind of model, one which draws on the knowledge of students who may have
more relevant, and more recent, experience than academic staff (p. 22).
Using ThinkSpace across courses, and having it persist, will also deal with another
counter argument for using a wide range of platforms, namely that there is a learning curve,
especially for virtual worlds. Using the environment in a persistent way, means that knowledge
about operating in the ThinkSpace would transfer to other courses. In this way the social
interaction would become more familiar and less affected by familiarity barriers over time. We
have built in an introductory course that takes this into consideration and gives students time to
become comfortable with the platform before starting to do coursework. Again, having more
experienced students mentor newer members of the community as they become comfortable in
the space would also contribute to ease of adoption for students. Obviously in the beginning of
the program, adult instructors would have to fill this role, but we expect that students will be
helping each other troubleshoot issues and share information about using ThinkSpace fairly
quickly.
Key Concepts and Contexts
Conceptual Knowledge
We want students to understand that gender role depictions in much of popular media,
including video games, is very biased, and presents a view of women as weak, subservient, or
devious; and men as physically strong, dominant, and superior. There is also an undercurrent of
sexual violence and bullying that is apparent in many video games. In the environment we will
create, students will have an opportunity to examine several pieces of media, and examine the
types of gender roles depicted. They will reframe a piece of media, in collaboration with their
peers, to consolidate their understanding of the way in which media can create and reinforce
gender roles and stereotypes.
The students will be operating in a fully online environment, where they are visually
represented by avatars and profile pictures. The media studies course will help them examine
how they as individuals create identities online, and how that is influenced by media and game
images and ideals. The media studies course is part of an effort to teach digital citizenship, which
is important in general, but especially important for students who are learning in a wholly digital
environment, so the course really has these two, complementary purposes - understanding gender
bias in media, and understanding how we represent ourselves in a digital space and how that is
received by others.

Use of Virtual Worlds
The use of primarily social spaces, like online 3D immersive worlds, for education, is
still under investigation in many ways. These spaces, originally designed for play have many
possibilities for increasing engagement, but there are some questions. One would be the level of
distraction that increased visual stimuli present to students, the other would be the steeper
learning curve for virtual worlds than you might see in a text-based environment.
Traphagan et al. (2010) concluded, after comparing text-based and virtual world debates
among high school students, that all three presences were observed in both environments,
confirming that the community of inquiry model is a useful framework to understand
synchronous communications in virtual worlds (Discussion, para.1). They caution, however,
that tool familiarity significantly impacts students cognitive engagement level, and it would
also affect how students represent themselves and perceive others socially, and how instructors
would organize and coordinate the learning activities (Traphagan et al., 2010, Discussion, para.
5). Additionally, they suggest that voice tools in Second Life (the virtual world in which they
investigate), might reduce cognitive overload, along with familiarity with the environment
(Traphagan et al., 2010). For these reasons, we believe that it is possible, and positive, to include
a virtual world component in our environment, provided that sufficient time is given for student
to develop familiarity and comfort with the technological aspects.
One of the advantages of using the virtual space and avatars in the Media Studies course,
is it provides an opportunity for students to investigate their own virtual representations. Since
Second Life is a video game environment, students face the question of how to represent
themselves in a visual way through their avatar. The students will both be studying gender
representations in media and figuring out how they want to reflect their own gender identity
through their avatars. This will guide the students in their discussion of gendered images in video
games and what effects those images have on interpersonal communication, gender concepts,
and gender roles. By giving students an experiential way of dealing with this issue we hope they
will be more likely to develop an opinion on the topic and feel engaged in the discussion.
Procedural Knowledge
1 Students will develop an ability to critique pieces of media through the lens of gender
issues, relating to roles and characteristics, based on examples, models, and interactions
with both their peers and instructors.
2 Students will become proficient in the use of social media and immersive spaces to
interact and collaborate by creating an alternative narrative for a piece of media.
Social networks continue to increase in popularity among students as a means of personal
social interaction. Our design will focus on creating an academic based social network that
supports informal learning. Three of the key elements to creating this network are, the idea of
identity, engagement (time and effort invested in education) and relationships/community.
Identity can be formed in many ways. It can be mediated through avatars, pictures, relationships,
status updates, comments, friends, photos, and videos which; due to their public nature; help
define the individual to other users in an online environment. Since our students will be high
school aged and taking online courses, we aim to design an online learning environment that will
allow them to interact and collaborate with their classmates. Our environment will be engaging
enough that students feel the need to spend more and more time there to develop their personality
and interact with their classmates. This level of engagement is often missing from online courses
and is an area that we hope to innovate.
A social network site must allow for an individual to correctly display a students online
identity and a link to their physical environment (Merchant, 2011). In addition, research has
shown that the simpler social network tools such as status updates and posting of content have
shown a positive correlation with engagement (Junco, 2012). These tools will be available as a
part of our private academic social network. We have chosen to go with a private social network
as students have indicated in research that they want their Facebook accounts kept separate from
a school network. Hewitt and Forte observe that identity management is a significant concern
for SNS users when the roles they occupy cross perceived social boundaries and bring
organizational power relationships into visibility, citing one students fears that Facebook could
unfairly skew a professors perception of a student in a student environment (Lang, 2012, p.
6). In her work, boyd addresses this issue and says that the issue actually goes one step further.
Social network information is taken out of context and when adults access the information they
post online it can lead to misreading that result in expulsions, probations, and grounding among
other punishments (boyd, 2007).
Traditional e-learning platforms are often just designed for content distribution. The
students may have a forum for discussions, but beyond that there is little interaction. The
students in these types of traditional online courses are just names on a website, they are not the
dynamic beings as they would be in a more social environment. Through a platform such as the
one we are designing for our project, "students can easily share content and communicate with a
much wider group of contacts with access to their favourite online social networks. This
centralisation of functions in an e-learning platform allows learners to organise and lead their
learning process the best way that they approve" (Rodrigues, Sabino, & Zhou 2011, p. 6).
Current research supports that online social networks enhance e-learning experience" and this is
why we expect our platform to be successful (Rodrigues, et al., 2011, p. 8). Additionally, the
platform is designed to allow students to share their expertise. No longer is the teacher seen as
the only expert in the class. By sharing blog postings and comments on the same materials,
students also raise questions, identify difficulties in understanding, provide a stimulus for other
contributions which allow students to learn from each other, be exposed to different points of
view, and to collaborate in order to develop a deeper level of analysis and understanding (Hemmi
et al., 2009, p. 26-27).
InterActivities
Website: http://www.bizedteacher.com/MET/ Username: jeff Password: Met2013!
We have constructed and hosted a website that is built with most of the features listed.
Anyone can come to the site to login and view the different dynamic objects right on the site and
interact with them. The virtual space component is represented in this submission by the space in
Second Life. Were ThinkSpace to go live, we would suggest that the school host its own
installation of OpenSim, which is a virtual world platform. This would allow the school to have a
greater degree of control over access, but could have connections to other OpenSim-based virtual
worlds through the process of hyper-gridding, or teleporting to other worlds, or grids. In this
way, the school could have control, but also provide opportunities for students to explore the
metaverse and connect with people outside of the school environment.
The virtual space is available for visits, but we have provided some short videos to
showcase the set-up of the area and the capabilities of the space. Links to the videos are available
both in the Moodle courses and also in the Virtual Space page of the website.

The Joomla CMS system is linked to the Moodle allowing for course activities and
forums to be synced. This takes the discussion out of the individual Moodle course and places it
in an area that is accessible to all students in the school. This allows students to start discussions
as assignments and to elicit responses from the rest of the student community. The activity
stream will announce items like new courses, new students in a course, and finished assignments
all in a way to promote communication between students to stimulate the social network
community.
Each course will have its own group page within the social network that would allow for
future students to ask questions, or present students to discuss the course and assignments.
Students can also create their own groups around topics of interest once again to promote a sense
of community. Pictures and videos can be posted as many students prefer a visual reference. The
RSVP system can be used to get groups together to enter the virtual world at a certain time or to
host a live chat. Friend requests once again promote the concept of relationships and helps build
the community.
Assignment Components
In the ThinkSpace there is a course called Assignment Components which contains the
following videos:
ThinkSpace SecondLife Tour
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HOeK0mPHlfs
Demo of YouTube in Second Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGoBRa6YQJA

How to Use the Learning Platform (Introductory Course)
There are two additional courses which are examples of what we envision the space being
used for in terms of material for students. The first course is called How to Use the Learning
Platform. The first video gives an overview of ThinkSpace along with the rules on how to use it
properly. These cultural norms are what we hope students will take with them to their use of
other social networks. We hope that by encouraging good behaviour in the school social
network, students will be given the tools needed to engage properly in more public spaces.
Further into the course there is information on Moodle for students which leads them to watch
videos for instructions on how to navigate Moodle and how to post in the discussion forum. For
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site developers or administrators there are links to the endless resources available online
including a developers forum since this is an open-source platform.
There is then a social media/wiki introduction component and finally a Second Life
introduction which includes instructions on how to login to Second Life and then once students
have done that they will be required to sign up for a virtual field trip in order to explore
Second Life. There is also a link to Colins wiki entry on Sloodle for the students to further
understand the uses of it and how beneficial it will be for them to be able to interact with the
Moodle components from within the virtual world. There is also a forum for students to ask
questions about Second Life and then a quiz at the end of it all to ensure students have a basic
understanding of how the ThinkSpace works and what activities they will be involved in.
Media Studies
The media studies course is an exemplar course to show the way that ThinkSpace can be
used to incorporate all the elements of the platform. We decided to focus on media studies
because it will be directly relevant to students as they start exploring how to represent
themselves in this online community and through their avatar on Second Life.
Verifications
The best verification of the ThinkSpace environment would be a qualitative and
quantitative evaluation of the students interactions in the space, and an analysis of student
performance on assignments and tests. If the students engage well with others, and are able to
create identities and social relationships, social presence should be enhanced, and this should
provide support to the other spheres of the model. If the three areas of the model are well
developed (social, cognitive and teaching presence), the students should be able to report a good
subjective experience with the platform, and their performance should reflect quality learning.
Post-learning surveys and interviews would give instructors and administrators a way to gauge
student satisfaction with ThinkSpace, but ongoing monitoring of how students feel about their
participation, and formative assessments related to the academic content, would also be
important to understanding if the platform is achieving our goals.
We have verified our work by creating a functional test version of the system. We have
been able to create our own profiles, customize them, friend other users, and interact with all
aspects of the ThinkSpace. We did encounter problems, such as connecting Moodle to Second
Life, but as a team we were able to work around them in order to find a solution that would allow
us the opportunity to test our ideas in a practical manner. As there are only a few of us in our
group it has not be possible to test every single aspect, but we have created a space that is
functional enough for us to experiment with user interface, functionality, and interactivity. While
there is always room for improvement, we have created a space that we feel is a good starting
point for using Joomla, Moodle, and Second Life together for a fully immersive virtual learning
environment. We imagine that in the next few years there will be more research on the topic as it
is an area that needs to be explored further as a possible solution for current challenges in
educational technology.
Reflection Pieces
Group
One of the most important things we found was that finding a good model created a base
for all of the other design decisions. We used Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer (2000) as
the basis for many of our choices and was the foundation upon which we built the social
component of the platform.
Also crucial, especially when working in a diverse group was the idea of not reinventing
the wheel, but maybe learning how to drive. We used the expertise of group members to
accomplish more, but also took the opportunity to learn from them. For example, some of us
were already comfortable with Moodle and Sloodle, and we were able to use that, but also it
gave others an opportunity to learn a bit about the platforms.
We learned a few things along the way, one of which was to be flexible. Sometimes your
first plan for something doesnt work, so have enough knowledge of the technology and options
to be able to come up with either a work-around or another. We encountered problems
connecting Moodle to Second Life, so we ended up using a demo tool that provided a Moodle
installation and a Sloodle set, pre-connected, to get around blocked access from the server where
our main Moodle is located. Also, it is important to note that technologies change, so even if the
actual software we use changes it is important that the same skills are explored so they are
transferrable.
It is also important to use tools that students, and staff, are familiar with. Many
students have a Facebook account and as a result they understand tools like tagging, like, status
updates and more. Having this familiarity allows for a faster learning curve for students and
encourages the use of these tools.
Annette Smith
For me, one of the most important realizations during this process, was you cant make
your ideas fit your tools You have to make the tools fit the ideas. I was very focused on using
virtual worlds in the project, but had to re-evaluate whether that was a good idea or not once we
had a better idea of how we were going to shape the learning environment. We were able to use
the virtual space, but I had to be willing to give it up if it didnt fit with the concept.
We decided that the most important idea or concept that we wanted to explore was the
social presence part of the model. Many online environments dont have the informal, or even a
formal, social component, and in many of the accounts we read, the students felt that lack of
connection. Certainly my experience with MET has reinforced the idea that a learning group
functions better when there is a feeling of real connectedness, that your classmates are real
people on the other side of the internet. Incorporating social media style interaction, and
providing a space in the virtual world, where the students can perform official tasks, but also just
hang out was important. We found the same thing in our conversations on the Google Doc. Often
after the formal meeting was done, we would just chat a bit about mundane things like the
weather, and it provided some connectedness between the members of the group. We were able
to use the model both in the design of our platform, and in the functioning of our group.
Group dynamics are always a bit of a challenge, more so in an online context. With time
differences and different schedules, it was difficult to get everyone in the same space at the
same time. We anticipate that similar issues would come up for our students, and so we have
built in mechanisms for choosing time-slots for field trips, and asynchronous communication
tools. We were, for the most part, able to overcome these problems in our group, and the
experience means that in a real situation we would be able to draw on what we learned about
dealing with a geographically separated group to help our students overcome similar problems.
The design of ThinkSpace drew on our academic knowledge, but also our first-hand
understanding of the problems inherent in learning in an online space. The process of designing
the spaces meant that we had to look critically at what we have done both as teachers, but also as
students, which I think gave the final product some authenticity that non-student designers might
not have achieved.
Ashley Bayles
This project has really made me see the opportunities and challenges in online learning.
While working in a group definitely made me learn way more than I could have on my own, it
also presented new challenges that helped me to further anticipate the types of issues that
students may have in an online learning environment.
While we had scheduled meetings that worked for everyone, this didnt always end up
working as planned. We all have busy lives, so sometimes people got sick, or only one person
wasnt able to make a certain time, or as in my case, time zone issues were a problem when
daylight savings came in as there is no daylight savings in Colombia, so the meeting time was an
hour earlier than I had expected. These are minor issues in the grand scheme of things, but
missing meetings made me realize how much I valued the synchronous meetings with my group
mates. The real-time conversations helped me to work through everything so much more easily
than back and forth emails, and also allowed me to socialize a bit with my partners to understand
the background and knowledge that each of them brings to the table. This experience made me
really come to value the importance of giving students a space that they feel they have some
control over and that they are free to use for educational and social purposes as desired.
I was not familiar with Second Life before this project and had only dabbled in Joomla
and Moodle, so having this hands-on experience with the expertise of my team members to guide
me has really made me want to continue exploring these software options further. The fact that
Sloodle allows you to access Moodle from inside Second Life is incredible. I am grateful for
being a part of such a talented group and I think that we split the work up well so that everyone
was able to contribute in a way that they were comfortable and yet we all made sure to
collaborate so that we can all be pleased with the final elements of ThinkSpace. There is always
room to add more tools and develop the functionality of the site further, but that is a never-
ending process.
Colin Kam
Prior to the project, I had already designed a few Moodle courses for blended-learning
environments. I thought I had relatively extensive experience working with Moodle but quickly
came to realize that it was capable of much more, like its ability to integrate with Joomla and
Second Life. My goal was to learn and experience these new technologies first hand, and to
apply them to the context of teaching and learning. Working on this project afforded me the
opportunity to navigate, design, and troubleshoot in these environments. As a result, I feel more
comfortable, confident, and competent with Moodle, Joomla and Second Life.
Although I often prefer to work alone, working in small groups provided growth in each
of us that would not have occurred if we were working individually. As a result of our synergetic
collaboration, we built on each others strengths, supported each others needs, and
accomplished a common goal: ThinkSpace.
However, growth cannot take place without overcoming certain challenges.
Communication was one of the major challenges that we faced. The fact that we have never met
in person because we live in different cities and time zones, made it slightly difficult to build
connections. Even though we mentioned using Skypes voice chat, we ultimately agreed to use
Google Chat because we were already sharing a Google Document and we could copy our
dialogues. At times, conversations on Google Chat were difficult to follow because [1] earlier
chat dialogues are not archived (until a group member copies it at the end of the meeting), [2]
text chat is sorted linearly in a chronological order but real conversations often diverge, and [3] I
am a slow typist and an even slower reader. Consequently, expectations were unclear at times.
By identifying our challenges, we can properly address them and later adapt the experience into
different situations such as helping students overcome issues when they face similar ones.
Colin Grzeskowiak
My groups design concept was that of integrating many different tools together to create
an engaging website for an online high school. The premise came from my desire for present
LMS systems to do more than one or two thing really well. I have never seen any e Learning
system that effectively combines social media, a learning management system, wiki, blog and a
virtual world all together. I knew from the beginning that this would be a fairly complicated task
as integrating a variety of tools like Joomla, Jomsocial, Moodle, Kunena forums, Sloodle and
Second Life would cause many incompatibility errors. After many installs/uninstalls I learned
which versions of each of these programs worked together. I still had many bugs some of which I
fixed and some which I was unable to. If I was to create this site for deployment at a school
several issues would need to be worked out to make it stable. I learned that to keep a site like this
going would require a lot of testing especially before any upgrades.
Although I felt that the design was complicated the end result did behave the way I
initially conceived. I believe that this site does hold a lot of potential and flexibility to allow for
informal learning among students. Although I felt the scope of the assignment allowed us only to
do a brief analysis of the potential and research possible from this site I believe that more
possibilities would become possible upon further building and addition of content. The design
could be expanded to integrate other components like Wordpress or OpenSim integration.
Allowing for these additional components would give other opportunities as students could run
and maintain their own blog as a portfolio of their achievements during school. The OpenSim
integration would allow students to coordinate their activities in the virtual world and promote
use of this tool. If given the opportunity I would try to implement this design in a school.

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TBINKSPACE: A N0LTIPLATF0RN LEARNINu ENvIR0NNENT Su
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