[Virtual Universities] [Index]
Functions and Options
Considerations
Functions
Options
Conclusions
Considerations (^)
The analysis conducted up to here allows us to put forward some general statements about the activity of groups in a network in relation to the principles highlighted at the beginning of the report.
The principles stressed the fact that learning and research
- are started and managed mainly by the individual who learns and searches [individualization, personalization, autonomy],
- go through the phases of
- experimenting (doing)
- expressing (discussing)
- exploring (discovering)- without boundaries between learning-thinking-acting but with a close integration between reflection, communication and action,
- without privileging, as it happens now in many cases, the aural aspect (the lecture) or the written aspect (the book),
- using all the sensorial and operative modalities if the individual through images/sounds/texts/hypertexts/simulations
- without imposed limitations of time (e.g. fixed learning period) or place (e.g. designated places for learning).
Here we will focus on some practical possibilities by listing a series of
- functions to accomplish
- options to assess.
Functions (^)
The functions to accomplish can be put under three categories without intending, by doing so, to suggest any separation or compartmentalization:
- explore (data and information)
- understand (learning and knowledge)
- conceive (skill and wisdom)
These functions can be accomplished through a series of activities that are here defined as Options.
Options (^)
Explore
Messages
- personal e-mail address
- group e-mail address
- sending information and notes to specific groups of people
- group subscription to discussions lists with a wider diffusion of information (the same message being read by many people)
- electronic bulletin boards (information addressed to everybody concerned)
- agenda of activities
- congresses
- seminars
- research programmes
- course timetable
Repositories of information
- yellow pages (e.g. electronic addresses of tutors and experts)
- personal bookmarks (bookmarks selected by individuals and presented through a series of Web pages where there is indicated the name of the person who has suggested each resource with a brief note of presentation and evaluation of the resource)
- collection of data useful for drafting research notes, reports, etc.
- e-mail addresses of organizations interested in supporting research projects
- useful information collected by students of previous years and transmitted to new students as collective memory and heritage
- guidelines for drafting and presenting reports
- guidelines for style, visualization, etc.
- pages of news (presentation of new documents, etc.)
- indexes of journals
- press reviews
- discussion lists (selection and presentation of lists, assistance in how to subscribe or to cancel a subscription, etc.)
Documents
- electronic journals
- theses and reports
Understand
Assistance
- help modules (e.g. frequently asked questions)
- introductory dossiers for the use of electronic resources (e.g. list of software available; basic notes on how to use the software)
- technical dossiers (information on how to use computers, printers, etc.)
- tools box (image bank, models for questionnaires, forms, etc.)
- net etiquette (guidelines on how to behave on the net for mutual benefit and satisfaction)
- information on courses (for external students, for students with Erasmus scholarship, etc.)
- analysis of trends and forecasting services
Learning
- coursewares
- glossaries
- thematic dossiers
- lists of web sites that deals with topics related to courses and research projects
- electronic pages related to each course (for giving information about the course, for exchanging ideas, for signalling documents and web links, etc.)
- bibliographies (for each course, in relation to thematic dossiers, etc.)
Testing
- questions - answers
- learning games
- simulations
Conceive
Drafting
- software for producing coursewares
- publication of hypertexts following common standards in electronic publishing
- collaborative writing through the network
Reflecting
- common electronic page for the circulation of ideas
- software for creativity [see "Tools"]
- channels for collaborative thinking and working through the network (e.g. using brainstorming, synectics)
Debating
- presenting ideas for collective critical examination
- formulation of projects
- discussions of topics
Conclusions (^)
At the end of this short report the following points need to be stressed:
The importance of the network as means to diffuse/ameliorate
- comunication
- cognition
- creation.The network can make possible:
- to push the information towards the potential users
- to pull the information from actual producers.
with the aim of accomplishing the synergic effect that is proper of groupware.The behaviour of healthy individuals is characterized by two aspects:
- cooperation based on universal reciprocity, mutual aid, sharing, openness and being available;
- emulation based on the desire to do our best and to produce something that is remarkable, noteworthy and also netwhorty, i.e. worthy of being circulated through the net.The need to motivate, to arouse interest and to involve each and everybody, from the start, in the networked activities.
The awareness of the central responsibility of each individual as arbiter and master of his/her own existence.
On the whole this means that it depends on all the members of an organization producing/providing goods and services to make it an ever better community of
- reflection
- communication
- action
in the global village that is planet earth at the beginning of the XXI century.
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