Are we missing the point? A considerable amount of conversation in the class thus far has been focused on how to make a learning community that would benefit the undergraduates, yet we still seem to have a good bit of doubt as to whether the undergraduates would use the system.
Powazek proposes that one of the most fundamental elements for the creation of an online community is content. When we create a learning community that is focused on the exchange of knowledge let's start at the top and let it trickle down. My proposal is a knowledge community anchored in the professors at Purdue.
GOAL
To create an online community to facilitate the exchange of knowledge.
PROFILE SETUP
Profiles should be left open where all individuals can access one another’s profile by default in order to promote information exchange. Individuals can limit access to a particular network or contact list if it is later desired. These profiles would include a place where an individual could inform others of their academic interests, publications, and achievements as well as their favorite books, movies, television shows, and hobbies. I would like these entries to work similarly to other social networking sites, such as facebook, where if an individual clicks on the televisions show "Lost" in a person’s profile, you are shown a list of others in your network that also listed "Lost". This would allow individuals who share one another’s interests to quickly find one another.
ARTICLE CITATIONS
Additionally, I would like a place where individuals could enter recent articles they've read and presentations they've attended. When articles are entered specific fields should be created for author, title, journal, etc. so that the article can be formatted to different citation standards. Keywords should also be prompted for that can be used as a form of tagging. Furthermore, these fields can be used to search for articles. By creating a database of articles, users can search for particular articles and see what others thought of them. When exploring an individual’s profile, articles/presentations can be clicked upon and any notes that an individual made regarding their thoughts towards the article are shown. A community tab at the top of the page would allow users to toggle between the individual’s opinions and the opinions of others in the community regarding the article. This setup could also be used with profile information such as television and books providing a social forum in which to comment on pop culture.
BLOGS
Blogs would be available on individual pages so that others could be provided with a space to discuss intellectual interests, personal issues, and daily life. Blogs should be encouraged as important venue for sociability. Featured blogs could be noted on a main page and a blog roll and news reader function could be incorporated into the site.
LISTSERV STYLE MESSAGES/ CONTACT LISTS
Individuals can send questions and developing ideas to one another by tagging their message according to interests found within the community. For example, a message tagged with "online social interaction" could be sent to every member who indicated interests in this topic. Although the amount of messages could be overwhelming if open to the entire community, if options allowed messages to be restricted to an individual’s contact list much of the noise might be filtered out. This feature could also allow for discussions of pop culture.
PARTICIPANTS
I would like the professors within the communication department and a few complementary disciplines (psychology, sociology, political science, etc.) to set up profiles on our social networking site. I believe that we must have a useable content to attract others to our site. What I expect is a trickle down effect where graduate students and undergraduates would join the network to have access to the knowledge provided on it. As they begin to set up profiles and interact on the site they will make valuable contributions to the content themselves. By mandating that individuals must be on another’s contact list to use the question/answer feature pestering of professors for attention/assistance could be circumvented while still providing valuable resources regarding thoughts, interests, and reading lists.
WHY WOULD PEOPLE JOIN?
There are numerous uses of the system that I have proposed here, from the individual to the intrinsically social.
- Articles and presentation listings could provide a research resource in the annotated online citation database similar to endnote software but independent of physical location. You wouldn't need to have the file in front of you. Citations could be formatted in any manner if entered in the proposed manner. You would not only have access to articles you've read but also to those read and commented on by others
- This social network could be used as tool for faculty to recruit graduate students and alternately by students to find out about particularly faculties interests and graduate programs
- The network could be used to recruit research teams
- Cross disciplinary teams could be developed as a result of tagging interests. Computer science, communication, biology, and psychology students could network based on interests and work to integrate various fields on research projects
- The question and answer feature would allow for discussion of both academic and pop culture topics creating a social environment. Furthermore, the group mind element can facilitate higher quality conclusions.
OTHER FUTURE FEATURES
A group feature could be added that could allow users to collaboratively work on documents online.
Space could be provided to allow others to edit or look over papers.
Announcement feature for community/professional events keyed to individuals particular interests using tags from interests and recently read papers.
