3. WEB 2.0 AS A RESEARCH TOOL
Just like the Web 2.0 has transformed the Web and the
way people use the Web, we believe that Web 2.0 has the potential to transform research in technology-enhanced learning. We base this claim on two observations: rst, on the
wealth and variety of Web 2.0 services that are available
today, and second, on the low complexity of exploiting the
functionality of the services by APIs, which allows to implement functionality on top of these services.
The wealth of functionality (mostly) freely available
today is unparalleled. To cite but a few examples relevant for learning: e-portfolios
7
, navigation analysis
8
,
6
http://www.rubyonrails.org/, http://www.
djangoproject.com/
7
http://www.google.com/notebook
8
http://www.google.com/analytics
hal-00588757, version 1 - 10 May 2011
conversion of spoken word to text and vice versa
9
, collaborative oce functionality
10
, video editing
11
, etc.
The Web technology has matured to such a degree
that complex applications can be assembled in a very
short time. Mash-up engines like Yahoo Pipes and Microsoft's Pop
y
12
allow a drag&drop construction of
applications that integrate functionality from existing
services without any programming knowledge. More
complex exploitation is achieved by access through open
APIs.
We argue that until now the potential that arises from
these facts has not been suciently stressed: instead of
(re)implementing services, the researcher in the area of technology enhanced learning should reuse existing services. The
wealth and accessibility of functionality allows to assemble
complex prototypes in a small matter of time. These prototypes are usually stable enough for evaluation and validation
of research hypotheses. In order to illustrate these claims,
in the following, we will describe how we used two existing
Web 2.0 service for rapid prototyping
3.1 Micro-Blogging for Language Learning
The research described in this section was performed at
the distant university of Shanghai Jiao Tong university whose
students to a large percentage consist of vocational learners. The research question investigated was how to increase
active participation of the students in oral communication
courses for English as a second language. In the traditional
Chinese education system, knowledge transmission from the
teacher to the learner is valued higher than active participation of the learner in the classroom [43]. Therefore, even
adult learners do not feel comfortable practicing in front of
fellow learners. Additionally, being vocational learners, the
students did often not nd the time to practice outside the
classroom hours.
Our research therefore focused on the question how to
provide practice possibilities that the students could use in
their limited time and without fear of loosing their face.
We decided to investigate micro-blogging, a type of blogging that enables users to post short messages that are distributed within their community. Users can post messages
from their mobile devices, a Web page, and from Instant
Messengers. The same channels are used for receiving messages from other users.
Micro-blogging was used in the lecture in the following
way: the lecturer created an account at an existing microblogging service (Twitter
13
). As a homework, the students
of the lecture were prompted to create their own account
and to become friends" with the lecturer as well as with
the other students. Since each Twitter user receives the
messages of his or her friends, each student who followed
the instruction would receive the messages of his/her fellow
students. The students were then told to post a least seven
micro-blogging messages a week and to read the incoming
messages of their fellow students.
9
http://www.jott.com/, http://www.spokentext.net/
10
http://docs.google.com/
11
http://www.jumpcut.com/
12
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/, http://www.popfly.
com/
13
http://twitter.com.
During the lecture, our expectations that micro-blogging
oers a number of possibilities, services and advantages which
dier from the standard classroom interaction were con-rmed. In the classroom, when they students have to talk to
their foreign teacher in a foreign language, they feel very shy
and timid and often nd themselves at loss of words. This is
partly due to the nervousness caused by the situation; and
it is partly due to their limited vocabulary. Using microblogging, the students can take their time before responding
or commenting and are thus relieved of some of their pressure; and they can also consult a dictionary to nd a suitable
but unknown word or expression.
From a linguistic point of view, micro-blogging is a communicative approach to the teaching and learning of a foreign language. The students use the foreign language not to
fulll a task, but to communicate about their daily chores,
activities, current events, etc|very much the same thing
they would do in their native tongue. And in contrast to
classroom interaction, Twitter oers the students do so at
any time they like.
The aspect of free choice of time is especially suitable for
our target group. This group consists of students enrolled at
a college oering a combination of evening classes and distance learning courses. The majority of the students has job;
and since they are already taking classes in the evening, their
busy schedule allows them little time to study and practice.
However, most of the students have computer access during
their working hours, and so they can visit the micro-blogging
website and read the messages sent by the classmates and
respond, or simply write a message by themselves whenever
they have some minutes of spare time.
The interactional aspect of the micro-blogging site oers
a further advantage: probably no student would consider
it a reak from work" to practice drill sentences or review
a grammar lesson, but visiting the micro-blogging website
and communicating with classmates is perceived as aking
a break from work" and relaxing for a few minutes, although
the students are actually practicing their language communication skills. In fact, some students noted that microblogging had an additional advantageous side eect: the
atmosphere between the classmates improved, and meeting
on the micro-blogging Web site gave them the impression of
meeting on a virtual schoolyard.
Since Twitter is an open community where messages can
be read by all users, not only friends, the students were
contacted and contacted other users from outside the class;
among them native speakers of English. As a consequence,
they do not only use micro-blogging among each other but
also with native speakers, which will further improve their
communication skills concerning
eal-use" of English.
The micro-blogging service we used oers the possibility
to send direct messages. Then only two parties can view the
message. This is particularly helpful when a student has a
question which he does not want to ask in public" (fear of
face loss), or to clarify a point, etc. The students can use this
service to communicate directly with each other, or to communicate directly with their teacher. On the other hand, the
teacher can correct mistakes by sending a direct message to
the student who made the mistake without involving other
students.
In order to facilitate the teacher's access of the microblogging service, we implemented an oine" application.
The application automatically downloaded all the students
3. WEB 2.0 AS A RESEARCH TOOL
Just like the Web 2.0 has transformed the Web and the
way people use the Web, we believe that Web 2.0 has the potential to transform research in technology-enhanced learning. We base this claim on two observations: rst, on the
wealth and variety of Web 2.0 services that are available
today, and second, on the low complexity of exploiting the
functionality of the services by APIs, which allows to implement functionality on top of these services.
The wealth of functionality (mostly) freely available
today is unparalleled. To cite but a few examples relevant for learning: e-portfolios
7
, navigation analysis
8
,
6
http://www.rubyonrails.org/, http://www.
djangoproject.com/
7
http://www.google.com/notebook
8
http://www.google.com/analytics
hal-00588757, version 1 - 10 May 2011
conversion of spoken word to text and vice versa
9
, collaborative oce functionality
10
, video editing
11
, etc.
The Web technology has matured to such a degree
that complex applications can be assembled in a very
short time. Mash-up engines like Yahoo Pipes and Microsoft's Pop
y
12
allow a drag&drop construction of
applications that integrate functionality from existing
services without any programming knowledge. More
complex exploitation is achieved by access through open
APIs.
We argue that until now the potential that arises from
these facts has not been suciently stressed: instead of
(re)implementing services, the researcher in the area of technology enhanced learning should reuse existing services. The
wealth and accessibility of functionality allows to assemble
complex prototypes in a small matter of time. These prototypes are usually stable enough for evaluation and validation
of research hypotheses. In order to illustrate these claims,
in the following, we will describe how we used two existing
Web 2.0 service for rapid prototyping
3.1 Micro-Blogging for Language Learning
The research described in this section was performed at
the distant university of Shanghai Jiao Tong university whose
students to a large percentage consist of vocational learners. The research question investigated was how to increase
active participation of the students in oral communication
courses for English as a second language. In the traditional
Chinese education system, knowledge transmission from the
teacher to the learner is valued higher than active participation of the learner in the classroom [43]. Therefore, even
adult learners do not feel comfortable practicing in front of
fellow learners. Additionally, being vocational learners, the
students did often not nd the time to practice outside the
classroom hours.
Our research therefore focused on the question how to
provide practice possibilities that the students could use in
their limited time and without fear of loosing their face.
We decided to investigate micro-blogging, a type of blogging that enables users to post short messages that are distributed within their community. Users can post messages
from their mobile devices, a Web page, and from Instant
Messengers. The same channels are used for receiving messages from other users.
Micro-blogging was used in the lecture in the following
way: the lecturer created an account at an existing microblogging service (Twitter
13
). As a homework, the students
of the lecture were prompted to create their own account
and to become friends" with the lecturer as well as with
the other students. Since each Twitter user receives the
messages of his or her friends, each student who followed
the instruction would receive the messages of his/her fellow
students. The students were then told to post a least seven
micro-blogging messages a week and to read the incoming
messages of their fellow students.
9
http://www.jott.com/, http://www.spokentext.net/
10
http://docs.google.com/
11
http://www.jumpcut.com/
12
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/, http://www.popfly.
com/
13
http://twitter.com.
During the lecture, our expectations that micro-blogging
oers a number of possibilities, services and advantages which
dier from the standard classroom interaction were con-rmed. In the classroom, when they students have to talk to
their foreign teacher in a foreign language, they feel very shy
and timid and often nd themselves at loss of words. This is
partly due to the nervousness caused by the situation; and
it is partly due to their limited vocabulary. Using microblogging, the students can take their time before responding
or commenting and are thus relieved of some of their pressure; and they can also consult a dictionary to nd a suitable
but unknown word or expression.
From a linguistic point of view, micro-blogging is a communicative approach to the teaching and learning of a foreign language. The students use the foreign language not to
fulll a task, but to communicate about their daily chores,
activities, current events, etc|very much the same thing
they would do in their native tongue. And in contrast to
classroom interaction, Twitter oers the students do so at
any time they like.
The aspect of free choice of time is especially suitable for
our target group. This group consists of students enrolled at
a college oering a combination of evening classes and distance learning courses. The majority of the students has job;
and since they are already taking classes in the evening, their
busy schedule allows them little time to study and practice.
However, most of the students have computer access during
their working hours, and so they can visit the micro-blogging
website and read the messages sent by the classmates and
respond, or simply write a message by themselves whenever
they have some minutes of spare time.
The interactional aspect of the micro-blogging site oers
a further advantage: probably no student would consider
it a reak from work" to practice drill sentences or review
a grammar lesson, but visiting the micro-blogging website
and communicating with classmates is perceived as aking
a break from work" and relaxing for a few minutes, although
the students are actually practicing their language communication skills. In fact, some students noted that microblogging had an additional advantageous side eect: the
atmosphere between the classmates improved, and meeting
on the micro-blogging Web site gave them the impression of
meeting on a virtual schoolyard.
Since Twitter is an open community where messages can
be read by all users, not only friends, the students were
contacted and contacted other users from outside the class;
among them native speakers of English. As a consequence,
they do not only use micro-blogging among each other but
also with native speakers, which will further improve their
communication skills concerning
eal-use" of English.
The micro-blogging service we used oers the possibility
to send direct messages. Then only two parties can view the
message. This is particularly helpful when a student has a
question which he does not want to ask in public" (fear of
face loss), or to clarify a point, etc. The students can use this
service to communicate directly with each other, or to communicate directly with their teacher. On the other hand, the
teacher can correct mistakes by sending a direct message to
the student who made the mistake without involving other
students.
In order to facilitate the teacher's access of the microblogging service, we implemented an oine" application.
The application automatically downloaded all the students
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