Week 12

1
Computer Mediated Communications

• Week 12
• LBSC 690
• Information Technology

2
Agenda

• Questions
• Computer mediated communications
• Computer-supported cooperative work
• Educational computing
• Project testing

3
Computer Mediated Communication

• CMC refers to human communication via
  computers--including computer network
  communication on the Internet and the World Wide
  Web. People interested in CMC study a range of
  phenomena--from the dynamics of group
  communication in Usenet news articles to how
  people use hypertext to shape meaning.

from http//www.ibiblio.org/cmc/center.html
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Describing CMC Applications

• How many participants?
• One or many
• When?
• Synchronous or asynchronous
• Where?
• Local or remote

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Cooperative systems
Inspired by the table in Shneidermans Designing
user interfaces
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Electronic Mail (email)

• Asynchronous and distributed
• A great start for Internet communication
• Available even beyond the Internet
• Many email providers
• AOL, MSN, Yahoo, universities
• Mailing lists provide simple way to talk to many
  people at once
• listservs

7
USENET News and BBS

• Asynchronous and distributed
• USENET are similar to a large set of mailing
  lists
• Hierarchical organization
• Most general appears first (comp., soc., alt. )
• Most specific appears last (comp.edu.languages.nat
  ural)
• Google groups keeps all the news
• Bulletin Board Systems are Web extension
• Not through emails, but web pages
• More popular than USENET now
• An example http//www.bianca.com/

8
Hands on point try online BBS

• Go to http//discus.hope.edu/f03/
• Pick up a board to read
• Describe how it is organized
• Powered by discusware at http//www.discusware.com
  /

9
Threads in emails and news

• Many ways to organize messages
• Chronologically
• Same sender
• Same receiver
• Threads provides another way
• under the same subject, in the same topic
• Easy to retrieve a set of topic related messages

10
Instant Messenger (IM)

• Synchronous and distributed
• talk on UNIX in old days
• Popular for similarity to human talking
• A common space shows dialogue history
• Both people can type at the same time
• Must has a screen name
• e.g., atouchofwind
• both sides have to use the same provider

11
Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

• Synchronous and distributed
• Like IM, but with lots more people
• Same thing as a chat room on AOL
• Whole lines are sent at a time
• Each line is labeled with the senders screenname
• Still not allowed in open labs at UMD?
• Was simply too popular!
• Yahoo chat http//chat.yahoo.com/

12
Netmeeting

• The idea of real-time communication between pairs
  or groups over the internet or intranet using
  audio, video and data communication.
• Also refers to Microsoft software
• Popular in corporations
• Especially in economic downturns

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Successful Story Glass wall

• Glass wall at PARC
• Facilitates unplanned interactions
• Supports informal communications

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Hands on Point Shared White Board

• Open a browser
• Go to http//products.figleaf.com/
• Login with a screen name
• Click draw if it is available
• Draw a circle or add things
• Click release once you are down
• Another example Coccinella http//hem.fyristorg.
  com/matben/

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Tools inside class/meeting room

• Synchronous and Local
• Support face to face communication
• Meeting support systems
• Brainstorming
• Online review
• Annotated minutes
• Example
• Multichat, one minute paper

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Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)

• Also known as groupware
• Work
• Grounded in the study of work processes
• Cooperative
• Assumes a shared objective, task
• Information technology supported
• Computers are just one type of tools used

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Key factors in CSCW

• Combined, integrated technologies
• Communication and coordination within the group,
• Main challenges are from social, not technical or
  economic

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Key Issues in CSCW

• group awareness,
• multi-user interfaces,
• concurrency control,
• communication and coordination within the group,
• shared information space and
• the support of a heterogenous, open environment

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Case Study Virtual Reference

• Reference and virtual reference
• Is virtual reference CSCW?
• What are the required functions of virtual
  reference systems?

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Case Study Virtual Reference and CMC tools

• Pros and cons of using each CMC techniques in
  virtual reference?

21
The Real Example

• What about your project team coordination?
• Face to face meetings
• What about other means of CMC?

22
Educational Computing

• Computer Assisted Education
• What most people think of first
• Computer Managed Instruction
• What most people really do first!
• Computer Mediated Communication
• All that CSCW stuff applied to education
• Computer-Based Multimedia
• Just another filmstrip machine?

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Rationales

• Pedagogic
• Use computers to teach
• Vocational
• Computer programming is a skill like typing
• Social
• Computers are a part of the fabric of society
• Catalytic
• Computers are symbols of progress

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Conditions for Success

• Most prerequisites are not computer-specific
• Need, know-how, time, commitment, leadership,
  incentives, expectations
• In one study, only one addressed resources
• The most important barrier isnt either
• Teacher time is by far the most important factor

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Alternatives

• Facilities
• Computer classrooms (e.g., teaching theaters)
• Computers IN classrooms (e.g., HBK 3108)
• Objectives
• Computer Literacy is the most common class
• Not so in the Maryland teaching theaters
• Comparatively few technology classes

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Discussion Point Computers as Educational Media

• What are the most salient characteristics
• Books
• Video
• Computers

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Distance Education

• Correspondence courses came first
• Focus on dissemination and evaluation
• Instructional television was next
• Dissemination, interaction, and evaluation
• Ordinary television supports only dissemination
• Computer Assisted Instruction
• Same three functions
• Goal is to be better, cheaper, or both

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Discussion Point distance education vs
face-to-face teaching

• What we gain from distance education?
• What we lose from distance education?

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Case Study How WebCT was selected

• Course Management System
• CT stands for Course Tools
• Integrated set of education tools for
• Facilitating learning, communications
• Organizing course and admin materials
• Face-to-face to online distance learning

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Evaluating a Web course management tool

• FeaturesBack-endOther

From Sunil Hazari http//www.sunilhazari.com/educa
tion/webct/oldstuff/default.htm
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Project Evaluation

• Review
• Informal colleague review
• Formal expert review
• Usability testing
• Study the usefulness of the system
• Informal or formal
• Survey
• Clear goal first, then focused items next

32
Usability Testing

• Two key issues
• Test types
• Sampling strategies
• Black box tests
• Assumes no knowledge of the design
• For example, test every link on every page
• Glass box tests
• Use design knowledge to test likely failures
• For example, run queries that exercise joins

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Sampling Strategies

• Systematic tests
• Broad tests
• Web page example test every link from the top
  page
• Database example Run each query once
• Deep tests
• Web page example follow a full sequence of links
• Database example Run a query with different data
• Ad hoc tests
• Specify how users are selected, give them a task

34
Golden rules

• Test often
• During the development stage
• After completion
• Select the right tester
• Anyone but the developer