andresmh's Blog

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/285483/generals/html/web_science.html

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/285483/generals/html/cooperation_research.html

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/285483/generals/html/creative_learning_through_online_collaboration.html

Introduction

Since the beginning of human history, people have come together to learn from others and cooperate towards common goals. However, now, more than ever before, the massification of networked technologies has dramatically increased the number and diversity of possible connections a networked individual can have. The Web has significantly lowered the threshold for social participation, giving millions of people the ability to gather on-line, in small and large groups. Some people join large-scale cooperative efforts, like the creation of an encyclopedia, while others join small efforts to engage in very personal and meaningful endeavors, like creating a video mashup with peers.

For a long time, educators have noted the social nature of learning and stressed the need for making the educational experiences more social. Despite this, the Web and other networked technologies have traditionally been used in education to simply deliver information and not as much to engage people in collaborative learning activities.

Some young people, often unafraid of experimenting with available technologies, are already using the Web in highly participatory activities that go beyond socialization. Some of them are actively co-designing and co-creating new media with others, such as fan fiction literature or amateur video production.

My ultimate goal is to learn from the research on the nature of human motivations for participation and cooperation to design Web-based social software systems that engage young people in creative learning and collaborative experiences. Some of the questions that I would like to address are for example:

What do social and natural sciences tell us about the nature and evolution of cooperation? How do different interventions and system design decisions affect collaboration and foster participation? What does learning research tell us about the social aspects of learning and creativity? What do young people do on-line and how can we build on that to create engaging learning activities? How can the emergent structures found when analyzing the Web can help us make design decisions? How do Semantic Web technologies enable people to connect content and people in better and more diverse ways to support their on-line participation?

This proposal tries to address these questions by doing a literature review in three areas. The main one, lead by my advisor Prof. Mitchel Resnick will be focused on the social nature of learning and how it connects to what young people do online. The readings in the technical area, guided by Prof. Tim Berners-Lee, will focus on the current structure of the Web and the technological infrastructures for its future, in particular the Semantic Web. Finally, the readings in the contextual area under supervision of Prof. Yochai Benkler looks at how the law, and natural and social sciences look at the nature of human cooperation.