Case Study

You Tube Case Study:

I decided to visit the You Tube virtual community because I was a little more familiar with accessing the videos available there and was interested in looking for some educational videos to use as resource material for my nursing students. Before I decided on You Tube, though, I was torn between observing You Tube or Second Life. I did go to the Second Life web page, but was overwhelmed and a little insecure about joining because I was unsure of my technological skills. You Tube was less intimidating to me. I joined You Tube and began the experience by viewing the You Tube handbook and then clicking on the pressroom then on a link named [just the facts]. This page gave me information about the community and as the link was named, I received just the facts.
After reading the facts, I went to the home page and clicked on the videos tab and from there; I observed what videos were the most viewed for the week. Then I did a search for education, this brought various types of videos so I narrowed my search to Nursing Education and was truly amazed at the various types of information available. I will use this community as a resource for my students, as there are some very good videos available. But, as with all information available in this medium, the videos will need to be previewed very well before recommending them to a student.
It was ironic though, that there are several videos on preparing an online educational opportunity using Second Life. I took the time to view a couple of the videos, just to see how that VLC could be used in teaching. I found an interactive hospital ward and also several different types of nursing theory classes. I think that much of what I saw of Second Life could provide more interaction learning experiences for the student as opposed to viewing a video and commenting.
The purpose of this community, You Tube, is multifaceted in that it could be used for communication, education, entertainment, or just about anything. The members of the community guide the environment. Membership in this website offers the opportunity to publish videos for anyone who wishes to view it, or the videos can be kept private, and only shared with the people the member wants to view the video. In addition, a member can subscribe to any channel and receive newly uploaded videos from their favorite You Tube video producer. The possibilities with this community are endless. The community offers assistance to teach members tips and tricks to shooting video and uploading it to the website as well as instructions on how to search for and view videos. You Tube makes it easy for people without much technical education to enjoy the community.
Communication within the community is through the videos and comments given by people viewing the videos. At first I had a difficult time following the discussion or comments, then I realized that if I clicked on the [view all __ comments] link, I would be able to follow the comments in order. This made reading the comments much easier. I watched one video on “A day in the life of an ER nurse” and was amazed at the locations from the people who commented on the video; one was from Australia, another from Italy and many from all across the United States. The majority of the comments were just that, comments. Not much communication between the producer of the video and the individuals commenting. Nor did I see much communication between the people commenting; out of 36 comments, only two were responses from the producer. Also, I did not see the people talking to each other, only commenting of their view of the video or message.
The design features that I found that would support, sustain, and develop You Tube as a virtual community is the ease of use in uploading video and also accessing and viewing the videos. The medium can be shared easily through email, blogspots, and linking on other online communities. You Tube also allows people to do what they like best, be in the limelight and share what they enjoy in life with others. The name says it all: “You Tube – Broadcast Yourself”.
You Tube can be used as a virtual learning community in a variety of ways. People, like me, can search and review videos that would be appropriate to use to reinforce information for students, or an instructor could tape a presentation or a lesson, upload it to You Tube, and link it to a web page, post a link on a different VLC, or even email the link to students. The ease of access to You Tube to view videos adds an added dimension to the community as a virtual learning community.

Tapped In Case Study

After visiting Tapped In, Math forum, Knowledge Forum, and Webquest’s home pages, I chose to observe the Tapped In virtual learning community. This community was easy to join and navigate. The home page, prior to logging in, offers many links for information about Tapped In and what to expect from the community. I reviewed this information before logging in to help me understand what to expect. This did help me feel a little better once I arrived in the Reception room. I chose this community for the features it offered, peer support, educational opportunities and the virtual office. After logging in, I set up my virtual office and then went browsing through the site. I entered a room on collaboration just as a class was ending and was greeted by the instructor who offered to email me the information that was covered during the class. He also invited me to his next class on setting up a K-12 class. I did set in on that class for a short period of time just to see the format. During that time I learned about some of the tools in the chat/class rooms that will allow you to see the information better or save it until you can use the information.
The Tapped In VLC is a practice based community; according to Reil and Polin, a practice based learning community is a larger community with a vast membership with shared goals that are supported by the community. Tapped In (TI) is an online learning environment that offers Teacher Professional Development opportunities in addition to collaboration and peer support from other educators.
TI is a virtual community that is text based, there are no video or animation plug ins, but additional technology can still be used. During a learning activity, a link to sites, such as You Tube, can be typed in to the discussion board; then after the class watches the video it can be discussed in the chat/classroom. Knowledge is constructed through collaboration and discussion among members of the community. Activity in the community is through either offering a learning experience or attending one of the many classes available. The classes are conducted in a synchronous format with the option to also discuss a specific topic privately with anyone in the class. Following the discussion, if a member is logged in, they will be emailed a transcript of the discussion while that member was participating. This is an added feature that allows for review of the information discussed.
One of the design features of TI that helps sustain the community over time is the human feature. This VLC has staff and volunteers that are available to assist members and to welcome new members to get them started. In addition to the human feature is the ability to make the community be what you need it to be. This can be using the site for online meetings, teaching opportunities, or online storage of projects needing collaboration. Another feature is the calendar on the home page that allows members to see the learning opportunities available. It is easy to join a class through the calendar; the member simply clicks on the open door and is taken to the classroom. I read through some of the transcripts from previous classes and the human feature was again prominent as each class began with an introduction of participants, and a welcome from the mediator and guest speaker.
Tapped In is a virtual learning community that I will use in a couple of ways, I plan to attend some of the classes on technology use in education to begin with, but I will also use the community’s feature of a virtual office. The virtual office is a feature that would allow a place for a teacher or student to upload files for a project they are currently working on, and have them available from any computer that has Internet access. This tool, in addition to the learning opportunities and peer support makes this community valuable resource to educators.