Work, Learning and Social Interaction Online
My research focuses on the way computer-mediated interaction supports
and affects interaction for work and learning, as well as what kinds of
interactions form work, learning, and social relationships. I examine
how and what
information is exchanged, knowledge is co-constructed, collaboration
happens, and community forms in and in conjunction with online
contexts.
My research fall under a number of labels:
- Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)
- The Internet (or the web)
- E-Learning, or online learning, asynchronous learning networks
(ALN)
- Social Informatics
- Online social networks
- Virtual community
- Distributed knowledge
- Collaboration
My research includes ...
- Computer-mediated communication in general: including both
proprietary, limited access systems and venues (e.g.,
intra-organizational systems), and the Internet.
- The way social networks are formed online, how virtual
connections maintain online communities, and what relations connect
people that makes it possible for them to work, learn, and create
social relationships at a distance via CMC.
- The role of computer-based technologies in general, and how these
fit with local conditions and norms as individuals and groups pursue
their goals
- The way CMC affects members of distance learning environments,
with particular emphasis on social, communal, and conversational
aspects of such interactions
- How intangible aspects of knowledge work - e.g., coming up with
new ideas - occur across disciplines and spheres of knowledge, and the
role of technologies in supporting that work for groups.
- The nature of distributed knowledge practices, including what
constitutes and constrains such work, and how social and technical
solutions may be designed to support such interaction.
Social Networks
In most of my studies I use a social network approach,
which considers the interactions (social network "relations") that
occur between people as the building blocks that determine social
behavior. It is not an individual's behavior, but rather their behavior
with others that is the important unit of analysis. Thus, to understand
how people work together, form communities, or gain access to
information, it is necessary to examine the types of interactions they
engage in. The interactions show us patterns, and the patterns reveal
how social groups organize themselves to accomplish certain goals.
An important aspect of the social network approach is that it strives
to discover these patterns empirically, letting the interaction show
the important groupings rather than deciding the groupings beforehand
and then examining behaviors. For example, grouping individuals as
"students" and examining summary behavior cannot reveal the nature of
their interactions, nor can it show the emergence of structures (such
as cliques, subgroups, etc.) within the set of students. Empirical
assessment of behavior is particularly important when roles are
changing, or are unidentified in conventional namings (e.g., where is
the "technological guru" on the organization chart?), and when new
technologies forge new relationships among actors. (See also: What is
Network Analysis? by Lin Freeman.)
Social Informatics
My work adopts a social
informatics
perspective as developed by Rob Kling. I look at the way the
social interacts with the technical, and the way these mutually affect
each other. I am as interested in the social solutions that help work
and learning at a distance as much as the technical solutions, and
believe the way to good practice lies in evaluating both sides of the
equation.
The term social informatics was coined in 1996 from discussion among
researchers in social aspects of computing, and its practice has been
spread by the work of Rob Kling who died in 2003. See What is Social
Informatics? maintained by the School of Library and Information
Science, Indiana University.
Research Questions
Within the
broad areas of computer-mediated communication, information exchange,
and social network analysis, my research addresses these kinds of
questions:
- Who talks to whom, about what, and via which media?
- What types of information - factual, emotional, playful - are
exchanged via CMC?
- How do these information exchanges support work and learning?
- How are social network attributes correlated with affective
notions of "community" in online groups?
- How are computer-media deployed and used to support information
exchange and knowledge co-construction in groups?
- How do information and communication technologies create,
sustain, and/or constrain collaboration?
- How does CMC and the Internet support online worlds, virtual
communities, and communities of practice?
- How do communities develop online, and over time?
- How do newcomers learn to become comfortable online?
- How do social networks change over time?
- How does online life co-exist with, modify, or otherwise affect
offline life?
- How do offline and online worlds complement each other?
- How do online interactions fit with, complement and/or replace
offline interactions?
- How do new configurations of information and communication
technology change where and when we work, and with whom and how we
maintain friendships and working relationships?
- How do different kinds of interactions fit together, and how do
multiple media support such interactions between pairs, among group
members, and across organizations?
- How do new technologies affect how and with whom we work, learn
and ply?