social learning: ispot lessons for futurelearn

iSpot: Informal Social LearningFutureLearn Partner Meeting 24 June 2013Doug Clow

• What iSpot is• What worked• What didn’t• Models of social participation

(cc) kqedquest http://www.flickr.com/photos/kqedquest/4288564951/

what iSpot is

Take a photo

iSpot ecosystem

• 25,000 registered users & rising daily• 180,000 observations with 300,000 images• 225,000 identifications, 750,000 agreements• > 5,000 different wildlife species spotted• 96% observations receive a name, most in <1h

what worked

• Easy to do• Easy to learn what to do

• Only positive interactions• No downvoting• Progress is ‘safe’• Nothing for griefers to do• Expert opinion rises above

non-certified• Helpful tone set

Roles for power users•Help the newbies•Reasons to stay•Build on existing communities•System scales,stays responsive

Active curation•Team•Mentors•Experts•Power users

Links with events and mass media:•News about moth => traffic spike•SpringWatch => registration spike•Saving Species => sustained participation

Reputation system•Show expertise•Engage experts•Encourage development

what didn’t work (so well)

• Face to face activities(without a lot of work)

• Complex interface• System downtime• Data loss (recovered!)

• Linked formal course• 10 observations dump• Insufficient sign-ups

• Some still highly active

models of social participation

Reader to Leader (Preece & Shneiderman, 2009)

Fairy ring:•Rhizome grows beneath•Mushrooms pop up•Infer existence fromring, even when nomushrooms

(cc) BazzaDaRambler http://www.flickr.com/photos/bazzadarambler/6887267858/

(cc) Mick E. Talbot http://www.flickr.com/photos/25258702@N04/4936236972/

GIVE / RECEIVEEXPERTISE

BROWSEUPLOAD

COMMENTIDENTIFY

JOINT-DECISIONCOLLABORATION

PEER-TO-PEER

SHARE CONTROL CONTENT AND COMMUNIITY

RECIPROCITYRECIPROCITY

PERSONAL INTEREST

PERSONAL INTEREST

REAL WORLD DRIVERS

REAL WORLD DRIVERS

ENTHUSIASMENTHUSIASM

Mode 0: Lurking- legitimate peripheral participation

Mode 1: Contributing– dumping, peripherating, posting

Mode 2: Engaging– relating

Mode 3: Co-constructingMode 4: Moderating

– stewarding, tending, policing, enforcing, maintaining, gardening

(cc) Mick E. Talbot http://www.flickr.com/photos/25258702@N04/4936236972/

For more high-level participation (Co-constructing):

• Make it easy to learn (LPP)• Make it easy to participate• Make it clear what you want• Reward/reinforce it• Conservation activity!• Build on existing community

• iSpot Team: Jonathan Silvertown, Doug Clow, Richard Greenwood, Richard Lovelock, Mike Dodd, Martin Harvey, Donal O’Donnell, Jenny Worthington, Marion Edwards, Jon Rosewell, Janice Ansine, iSpot Mentors

• Photos not otherwise credited: Mike Dodd, Jonathan Silvertown, Martin Harvey

doug.clow@open.ac.ukhttp://dougclow.org@dougclow