visualizing informal learning behavior from conference participants twitter data

Visualizing Informal Learning

Behavior from Conference

Participants Twitter Data

Heli Aramo-Immonen1, Jari Jussila2, Jukka Huhtamäki3,

Tampere University of Technology, 1 Industrial Management in Pori Unit

2 Department of Information Management and Logistics

3 Intelligent Information Systems Laboratory (IISLab)

This paper was introduced in

TEEM2014 International ACM-conference in Salamanca, Spain

Overview of the study

• The aim of this research was to explore the

informal learning behavior in project context

especially by analyzing and visualizing

informal learning behavior from conference

participants Twitter data

• Case study

– Project of organizing the CMAD2014 (Community

Manager Appreciation Day) conference held during

27 January 2014 in Hämeenlinna, Finland

– Tweets from the registered participants two weeks

before the conference

– 225 people participated in CMAD2014 during the

day

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cmad.fi

Community of Practice

• A community of practice is a collection of

people who engage on an ongoing basis in

some common endeavor. (Eckert, 2006)

• Organizations are made up of communities of

practice

• If organizational learning is to take place,

then Informal learning in communities needs

to be stimulated. (Ropes, 2010)

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Theoretical discussion

• Concepts of informal and formal learning,

• Activity theory based informal expansive

learning,

• Internal and external memory aids,

• Motivation to learn

• Context of communities of practice as

informal learning environments

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Informal Learning

• Icinformal learners usually set their own

learning objectives.

• They learn when they feel a need to know.

• The proof of their learning is their ability to do

something they could not do before.

• Informal learning is often a pastiche of small

chunks of observing how others do things,

asking questions, trial and error, sharing

stories with others, and casual conversation.

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According to García-Peñalvo, Colomo-Palacios and Lytras (2012),

Activity theory

• According to the socio-cultural historical

activity theory, there has to be a triggering

action, such as a conflictual questioning of

the existing standard practice in the

organization in order to generate expansive

learning

• Expansive learning produces culturally new

patterns of activity. Engeström, Y, (2000)

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Expansive Learning

• In Twitter communities is the freedom to be

critical concerning contemporary ways of

doing things.

• In other words, individuals do tend to criticize

and express their feelings more easily in

social media than in face-to-face contact.

• This could be trigger for a change in

organization.

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Motivation to Learn

• An individual moves through a number of

stages in the process of becoming learning-

oriented (Bucler, 1996; Koskinen & Aramo-Immonen 2008)

1. Ignorance

2. Awareness

3. Understanding

4. Commitment

5. Enactment

6. Reflection

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Assessment of how does learning motivation stages

differ in online and face-to-face informal learning

environments. Based on our observation during this

study. (online/face to face is marked in the table X=exists

and - =does not exist)

Motivation

stages

Before

conference During conference After conference

Ignorance x / - - / - x / -

Awareness x / - x / x x / x

Understanding - / - x / x - / x

Commitment x / x x / x - / x

Enactment - / - - / - - / x

Reflection - / - - / - x / x

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Top 5 hashtags that CMAD2014 participants used during

two weeks before the conference day. Interactive version

is available: http://bit.ly/chashtags

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Hashtag metrics of people tweeting during two weeks

before the CMAD2014 conference day. Interactive

visualization available: http://bit.ly/hcmatrix

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Hashtag metrics

• In the matrix the discussions are clustered

based on the choice of sorting parameter:

volume, partition and total number of co-

occuring tweets.

• From the co-occurrence of hashtags matrix,

and sorting by partitions, we identified 7

larger different partitions, representing 7

different subgroups of discussions inside the

community of community managers.

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Figure 3. Interactive visualization of people tweeting and

their hashtags during two weeks before the conference

day. Interactive visualizations is available:

http://bit.ly/cnetwork

Interactive Visualization

• The figure 3 can be used by people to find

people with similar interest, to network with

and share knowledge even before the

conference.

• For the organizers the figure 3 gives clues

which people should be e.g. seated at same

tables at lunch to generate fruitful further

discussions

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• Proposition 1: Discussions in social media network can

perform as virtual informal collaborative learning

environments.

• Proposition 2: Physical informal learning environments

can be build based on information gained from

interactive visualization of people’s behaviour in social

network before and during the event.

• Proposition 3: Before event virtual discussions can

increase the motivation to learn informally during the

conference.

Propositions

CONTACT

Heli Aramo-Immonen, heli.aramo-immonen@tut.fi

Twitter: @AramoHeli, LinkedIn, Facebook

Blogi: http://heliaramoimmonen.wordpress.com/

Jari J. Jussila, jari.j.jussila@tut.fi

Twitter: @jjussila

Jukka Huhtamäki jukka.huhtamaki@tut.fi

Twitter: @jnkka

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research is sponsored by Tekes – the Finnish Funding

Agency for Technology and Innovation (Projects “Soila”; Innovative

Value Creation and Business Models of Social Media in B2B Networks,

and “Reino”; Relational Capital for Innovative Growth Companies).