Edited by Catherine Scanlon, Monday, 27 May 2013, 14:07
In the beginning there was First Class – forums which we began using in HSC in 2005, with ‘pioneer’ IT-using course, K221 (Perspectives in Complementary and Alternative Medicine). Aside, quite interesting juxtaposition of this subject to be in the ‘forefront’ – linking in with ideas of integrating medicine, (I notice myself observing).
It took a while to get to grips with the idea of using these online forums, as a replacement for face-to-face sessions. Our module chair drew up sample activities for all five forums, and we could use them, or other material as we wished. I began to get to grips with using these forums more skilfully, and found the ‘new’ tutor moderators training helpful in this regard, learning how to make folders, create new conferences, such as community cafes for more informal chat, and using profiles and little icons. I remember particularly enjoying the jolly little rainbow sign being used by my esteemed, IT savvy, colleague, Fiona Barnes.
Then we moved to the VLE (Moodle) – these forums seemed a bit crude after our First class experience, though that may have been in part just getting used to a new layout, with different pros and cons. The main advantage here was that personal photographs or images could be inserted into the profile – thus bringing these online, asynchronous conversations ‘to life’ in my view – if I’d met someone at a f2f session, then being reminded of what they looked like, or an associated image, was great.
I continued pondering about what kinds of images people chose: - many people still didn’t use any at all, many used a simple headshot, whilst others put themselves within a favoured view, such as in the countryside. Others, again, would put photos of grand/children or pets (dogs, cats, themselves riding horses). I remember a discussion in a leaflet with which I was involved, where I realised my headshot looked a bit out of line with more distant images. In that case, my colleague chose to come in with a closer up shot – more academic, sitting at a desk, with books in the background.
I talked with a colleague who chooses not to use a portrait photo, because this might bring up issues around beauty, especially where someone might have some kind of facial disfigurement. I noticed central staff were less likely to include images – not sure why – perhaps they used forums less often.
At an AL Assembly meeting (2012-13), I noticed I was the only one with a profile in the Elluminate meeting room – a not dissimilar feature, where users can upload a picture onto their profile – by putting the cursor on the person’s name, then this profile information would come up. Again, I found this handy, bringing who was speaking more to life for me – possibly reminding me of who they were, especially if I had met them somewhere before. Interestingly, and by contrast, at an OU Live training with Blackboard collaborate, where participants were the more experienced users of online conferencing, I think every single person had a picture profile.
I wondered about whether there was room for some kind of little study to explore this aspect of choice of image for profile and identity depiction. Naively, I think, since as I explored it, it seems there is already a massive literature on these matters – though somewhat on the elite-language social science/ anthroplogical side (e.g. Schwammlein and Wodzicki, 2012) – rather than ‘quick and dirty’ but more intelligible to some of use writing. To some extent, I am trying to fill this gap here.
I discovered some OU colleagues had been researching the use of profile images in a technology level 1 module (Kear et al, 2013). Their conclusions seemed to be that OU students were not very interested in this aspect. I put the question forward as to whether this might be gendered to some extent, since my experience of technology modules is that they have many more men than women, compared to, for example, (another stereotype), health and social care modules, where women enormously predominate.
I have found it interesting to have kept a light eye on this topic over some years now, and linking this to how easy it is to communicate with others, and how well online groups, as well as other linked groups, may work. Do feel free to add to this blog with any views of your own. It would be lovely to hear your views!
Catherine Scanlon
May 2013
Karen Kear, Frances Chetwynd & Helen Jefferis Faculty of MCT, The OU. “To give a better understanding of who I am”: the role of personal profiles in online learning. - DTMD meeting, presentation in session 2, videos available in:
Schwammlein, E, and Wodzicki, K (2012) 'What to tell about me? self-presentation in online communities' Journal of computer-mediated communication, 17, 387-407.
forums, online conferencing and profile images
In the beginning there was First Class – forums which we began using in HSC in 2005, with ‘pioneer’ IT-using course, K221 (Perspectives in Complementary and Alternative Medicine). Aside, quite interesting juxtaposition of this subject to be in the ‘forefront’ – linking in with ideas of integrating medicine, (I notice myself observing).
It took a while to get to grips with the idea of using these online forums, as a replacement for face-to-face sessions. Our module chair drew up sample activities for all five forums, and we could use them, or other material as we wished. I began to get to grips with using these forums more skilfully, and found the ‘new’ tutor moderators training helpful in this regard, learning how to make folders, create new conferences, such as community cafes for more informal chat, and using profiles and little icons. I remember particularly enjoying the jolly little rainbow sign being used by my esteemed, IT savvy, colleague, Fiona Barnes.
Then we moved to the VLE (Moodle) – these forums seemed a bit crude after our First class experience, though that may have been in part just getting used to a new layout, with different pros and cons. The main advantage here was that personal photographs or images could be inserted into the profile – thus bringing these online, asynchronous conversations ‘to life’ in my view – if I’d met someone at a f2f session, then being reminded of what they looked like, or an associated image, was great.
I continued pondering about what kinds of images people chose: - many people still didn’t use any at all, many used a simple headshot, whilst others put themselves within a favoured view, such as in the countryside. Others, again, would put photos of grand/children or pets (dogs, cats, themselves riding horses). I remember a discussion in a leaflet with which I was involved, where I realised my headshot looked a bit out of line with more distant images. In that case, my colleague chose to come in with a closer up shot – more academic, sitting at a desk, with books in the background.
I talked with a colleague who chooses not to use a portrait photo, because this might bring up issues around beauty, especially where someone might have some kind of facial disfigurement. I noticed central staff were less likely to include images – not sure why – perhaps they used forums less often.
At an AL Assembly meeting (2012-13), I noticed I was the only one with a profile in the Elluminate meeting room – a not dissimilar feature, where users can upload a picture onto their profile – by putting the cursor on the person’s name, then this profile information would come up. Again, I found this handy, bringing who was speaking more to life for me – possibly reminding me of who they were, especially if I had met them somewhere before. Interestingly, and by contrast, at an OU Live training with Blackboard collaborate, where participants were the more experienced users of online conferencing, I think every single person had a picture profile.
I wondered about whether there was room for some kind of little study to explore this aspect of choice of image for profile and identity depiction. Naively, I think, since as I explored it, it seems there is already a massive literature on these matters – though somewhat on the elite-language social science/ anthroplogical side (e.g. Schwammlein and Wodzicki, 2012) – rather than ‘quick and dirty’ but more intelligible to some of use writing. To some extent, I am trying to fill this gap here.
I discovered some OU colleagues had been researching the use of profile images in a technology level 1 module (Kear et al, 2013). Their conclusions seemed to be that OU students were not very interested in this aspect. I put the question forward as to whether this might be gendered to some extent, since my experience of technology modules is that they have many more men than women, compared to, for example, (another stereotype), health and social care modules, where women enormously predominate.
I have found it interesting to have kept a light eye on this topic over some years now, and linking this to how easy it is to communicate with others, and how well online groups, as well as other linked groups, may work. Do feel free to add to this blog with any views of your own. It would be lovely to hear your views!
Catherine Scanlon
May 2013
Karen Kear, Frances Chetwynd & Helen Jefferis Faculty of MCT, The OU. “To give a better understanding of who I am”: the role of personal profiles in online learning. - DTMD meeting, presentation in session 2, videos available in:
http://www.dtmd.org.uk/webcast
Schwammlein, E, and Wodzicki, K (2012) 'What to tell about me? self-presentation in online communities' Journal of computer-mediated communication, 17, 387-407.