ICT4 Elderly/Create within a Group

Contents of the module

Creating and working in online communities and groups;
Intentional communication for collaboration;
Resources used for working in online communities and groups (e.g., reviews functions);
Creative Commons Licences and other possibilities to work with established resources;
Wikipedia and other Wiki platforms.

Learning objectives

Support the use of digital technologies for intentional communication in day to day life;
Enable learners to realise and develop their intentional communication skills;
Use free and open digital technologies to develop intentional communication practices and habits;
Demonstrate critical thinking around intentional collaboration in various social and cultural environments;
Explore methods of online collaboration in small-group activities to learn from each other and support an intentional communication culture;
Cases of intentional communication online: the Wikipedia example;
Provide a historical framework of copyleft and free licences;
Promote the understanding and use of Free licences as a tool for evolving copyright;
Provide guidance to use the Creative Commons licences framework in real life scenarios.

Learning outcomes

The participant is able to:

Recognize the general culture of the online community and engage in it effectively;
Describe the background, history, features and steps of intentional communication and collaboration in relation to the web culture;
Create and work in a group of like-minded individuals/individuals with a similar goal/interest;
Add, edit and engage with information in those groups (e.g., review functions);
Identify diverse understandings of copyleft and free licences;
Examine the different goals within the copyleft licenses;
Demonstrate copyleft and free licenses use in different contexts;
Analyze the importance of copyleft and free licences in the field of non-formal AE training;
Describe the policy framework for copyleft and free licences in the EU;
Examine the use and advantages of copyleft and free licences in different educational environments;
Create in a group like in Wikipedia;
Explore the good practices of intentional communication.

Learning scenario

Participants share their previous experiences on collaborating online;
Participants share their experiences on contribution in online communities;
Participants are encouraged to discuss freely their perceptions of how it is possible to collaborate online;
Participants are invited to explore close collaboration and intentional communication models;
Participants are introduce to the intentional collaboration in the workplace and the collaborative note taking methodology to optimise meetings and team work flow;
Participants are introduced to quick but comprehensive step by step tutorial on how to write minutes of meetings;
Participants are getting familiarized with online collaboration tools (e.g., EtherPad, FramaPad, etc.);
Participants discuss if they read articles on Wikipedia and when was the last time they had to search for an image online to use in a document they were developing and if the image was free to use;
Participants are introduced to some very known success examples of mass online collaboration like Wikipedia, Wikimedia, the Recaptcha, the open and free licenses movement and the creative commons;
Participants are encouraged to discover with a hands-on approach (learning by doing methodology) to explore the Wiki page as a collaborative space (the “edit” section);
Participants are encouraged to explore how they can too be part of the community and how they can upload their own material;
Participants reflect on the positive and negatives outcomes online collaboration can have;
Participants are introduced to on how to contribute in such platforms and still keep the authorship of the content they create;
Participants are presented a brief historical review of the open and free movement as the evolution of copyright and an alternative "some rights reserved" licensing system to the default "all rights reserved" copyright system;
Participants are knowledgeable of the open and free licenses as part of a much bigger movement and to be motivated in usage of the Creative Commons licences framework in real life scenarios.

Evaluation

Assessment Tasks;
Assignments;
Ongoing evaluation;
Assessment (test/quizzes);
Feedback exercises.

Following this module learners will:

Support the use of digital technologies for intentional communication in day to day life;
Enable learners to develop their intentional communication skills;
To incentivize the use of free and open digital technologies to develop intentional communication practices and habits;
Demonstrate critical thinking around intentional collaboration in various social and cultural environments;
Explore methods of online collaboration and activities to learn from each other and support an intentional communication culture;
Discover examples of intentional communication online: the Wikipedia and Wikimedia example;
Provide a historical framework of copyleft and free licences;
Promote the understanding and use of Free licences as a tool for evolving copyright.

Introduction

Online collaboration

Collaboration is a working practice whereby individuals work together to achieve a common purpose. Collaboration enables individuals to work together to obtain a defined and common business purpose.

Team online collaboration in the workplace is a critical aspect when it comes to performance and productivity and in today's technologically advanced job market, it means using online communication setups to allow people to work on the same project together even if they are not at the same location or working at the same time.

Collaborating online in a group inspire innovative approaches and quick decision making. Teams can use collaboration software and tools to coordinate, communicate and cooperate with each other to solve problems.

One of the main advantages of online collaboration is that it makes it easier for people to work together from different locations.

Online collaboration is generally categorized in two categories – synchronous and asynchronous.

Synchronous Online Collaboration - When the users work or do their tasks at the same time or in real-time, whether they are located at the same location or different locations. They use online collaboration software to view and edit information or documents in real-time.

Asynchronous Online Collaboration - When the users of collaboration software work together on the same project at different times, whether they are located at the same place or at different places.

Collaborative note taking

Accessibility to information and collaboration are fundamental. Collaborative note taking is an assignment that works toward both of those goals. The idea is simple: in each class or meeting, multiple people are responsible for taking notes on a shared document and post them on a specific platform for others to access.

Collaborative note taking addresses the specific needs of gathering clear and important information while also making it a shared responsibility (rather than focusing on one specific person who requires it). It asks participants to be responsible to each other by contributing to a shared resource. And ultimately, it reinforces the notion that accessible practices benefit all people in the team.

Massive Online Collaboration

Mass online collaboration is a form of collective action that occurs when large numbers of people work independently on a single project via online tools. Such projects typically take place on the internet using social software and computer-supported collaboration tools such as wiki technologies.

Free and open culture

The open and free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content or open content without compensation to, or the consent of, the work's original creators, by using the Internet and other forms of media.The movement objects to what they consider as over-restrictive copyright laws. The free-culture movement takes the ideals of the free and open-source software movement and extends them from the field of software to all cultural and creative works.

Licenses, copyleft and creative commons

One of the main organizations commonly associated with free culture is the Creative Commons (CC), an american NGO. CC promotes sharing creative works and diffusing ideas to produce cultural vibrance, scientific progress and business innovation. The organization has released several different licenses, known as Creative Commons licenses. This licenses are free of costs to the public and easy to obtain in their website. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve and which rights they allow for the benefit of the public or other creators.

Keywords

Networking, Entrepreneurship, Online Communities, Online Communication, Massive online collaboration, Tools, Wikipedia,Synchronous Online Collaboration, Asynchronous Online Collaboration, Collaborative Note Taking, Evolving Copyright, Free and Open Culture, Licenses, Copyleft, Creative Commons.

First session

The trainer will start the session by a preliminary discussion with participants about their previous experiences on collaborating and communicating online. Participants are invited to think back on the communities they are part of and to think about how they are involved.This is intended to be a warm-up activity and a stepping stone to the learning process.

After this initial debate, the trainer will present the intentional collaboration in the workplace and the collaborative note taking methodology. Participants will be invited to explore close collaboration and intentional communication models while learning by doing and by taking collaborative notes during the session.

In order to do this, the trainer will briefly explain how to use an editing pad during a collaborative meeting and how to write minutes of meetings. Trainer will support participants during this exercise.

After this, participants will be invited to debate ideas and take collaborative notes.

This discussion will be followed by the presentation of a youtube video about online collaboration and different tools. This video aims to start a group discussion on the different examples presented in the video.

After this exercise, the trainer will wrap-up the session with a debriefing moment and a small evaluation of the session.

Second session

The trainer will start the session by a preliminary discussion with participants to introduce the topics of Massive Online Collaboration. Through debates and group discussions, the trainer will explain the concepts of massive online collaboration and how participants can also be part of communities of such kind.

The Wikipedia example will be introduced as a reference in the field. Participants are encouraged to discover with an hands-on approach (learning by doing methodology) the content but also explore the wiki page as a collaborative space.

The Wikimedia platform will also be presented and participants will be encouraged to discover how they can too be part of the community and how they can upload their own material.

The Wikipedia platform will also be the base to the introduction of a new topic: How to protect and license content created and shared online. This discussion will start by a comprehensive debate on the evolution of the copyright licenses and the open and free culture and movement. The historical framework of the Open and Free Movement will be set and participants will be encouraged to discover new ways to share content while keeping the license and authorship. The Copyleft and the creative commons examples will be presented as more collaborative and socially conscious approaches to copyright.

The trainer will show participants how to create licenses and how to choose between the different types of licenses.

Participants will then be encouraged to explore and debate.

The trainer will end the session by a group debriefing and a short evaluation of the session.

First session

The purpose of the session will be:

to provide an introduction to the field of open digital technologies to develop intentional communication and collaboration practices
to facilitate the demonstration of critical thinking around intentional collaboration in various social and cultural environments
to discover methods of online collaboration
to motivate participants to explore methods of online collaboration in small-group activities to learn from each other and support an intentional communication culture

Introduction

Trainer starts the session by asking some questions to participants about their previous experience on collaborating online. When was the last time they participated in an online community, how did they contributed and if they know any successful example of a massive online collaboration. Participants are encouraged to discuss freely their perceptions of how it is possible to collaborate on the internet...

Collaborative note taking

Participants will be invited to explore close collaboration and intentional communication models. The trainer will introduce the intentional collaboration in the workplace and the collaborative note taking methodology to optimise meetings and team work flow. After this, participants will watch together a youtube video about how to take notes during meetings and classes. Link to the resource here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kxF1-jkz-U&list=PLcetZ6gSk969bFRcOW_V6e-SabTueb7gA&index=4

Using a pad to support the meeting

The trainer send a link to an etherpad session (Tools that may be used: EtherPad or FramaPad) created for the training. A quick but comprehensive step by step tutorial will be given to the participants on how to write minutes of meetings. The trainer kickstart the meeting and all the participants are invited to contribute in co-editing the pad, based on the inputs of the participants (they can add links, modify the text, transcripts in a written form the guidelines given by the trainer). They can also start chatting in the chat of the pad. This activity will continue until the end of the session, as participants collect inputs in a common document summarizing the class.

Online collaboration tools

Participants will be invited to watch a Youtube video that name the main online tools available to help teams collaborate in a more efficient way. Following the video, participants will discuss and share ideas in a structured way.

Group discussion

After having the chance to learn about different ways to collaborate online, participants will discuss: What are the main things they take away from the experience and what are the main difficulties they foresee in intentional communication and online collaboration.

Overall duration of the session

1 hour and 30 min

Homework

Participants should read the article below and share it in any social media platform they use.

55 Online Collaboration Tools to Help Your Team Be More Productive

Debriefing

To wrap up the session, the trainer will facilitate a debriefing moment where participants are encouraged to express their questions, doubts, ideas and feelings toward the topics discussed.

Evaluation

Participants will answer a small questionnaire to evaluate the session.

References

Second session

The purpose of the session will be:

to provide an introduction to the historical framework of massive online collaboration and copyleft and free licences culture
to facilitate the understanding and use of Free licences as a tool for evolving copyright
to discover and identify diverse understandings of massive online collaboration
to motivate the use of the Creative Commons licences framework in real life scenarios

Introduction

Trainer sets the theme of the session by asking participants what was the last article they read on wikipedia and when was the last time they had to search for an image online to use in a document they were developing and if the image was free to be used (or if the credits to the author were given). Then, trainer will ask if participants have ever edited or created Wikipedia content. The Wikipedia example is aimed to introduce Massive online collaboration.

Trainer will proceed by introducing some very known success examples of mass online collaboration like Wikipedia: other Wikipedia platforms such as Wikimedia, the Recaptcha, the open and free licenses movement and the creative commons, etc. The aim of this introduction is to show how individual collaboration can impact in something much bigger and important for the community (like the translation of books, or the creation of the biggest encyclopedia online). This segment of the training session is supported by a slide presentation prepared in advance and shared with participants.

Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons example

Participants are invited to visit the website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration and explore the page. Participants are encouraged to discover with an hands-on approach (learning by doing methodology) the content but also explore the wiki page as a collaborative space. Participants are invited to visit other wikipedia pages and also explore the “edit” section and see the activity report of that specific page.

Another platform is suggested: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page and participants should navigate the platform and explore the different content (Images, Sounds and Videos). Participants are encouraged to explore how they can too be part of the community and how they can upload their own material.

After this, participants are invited to share their opinions and questions on how it was to interact with the wikipedia platforms. This is a moment where participants reflect on the positive and negatives outcomes online collaboration can have.

The Wikipedia example and Copyleft

Following the previous exercises with the Wikipedia and Wikimedia content, the trainer will introduce a new debate: how to contribute in such massive platforms and still keep the authorship of the content we created? How can we protect the material we create and share online? Can we copy, edit and share content that is protected with a license?How did copyright evolved since its creation? Can we use something different to protect our work? All these questions will be approached by the trainer in a group discussion.

The trainer will present a brief historical review of the Open and free movement as the evolution of copyright and an alternative "some rights reserved" licensing system to the default "all rights reserved" copyright system. Participants will return to the Wikipedia example to better understand the use of Free licences as a fundamental tool to protect content shared online. The trainer will guide a discussion around this tópics using questions like: Can we print and sell wikipedia as a book? Can i make money with Wikipedia content?

This segment of the training session is supported by a slide presentation prepared in advance and shared with participants.

The Creative Commons and Copyleft

The Creative Commons presents a good practice example of the evolution of the free licenses and copyleft. The trainer will explain the creative commons by visiting the following website: https://creativecommons.org/choose/?lang=en

Participants will be free to express their questions and opinions which will promote group discussions in which the role of the trainer is just to facilitate the exchange of ideas. The aim of this exercise is to promote the use of copyleft licenses and creative commons licenses instead of closed and private licenses like copyright. The understanding of the open and free licenses as part of a much bigger movement is the main goal to achieve during the discussion.o motivate the use of the Creative Commons licences framework in real life scenarios .

Homework

Participants should watch the video below and share them in any social media platform they use.

Debriefing

To wrap up the session, the trainer will facilitate a debriefing moment where participants are encouraged to express their questions, doubts, ideas and feelings toward the topics discussed.

Evaluation

Participants will answer a small questionnaire to evaluate the session.

Overall duration of the session

2 hours

References

Free software, free society: Richard Stallman | TEDxGeneva 2014