Case Study #1

The online website “MySpace.com” can be classified as a social virtual community where individual’s exchange and share personal information, ideas, interests, etc. with each other. As an active member of MySpace.com, I have had the ability to communicate with life long friends who live miles away along with reconnecting with friends from high school and college and even meet new friends. Throughout my two years as a member, I have participated in asynchronous emails, instant messaging, altering the design and layout of my personal page, uploading photos and videos, blogging and viewing many other personal pages.

At first I was apprehensive to join the virtual community due to my inexperience with this type of communication. I initially asked for assistance from “Tom”, the main support expert for the website. Through emailing, he was able to guide me through developing my page and offer suggestions to ask for help from other users. The site itself was very user friendly to allow anyone to develop a basic MySpace.com page.

Through my observations, the purpose of MySpace.com is to bring individuals from various locations together in one virtual world and allow for social interactions among the members. MySpace.com allows individuals to express themselves verbally and artistically. The social interaction among members allows individuals to share their thoughts, photos, and interest to just name a few with all or just selected members. MySpace.com also allows members to post and view events, forum discussions, and classified ads. Members are able to view numerous videos and listen to a variety of music, all housed within the MySpace.com cite and not on personal profiles.

To join MySpace.com, an individual needs a computer and internet connection. Having a scanner or digital camera allows members to share personal photos within the community. Various websites provide html programs to alter backgrounds, to add music, videos, and pictures to enhance the appearance of a MySpace.com page. Each member can determine the amount of personal information they want to share with the community and can alter responses at any time. Generic identity questions are asked to each member when setting up personal profiles. But through the open ended questions, personal responses vary in revealing amounts. The MySpace.com page design, images, videos, music, pictures, and accessories are endless based on an individual’s imagination. Just about anything you want displayed on your page has an html code enabling you to post it.

The MySpace.com virtual social community provides members opportunities to express their individuality, to communicate with members and to learn from each other. Even presidential candidates have MySpace.com pages. As MySpace.com becomes a global communication mechanism, limitations begin to dwindle. Dependent upon the amount of time a member spends within the community will determine the amount of knowledge they gain. Individuals are not limited to making friends with those living next to them. Due to MySpace.com, physical distance is no limitation to “truly” knowing the person on the screen. Not only can members asynchronously email one another, but instant messaging and chatting are also forms of communication components to MySpace.com. Members can upload surveys to all their “friends” by posting to the bulletin board. Individuals can blog their thoughts for all to see and even post comments to a particular friend’s page. MySpace.com does have security features in place. Each member can limit who views their complete profile, post to their comments column, preview personal photos, or leave messages. As members upload photos, MySpace.com technicians review the images to determine appropriateness for pubic viewing. The technologies assist in channeling the information that an individual desires to share. Bulletins are only sent out to those on a member’s friend list. If a new comment or email is made to a member’s profile, then they can have an email notifying them of the new communication.

Comments to a MySpace.com page from two different friends:
Kalyn and Nick
Dec 20 2007 7:00 AM
Comment Back - Send Message - Block User
Just dropping by to say hi!! I haven't seen you in awhile!

The Meaning of K8
Dec 20 2007 12:14 AM
Comment Back - Send Message - Block User
I"m keeping warm, maintaining electricity and of course, getting sick now that it's back up to 60 degrees again. Hope all is well with you, looks like you had fun in DC. Have a GREAT Christmas!

Email communication in MySpace.com page between two different friends who had lost contact over the years:

Date: Jan 23, 2008 2:18 AM
yeh, yeh, I know what you mean...I'm living the dream myself. I've been in GA a couple of years now...it was just the right time, right situation, etc. It is beautiful here and I have fallen in love with the mountains. Have you kept up with anyone from school? The only person I have stayed in contact with is ?????. I can officially say I've known her half my life...now that makes me feel older.

----------------- Original Message -----------------From: Date: Jan 16, 2008 5:21 PMoh, just about the same as everyone else. school, marriage, job, more school, divorce, more school, job...typical stuff. wow you're in georgia, what took you there?

----------------- Original Message -----------------From: Date: Jan 16, 2008 12:13 PMRight, nothing like the mention of Mr. ????? name to bring back some traumatic memories. I was just surfing through and thought I recognized your smiling face. What have you been up to in say, the last seventeen years or so?

----------------- Original Message -----------------From: Date: Jan 15, 2008 7:51 PMSure thing, band at ????? High in the 80s.

----------------- Original Message -----------------From: Date: Jan 15, 2008 1:22 PMDoes Mr. ????? ring any bells?

MySpace.com is a great social network that allows an individual to set around in their pajamas on a Saturday morning catching up with old friends, meeting new friends, educating themselves on public figures, or use their imagination to alter the appearance of their page. The virtual community allows members to feel a sense of belonging. A safety net is always there because a member can exit the community at any time by deleting their profile. They can then reenter under a new profile name. MySpace.com is not a community that requires you to interact with on a daily basis. As time permits, members can participate at their leisure. Personally for me, MySpace.com is used to unwind and relax. It is enjoyable to look at pictures that have been posted, read through comments and blogs of my friends, and regularly change or add to my page appearance.

The virtual learning community from a pedagogical and technological perspective I chose to investigate was Tapped In, http://tappedin.org/tappedin/. Tapped In is a virtual community that connects educators worldwide from all levels of the profession. After reading an article referencing Tapped In, I wanted to explore it further. Once I accessed Tapped In, I explored as a guest and then decided to join as a member. I participated in a chat designated to familiarize new users with the website. The text chat was guided by a Tapped In support person. After the chat, I searched through the website to find various things of interest. I especially appreciate the calendar full of after school professional development opportunities.

My initial impression of this website was that it was overwhelming. Small images with lots of links throughout the page. But as I spent more time exploring, I felt the website was a wonderful virtual learning community. The entire website seemed designed to increase/enhance a user’s educational knowledge. Tapped In can be identified as a knowledge-based learning community (Reil & Polin, 2004). Members can construct, use, reconstruct, and reuse knowledge. Tapped In is designed to allow members to plan and conduct learning projects, participate in topic specific discussions, and attend online professional development session. The virtual community has built in support systems to assist in the development of a user’s knowledge in how to benefit from the website. Mentors are in place to guide knowledge construction.

The purpose of Tapped In is to transform teacher professional development. The website was established in 1997 by SRI International’s Center for Technology in Learning (“Welcome to”, n.d.). Tapped In provides its members with online tools, resources, colleagues to connect to and support. Through the Tapped In experiences educators enhance their abilities to implement authentic learning activities.

Tapped In allows organizations to design and utilize collaborative online courses, workshops, seminars, and mentoring programs. To participate in Tapped In a computer and Internet connection are required and the individual must log in as a member. Members are identified by first name. It is up to the member to express additional information either through text or via profile. An individual must login to actively participate within Tapped In. During the membership sign up individuals provide minimal personal information, but they do identify their area or expertise, company and location. Members have the ability to post a picture and include personal interests within their profile. Tapped In provides members the opportunity to collaborate and network on learning projects, to enhance personal knowledge of topics and to search for members and resources. The learning possibilities are enormous. Through the peer networks Tapped In has developed, educators can engage in numerous activities, discussions, projects, online professional development and mentoring assistance. As time advances, topics and projects are reinvented to accommodate the needs of the members. Tapped In support personnel track and respond to the avenues educators advance towards.

Tapped In is designed for organizations (such as schools, professional development groups, etc.) as a virtual building with three floors. The first floor is designed with the reception room and public rooms. Members can access the help desk, news, and conference rooms from the first floor. The second floor houses group rooms that can either be open to the public or private to group owners and their selected members. The third floor is designed as personal office space for the organizations members.

Communication within Tapped In occurs via text-based chats or private messaging. Threaded discussion boards are designed for every room and conversation transcripts are emailed to the participants. Members can send messages to each other for later retrieval. Tapped In also allows members to share and store room information, post messages and agendas. Monthly newsletters are emailed to members and members have the ability to search for other members and resources. Knowledge is constructed both synchronously and asynchronously through member participation within the group rooms and public professional development rooms.


As individuals participate within Tapped In, educators can enhance their educational expertise in various fields of interest. By engaging in discussion threads or chatting, members begin to feel connected and valued within the community. Their collaborative efforts towards project development or knowledge growth enable them to contribute to the wealth of knowledge found throughout the virtual community. Below is a listing of the professional development sessions available on a particular day.
9 12:00 PM Religious Educators Forum
1:00 PM K-12 Campus Tour and Classroom Support
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM Tapped In Tips & Tricks-Virtual Fieldtrip of TI

Tapped In is supported through organizational memberships and sponsorships that strive to enhance classroom-centered learning. The virtual learning community has designed help desk assistance for member support. Frequently asked questions are also readily available to view. Monthly newsletters are emailed to continue the connections with each member. Through the communication design features, members are able to connect at anytime to one another, access stored information, retrieve messages, and search for resources. Tapped In provides members a virtual community tailored to their interest because of the variety available.

Since its establishment in 1997, Tapped In has partnered with organizations, and sponsors that value the vision of improving learning and teaching. Members consistently have a built in support mechanism to aid in maneuvering throughout the website. Tapped In has designed communication features to enhance participant’s experiences. The communication between members and support personnel can occur without the boundaries of time or space. The scaffolding of knowledge and collaborative learning occurs in various ways. As members engage in text base chats, the conversations are emailed to the participants and also to those not logged on within the group. The knowledge is built form the communication interaction, use of whiteboards, file storage, data collection, and mentoring activities.

The Tapped In virtual learning community provides educators convenient, tailored professional development to all those interested. Organizations have the ability to utilize Tapped In to virtually communicate and collaborate on projects. The design of the website is user friendly. It is very easy to maneuver throughout the site and short concise overviews or tips are found next to hyperlinks. To enhance the website, I would suggest having a homepage that would visually capture the user from the moment they connect. The size of the text and the amount of information displayed on the homepage can be intimidating to the educators who have no knowledge about online virtual learning communities. Minimize the amount of initial information and increase the font size may grab a viewer’s interest. Personally Tapped In is a great online professional development virtual community I will visit frequently.

References

Riel, M. & Polin, L. (2004). Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. In S.A. Barab, R. Kling, & J.H. Gray (eds.), Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning (pp. 16-50). Cambridge University Press.

Welcome to tapped in. Retrieved January 29, 2008, from http://tappedin.org/tappedin/web/about.jsp