1. Tools for the ‘e-PhD’ >>> presence, collaboration and critical thinking Simon Buckingham Shum Knowledge Media Institute http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/sbs

2. Knowledge Media Institute Founded 1995, now 70+ members “Invent the future, live there, and report back” –Basic and applied research at the intersection of learning, collaboration, AI, the Net and multimedia –Prototype next generation tools for collaboration, learning and knowledge negotiation for the OU to assess –Collaborate across all org. sectors interested in distributed work and lifelong personal and organisational learning World leader in Web Semantics, Web Collaboration Media and Scholarly Hypermedia

3. What skills are we trying to instill, and how can e-PhD tools help?

4. Joint Research Council’s Skills Training Reqts While some skills are easy to mentor with distance PhD students, what about these?… (C) Research Management – to be able to: 4. use information technology appropriately for database management, recording and presenting information

5. (E) Communication Skills – to be able to: 2. construct coherent arguments and articulate ideas clearly to a range of audiences, formally and informally through a variety of techniques 4. effectively support the learning of others when involved in teaching, mentoring or demonstrating activities Joint Research Council’s Skills Training Reqts

6. (F) Networking and Teamworking – to be able to: 1. develop and maintain co-operative networks and working relationships with supervisors, colleagues and peers, within the institution and wider research community. 2. understand one’s behaviours and impact on others when working in and contributing to the success of formal and informal teams. 3. listen, give and receive feedback and respond perceptively to others Joint Research Council’s Skills Training Reqts

7. Standard PhD toolkit Computer Technical support Phone –Conferencing Email –university address –Listserv/Discussion group Internet Intranet resources Office software Specialist research software Software utilities 

8. What key activities are not supported by conventional tools? Presence and participation in: Discussion groups Seminars Visitors Demonstrations Supervision “Enculturation” 

9. What key activities are not supported by conventional tools? Effective information management and analysis: Managing the diverse sources of literature and ideas Constructing and critiquing the argumentative relations between ideas 

10. What should ‘2nd Generation’ e- PhD Tools support? Virtual presence in the research group –My availability –Attendance and participation at seminars and discussion groups –Quality supervision meetings at a distance

11. Greater awareness of everyday research life –Is my supervisor available for a quick chat? –How much time does a senior scientist spend in meetings? –What’s happening in the coffee/seminar room right now? Shared views of software for discussion –‘Over the shoulder’ discussions with peers and supervisor What should ‘2nd Generation’ e- PhD Tools support?

12. Presence & Peripheral Awareness

13. Online Presence & Textchat Instant messaging embedded in the OU’s e-learning system + Presence overlaid onto maps (both geographical or conceptual)

14. Online presence in MSG superimposed on geo-location (Google Maps)

15. Online Presence in Hexagon : peripheral awareness and + direct interaction Visual trace of instant messages Voice chat

16. Virtual Meetings

17. Replaying a video conference in FlashMeeting

18. Diagnostics from a FlashMeeting Automatically generated visualizations from online meetings show relative contributions and who spoke when

19. Attending Seminars

20. KMi Seminar, 26 th Sept., 2003. Attendance and participation from New York

21. Managing information, ideas and arguments

22. Compendium: A visual database of the research questions, ideas, arguments and documents in the PhD

24. Compendium: Annotating geology data with arguments about their implications for an hypotheses (NASA distributed teams) Copyright, 2004 RIACS/NASA Ames, Open University Southampton University Not to be used without permission

25. Critical Literature Analysis

26. Compendium: Mapping research concepts in a publication

27. Compendium: Mapping the structure of the Iraq Debate

29. Bringing it all together… Combining two or more of these e-PhD tools

30. Compendium: structuring and recording supervision meetings Supervisors (OU) meet with a PhD student (New York) Voice/Video recorded via FlashMeeting, Skype or Phone Compendium is shared and used to “Dialogue Map” the key questions, ideas and arguments in the discussion All recorded, to create a digital movie of the unfolding discussion

31. Virtual attendees at a seminar

32. UKGRAD f-f/virtual workshop http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/e-phd/UKGRAD/OU-wkshp-Feb05.html http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/e-phd/UKGRAD/OU-wkshp-Feb05.html

33. Knowledge Mapping Social Presence & Identity Peer-to-Peer Collaboration All the above tools integrated in the OU’s e-learning environment

34. OpenLearn: Free OU materials+tools www.open.ac.uk/openlearn www.open.ac.uk/openlearn

35. OpenLearn LabSpace

36. In summary… Social software makes it possible for a research group to tackle time+space barriers and keep their e-PhD students aware of, and involved in, the group’s life Collaboration and concept mapping tools can support: –effective online supervision –disciplined information management –critical thinking As research becomes increasingly collaborative and online, such tools can benefit all researchers There is undeniably a new ‘media literacy’ to acquire: we’re showing what’s possible…

37. KMi e-PhD Project http://kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/e-phd OpenLearn LabSpace http://labspace.open.ac.uk