Thomas Ryberg
email: ryberg@hum.aau.dk

Malene Charlotte Larsen
email: malene.larsen@post.cybercity.dk

Networked Identities -Understanding Different Types of Social Organisation and Movements Between Strong and Weak Ties In Networked Environments

Keywords: Networked identities, communities of practice, networks, social forms of organisation, weak and strong ties

In this article we take up a critique of the concept of Communities of Practice voiced by several authors, who suggest that network may provide a better metaphor to understand social forms of organisation and learning. This critique we situate within a broader theoretical movement in socio-cultural learning theories. From this we identify some theoretical and analytical challenges to the network metaphor, which we explore and elaborate through an analysis of a Danish social networking site.

INTRODUCTION

The term 'networked learning' suggests an alternative perspective on learning, which we inspired by [START_REF] Jones | The Metaphor of Networks in Learning: Communities, Collaboration and Practice[END_REF], shall take up by comparing it to Communities of Practice (CoP) [START_REF] Wenger | Communities of Practice -Learning, Meaning, and Identity[END_REF]. They argue that the metaphor of networks may be a better way to understand different forms of social organisation and suggest that CoPs are one specific type of social organisation; namely a network composed of strong ties. From this they argue that the metaphor of CoP is in danger of omitting an understanding of networks as also composed of weak ties which can be equally important in relation to learning.

We situate the critique of CoP within what we argue to be a wider movement or shift within different, but related areas of research on technology and learning. Our claim is that recent thinking within learning and technology has increasingly been focusing on movements across different contexts or boundaries and that there is a rising interest in how knowledge and learning 'travel' or 'transfer' between these, whether the focus is on persons, digital resources or both. From this we point out some potential analytical and theoretical challenges to the network metaphor which we elaborate and discuss through our analyses.

Our analyses stems from investigations of a 'community' or 'social networking' site called Arto.dk especially used by young people between the ages of 13-17. We have chosen this as our case because it consciously builds on a network metaphor which we have not found similar in the networked learning environment we are familiar with. Initially in the analyses we use the notions of strong and weak ties to discuss different types of social organisation. It is not our aim to argue which type of social organisation is most important or predominant, rather we set out to describe how people move through and navigate within these different types of social organisation and how they weave them into what we shall term 'networked identities'.

The importance of focusing on weak ties as a social form of organisation Within educational research there has been an increasing interest in the concept of CoP both as an analytical tool and as a way to pedagogically design online learning environments [START_REF] Dirckinck-Holmfeld | A Theoretical Framework for Designing Online Communities of Practice[END_REF]). Therefore, there has been a strong focus on understanding communities as a form of social organisation and how to implement the notions of CoP in pedagogical practices (Dirckinck-Holmfeld 2006 Forthcoming). At the same time several authors have emphasised the need to focus on other types of social relations than communities and have suggested that CoPs can be viewed as one specific type of social organisation [START_REF] Jones | The Metaphor of Networks in Learning: Communities, Collaboration and Practice[END_REF]; [START_REF] Jones | The conditions of learning in networks[END_REF] and Jones, Ferreday and Hodgson (2006 Forthcoming)). From the metaphor of networks they question whether tightly knitted and coherent communities with strong ties are the most dominant type of social organisation in comparison with more loosely defined networks with weak ties. Networks are viewed as constantly changing relations between nodes in networks where nodes can be understood as both human actors and resources. They stress the importance of weak links in networks and generally argue that networks are a better metaphor to understand organisations of social practices and might contribute to a better understanding of learning. The metaphor of networks in contrast to e.g. CoP or theories within CSCL does not privilege a particular view of relationships between the nodes in the network such as community or collaboration. These recent challenges to understandings of social organisation of practices are very interesting and they certainly challenge units of analysis such as 'CoP'.

Similar changes and movements can be found in Cultural Historical Activity Theory, where the unit of analysis over the years has moved from focus on single activity systems towards focusing on learning across multiple interacting activity systems. Engeström (1999Engeström ( & 2004) ) introduces the concept of knotworking which describes unstable, actively on-the-spot constructed relations and constantly changing configurations of people and artefacts across interacting activity systems. Equally, within the theoretical landscape of apprenticeship learning and critical psychology represented e.g. by [START_REF] Dreier | Laering som aendring af personlig deltagelse i sociale kontekster. Mesterlaere -Laering som social praksis[END_REF][START_REF] Lave | Laering, Mesterlaere, Social Praksis. Mesterlaere -Laering som social praksis[END_REF]Nielsen and Kvale 2002) the unit of analysis seems to be moving from employing terms such as legitimate peripheral participation in single, coherent communities towards understanding individuals' movements across and between different social contexts. In all the examples there is an increased focus on terms such as relations, movement, interaction, boundary, instability, trajectories and network/knotwork, rather than the more stable entities such as activity systems and CoPs. Not that the latter concepts entirely disappear, but they seem to be increasingly 'backgrounded' in favour of less stable configurations and social forms of organisation. It seems to us that socio-cultural learning theories are increasingly becoming interested in learning that happens not only in discrete contexts, such as a school class, a work place or an organisational unit, but rather in the learning that happens across and between these constellations. This is also reflected in a recent research proposal by [START_REF] Wenger | Learning for a small planet -a research agenda 2[END_REF], where he outlines some ideas for future research. In this proposal the notion of identity becomes a coreissue. The analytical focus has moved onto people's movement between CoP and larger-scale systems and how identity is developed through participation, immersion or withdrawal from CoP's and by a person's multimembership and boundary participation in different communities over time [START_REF] Wenger | Learning for a small planet -a research agenda 2[END_REF]. In our interpretation this resembles very much the notion of networked individualism and it also seems to take a more networked view, as the focus is eschewed from the particular community towards individual trajectories or relations.

We adopt the view that the notion of CoP and learning theory in general can gain a lot by being viewed through the metaphorical lens of networks; however, we also want to voice some concerns with the notion of networks. Firstly, much in line with [START_REF] Jones | The conditions of learning in networks[END_REF], we find it interesting that networks at different levels of scale seem to be evolving from and sharing similar underlying structures or properties that can be described through mathematical laws (e.g. that a large number of nodes have relatively few links, whereas a few have a lot of links and appear to be central nodes in the networks). However, this does prompt some questions which are also taken up by [START_REF] Jones | The conditions of learning in networks[END_REF] and Enriquez (2006 Forthcoming). Our reservation would be that, even though the underlying structural properties or laws of networks are the same, this does not in itself explain why some nodes are more influential than others. Our claim would be that the actions, practices and meaning-making processes might be very different, though the underlying structure is the same. We doubt that the actions and practices that will make one an influential node in a dating-network would work equally well in a European research network. Engaging in analysis of specific networks and understanding the relational processes going on between the nodes requires, in our opinion, an understanding of the meaning making processes, as to understand e.g. why weak links suddenly become strong or why and how people move from marginal positions to be central.

Secondly, an important analytical and methodological question arises: What actually constitutes the network or the unit of analysis, and what does it represent? If we theoretically and empirically are moving towards an understanding of learning as happening across boundaries and by engagements in different contexts, then what actually constitutes the network or the unit of analysis? Can the network be limited to e.g. a course or the interactions in the forums? Does e.g. software analysis of the interaction in an online course capture the 'full' network, as Enriquez (2006 Forthcoming) asks by referring to face-to-face interactions? If we broaden the analytical scope for learning and incorporate concepts such as boundaries, movement across context and the complex social relations people form across these, then it becomes even more difficult to establish what actually constitute the networks in question. Though, as Jones argues, networks are atomic, nested and scalable, it does become an interesting question of what networks we do (or even can) incorporate in our analyses.

Thirdly, when talking about weak and strong ties, a question related to the parameters for whether a relation is strong or weak arises. How do we establish whether a relation is strong or weak? What parameters can we use? Number of messages could signal a large flow of information between nodes, but would an equal low flow mean that the relation is weak? For instance one might not be in contact with one's parents everyday, but would probably conceive of the relation as quite strong. What would be the parameter in analysing and understanding such relations? Would it be necessary to incorporate analytically other measures apart from the structural strength of a relation such as the 'strength' of meaning people grant the relation? We certainly don't intend to answer all the questions posed here. What we will do is that we shall take up these questions in relation to the analyses and in the final discussion.

Methodological background

The analysis of the empirical material methodologically draws on an extensive virtual ethnographical investigation [START_REF] Hine | [END_REF] carried out by one the authors in relation to her master thesis [START_REF] Larsen | Ungdom, venskab og identitet -en etnografisk undersøgelse af unges brug af hjemmesiden Arto (Youth, Friendship and Identity -an ethnographic study of young people's use of the internet site Arto)[END_REF]. The virtual ethnography consisted of a seven-month participant observation at the most popular website in Denmark for young people. Apart from the participation the author conducted group interviews and created a small 'questionnaire'. The small qualitative questionnaire was made on Arto using the 'friend book' as a tool. This is a feature where users can ask question to their Arto-friends, and the author used it to ask Arto-users 25 questions about their use of Arto -60 of the author's Arto-friends replied. During the investigation the author created a profile on the webpage (www.arto.dk) stating the intentions of the research project, but apart from that she participated as a regular user. The investigation focused on how young people develop friendships and identity on the particular website. In this article we re-visit some of the empirical material and focus on how the young people continuously construct their participation as an intersection between networked performances based on loose ties to engaging in closer connected networks or communities of practice, within the website as a whole.

Case description

In the recent years the website www.arto.dk has become the most visited website in Denmark among young people between 13 and 17 years old. It has been estimated that approximately 80 percent of all young people in Denmark between the age of 13 and 17 have a profile on the site (in all there are more than 540.000 profiles though it is difficult to accurately estimate the number of users). Arto was put in operation in 1998 by a 19-year old high school student. By then the website functioned only as a repository for jokes and it did not have many visitors. However, one day a guestbook was created as an extra service for the visitors to be able to write to each other. This quickly turned out to be more popular than the jokes themselves. Arto became a hugely popular website for communicating and meeting old and new friends and what used to be weak relation between the users all of the sudden became stronger and more explicit as the users were now able to communicate. Today the aim of the website is to meet and talk to friends and form new friendships. Online the youngsters create their own profiles with pictures and descriptions of themselves, they chat, debate, write diaries, comment on each other's pictures and so on. The most frequently used feature on Arto is the guestbook which is used to communicate short text messages. The following is a screen shot of a profile on Arto (belonging to one of the authors during her research) seen on the main page.

On this page a photo of the owner is shown along with her personal information; name (navn), age (alder), state (landsdel), civil status (civilstatus), occupation (beskaeftigelse) and so on. To the right there is a list of the user's friends -the so-called Arto-friends -which is for everyone to see. The friend list reflects the network metaphor the website is based upon and one can apply for a friendship with a user, who then either accepts or rejects the application. Below there is a space in which the user can narrate her own text which is similar to having a personal homepage.

Here the users mostly put descriptions and pictures of themselves and their best friends. The guestbook (gaestebog), which we will refer to as GB, is located in the top menu bar. The most frequent messages consist of small messages like "Hi, what are you doing?" or "Popped by" etc. Next to the GB the gallery (galleri) is located. Here the users can upload pictures, comment on them and receive comments from the other users. The comments are highly in demand and the users often urge each other to comment their pictures. Mostly, the comments consist of messages saying how beautiful, hot or nice the person looks.

The main page of the profile, the GB and the gallery are among the most used features on Arto. Thus, the website can be split into two primary activities; personal and branding related activities and social and contact enabling activities, but Arto also contains games, jokes, a movie site, postcards and the users also have access to chats, forums and creating clubs.

Analysis

Through the analysis we shall take up the value of taking a networked, relational perspective, but also the analyses will highlight issues reflecting the questions we raised earlier. In the analysis we will touch upon how creative use of technologies plays a crucial role in the process of constructing different types of relations and social forms of organisation and how different 'mediational means' are used to create what we call 'networked identities'.

To avoid confusion of terms we prefer to speak of 'mediational means', which we adopt from Scollon and Scollon (2004), rather than digital resources. We do this because 'digital resources' often seem to connote 'content' in a course, such as electronic texts or simulations (e.g. Jones, Zenios, Griffits, 2004). Mediational means better capture the variety of what we mean, as by 'mediational means' we are thinking of language use, styles, discourses and any other material or semiotic mean by which people construct and make sense of interaction in networked environments. It is also somewhat different from the term 'boundary object' (Dirckinck-Holmfeld 2006 Forthcoming) which suggests a more tangible and shared representation between diverse groups of people like e.g. a map or a model. A 'mediational mean' is a more atomic, scalable term because it can be a boundary object or a piece of simulation software, but equally a certain way of arranging and colouring text or a specific feature on a webpage.

Moving from networking to self-initiated communities

In this section we shall go into an interesting change that happened on Arto during the investigation which was a user-initiated change of the types of relations possible on the website. Initially, the relations to others were formed primarily around 'knowing each other' or 'getting to know each other', but the users started to change this into networks (communities) based on joint enterprises or shared interests. As can be seen from the screenshot of the profile and the case description the initial metaphor of the website was formed around the construction of a personal, individual profile. Several mediational means point to and afford exactly this use e.g. one is prompted to put in age, name, physical location, civil status, occupation and there is even a personal diary.

Despite the different mediational means and affordances made available to the users many of them began to make new profiles to create a specific community or a specific club. Instead of giving the profile a user name they gave it a club name and the profile's picture gallery was then used as a member list showing a picture of each member. Eventually, this practice among the users resulted in the Arto's staff creating a specific functionality for clubs or communities on the website. Now there are more than 17.000 clubs. The aims of the clubs vary greatly; some are extensions of already established groups of friends with strong ties, others are interest groups such as groups of football supporters, fans of 'The Simpsons' or a computer game club, and these might feature more weakly tied connections. This is, however, very difficult to speak of in general as people engage in several different clubs and may feel differently obligated or related to these. The important thing is not whether the specific clubs are based on strong or weak ties, but that there was an urge among the users to change the content of or the types of relations among each other. Thus, the users' initiated creation of the clubs points to that the types of relations, whether they are strong or weak, can be based on different meanings such as acquaintance, friendships, shared interest, suggesting that a relation is not merely a relation, but a relation of a certain nature.

Moving and navigating between strong and weak ties

As described above the people who frequently use Arto continuously shift between different ways of relating to others. The website in itself is a very good example of how people in practice move through different types of relations in a profoundly networked structure. This is due to the interweaving between strong and weak ties that the technology affords, though, as we shall see, it is not unproblematic to identify what constitute strong or weak ties.

It seems evident that some people use Arto to construct and maintain networks with strong relationships, whereas others use it just for fun, time killing or to establish newer or weaker relations. This became clear in the empirical investigation when the users answered the question "What does Arto mean to you?". Here are some of their answers which represent both different views while being representative for all the answers given (Adopted from Larsen 2005 -our translation): As the citations show Arto enable people to form and maintain simultaneously strong or weak ties and users take up these possibilities very differently. Some use it to get in touch with new people that might in time turn into close friends as one of the users suggests (9). Others primarily use it to maintain the relations they already have In Real Life (IRL) (3, 4, 5, 7); others again seem to favour the exploration of new relations (8, 10). It is quite clear that they attribute very different meanings and 'weight' to the relations they form -from 'essential to life' to just having a bit of fun. Friendship and relations matter a great deal to the young people as the above statements also show. It is through their relations that they construct a great deal of their identity [START_REF] Larsen | Ungdom, venskab og identitet -en etnografisk undersøgelse af unges brug af hjemmesiden Arto (Youth, Friendship and Identity -an ethnographic study of young people's use of the internet site Arto)[END_REF].

The most prominent and visible mediational mean to indicate relations between each other is the 'friend list'. This could suggest strong ties between the nodes, but at the same time there are very different interpretations among users as to what constitute 'friends'. From the questionnaire, the interviews and 'rules' written in the profile texts by some of the users it became clear that there are very different practices and opinions about the use of the friend list. Some users hold that they will not accept friendship applications from users with whom they have never communicated or met IRL. They do not want to appear on friend lists with people unless they know them very well. Those users distance themselves from the so-called 'friend-hunters' who send out friendship applications to almost everyone. Some have more than 100 friends on Arto that are scattered all over the country and whom they might have met through the forums or the chat. They seem to value and nurture having a very diverse set of relations to many different people. These examples highlight the problem of determining both the strength of the relations, but also how much these relations actually reflect whether a person is central or peripheral in the network. Though, it may be possible to trace networks on Arto and establish persons with many connections or those who frequently write to others from 'digitally harvesting' the friend lists, it is difficult to say what this means in the eyes of the participants, as there are multiple and conflicting interpretations of this. It could reflect both that the person is popular and respected, but equally that they just value having a lot of friends on their list which in other users' eyes could denote a 'loser'.

In the former section we touched upon the notion of multiple sites of engagement. From the statements and when looking at the profiles on the site it is clear is that they reflect a multidimensionality of the activities people engage in and a multi-membership in many different networks both online and offline. The memberships actually often span or wipe out distinctions such as online and offline spaces, as can be seen from the statements (5, 7). In relation to this especially the remarks that one of the respondents uses the networked environment to maintain the relations to his IRL friends ( 7) and equally that a girl comments on how the networked environment enters as a discourse in IRL discussions (5) are interesting. It points to that network relations is a very composite and layered phenomenon that spans time and place. As Jones suggest network relations are dynamic and composed of actions and histories that may suddenly be invoked in other contexts. The compositeness of relations is also visible in the profiles on the site. They often feature very diverse references to classmates, a boyfriend/girlfriend, best friends, broader interest such as sport or computers, preferences/dislikes and also which clubs on Arto one is a member of. Thus, they are very complex representations of a person's identity and how they are related to different practices and networks which underline the problem of identifying what actually constitute relevant networks. However, strong ties are actually made explicit in very interesting manners which, similar to the self-initiated clubs, have come about through creative use of the mediational means in the profile descriptions.

'Open-source' networked identities In the case of Arto it is clear that the website and the mediational means are used to construct identity [START_REF] Larsen | Ungdom, venskab og identitet -en etnografisk undersøgelse af unges brug af hjemmesiden Arto (Youth, Friendship and Identity -an ethnographic study of young people's use of the internet site Arto)[END_REF]). As we have said the profiles originally afford a personal, individual space. Despite these affordances people use the profiles to portray each other and to signal strong ties. Is has become more than common that owners of a profile hand out their username and password to best friends or a boy-/girlfriend so that they can write and design a description of the profile owner (see picture below). Actually, this has become so common that in December 2005 Arto created a feature that allow users to assign others the rights to write in their profile description, without having to hand out their username and passwords (because this practice has caused some misuse). This way of using the profiles are quite interesting, partly because it reflects a new way to make strong ties to others visible. As we argued, the friend lists have to some degree lost their functions as signifying these types of relations and therefore it seems that people have re-constructed the profile descriptions to signal these strong ties.

The example, however, also tells a great deal of how the users interpret the notion of identity which is indeed quite complex and encompass some interesting tensions. One very prominent shared understanding among the majority of the users is that it is very important to be 'real'. This means that creating a 'fake' profile is considered almost a crime and 'faker' profiles are sanctioned by several messages in the GB crying out 'faker', 'beat it faker' or language use much worse. 'To thine own self be true' could be the shared motto among the users; so in understanding identity it is important to know that people are not acting out a lot of schizophrenic roles or separate identities. However, the notion and actual performance of identity is inherently relational. As described users actively use other's descriptions of them on their own profile pages, where they let others describe who they are. The way in which they portray each other bears a close similarity to testimonials or ´reviews' building on a commonly shared understanding that they must speak highly positive of the person. In this way people are actually in control of other's construction of them to the degree that they can be almost certain that it will be a positive one. Equally, users often put in statements from their friends on their personal page of the profile. These are most often positive and praising comments written in the user's guestbook. Having other people commenting on one's personality and self-description (or even narrating them) we interpret as a reification of relational identities or even an 'open source' identity. The users are very much 'real' and themselves, but at the same time they all expose very reflexive and relational identities -they basically exist and become real through their networks. Their identities are continuously constructed through the networks by drawing on both strong and weak ties in their multiple networks; here weak ties are especially enacted through a shared practice of leaving positive GB messages or comments on people's pictures. Clearly, recognition and constant acknowledgements are quite important to the users and this is also why these networks are so important; it is important for them to be constantly assured that they look good and others like them, wherefore the weak and strong relations are invoked or invited to do this continuously. The strong relations further functions as a 'trust network' between the users. Often they find new friends through each other after having read a positive review of a user on an existing friend's profile. In this sense the existing strong ties become bridges to new relations.

There is much more to be said about the identity construction and relations on this particular website, but for this paper we will conclude the analyses by summing up what we mean by networked identities which is very much inspired by [START_REF] Wenger | Learning for a small planet -a research agenda 2[END_REF] notion of identity. Therefore, we have also stressed the notion of meaningmaking processes in the networks as part of the analyses. These we find to be essential in relation to understanding the different participants' interpretations of what counts as strong or weak relations, or what kind of relations are even being experienced as meaningful. By using the term 'networked' we wish to stress the multidimensional, relational aspects of identity and the complexity of the networks that people are related to in practice. These are continuously constructed by invoking both weak and strong ties across networks. The networks span not only online/offline spaces, but are equally dynamic and historical in the sense that previous actions in a network can be incorporated in other overlapping networks. By using the term 'networked identity' we hope to capture the richness and complexity of the relations we continuously engage in across contexts such as work, school, spare time, online, offline etc.

Discussion

In this final section we take up the discussion, related to the challenges to the network metaphor that we identified earlier. These challenges are based on our claim that there is a general move or shift going on within current socio-cultural theories of learning. This shift we have characterised by an increased interest in learning across boundaries or between different activity systems -to take up the terms from Cultural Historical Activity Theory. This shift is also reflected in the broader metaphor of networked learning in employing terms and understanding such as the importance of weak and strong ties. Equally, in a recent research proposal by [START_REF] Wenger | Learning for a small planet -a research agenda 2[END_REF] we see a tendency towards focusing more on movements across boundaries and notions such as multimembership, trajectory and identity. Throughout the analyses we have incorporated discussions of these challenges and we will now try to sum up the main points from these. We are fully aware that our case cannot be directly compared to mainstream networked learning environments within university education. However, we believe that choosing a case as Arto have opened to some interesting questions, in relation to the challenges we have sketched out.

Initially, we voiced a concern in relation to understanding networks primarily as a specific structure or composition of relations that can be graphically represented or mathematically described. Though, all networks may share similar underlying structures we have tried, through the analyses, to describe that the social rules and practices for such networks might look very different and that the representation of the structural properties might not fully reflect the meaning-making processes or views of the participants. We have argued that, though some nodes on Arto might appear to be central nodes or strongly tied with others, this does not necessarily reflect the participants understanding of what would constitute a central or influential node. We have pointed out that having multiple relations, through the friends list, does not per se indicate that a person holds an influential or central position as a multiplicity of relations are in themselves a debated issue within the network. To some people, a large number of connections could even signify a low social status (e.g. friend-hunters). By this we certainly do not mean to say, that structural analyses cannot reveal potent and interesting analyses of such sites. We merely point out, that having an understanding of the meaning making processes might be a condition to identify parameters to include in such an analysis. Maybe it would turn out that other ways of relating to each other (than e.g. the friend lists) would yield a different picture of centrality, as we have highlighted through the users' creative use of the profile texts. This is also very much related to the third question we asked. This question concerns the identification of weak and strong ties and what parameters can be used to judge, whether a relation is strong or weak. Flow of communication between two nodes may suggest a strong relationship, but as we have pointed out in the analyses; the 'content' and the meanings assigned to different types of relations can vary greatly. Though two nodes may interact frequently in a discussion group about "The Simpsons", they might not feel that they are very strongly related in the sense of 'friendship' or even 'acquaintance'. Therefore, based on the analyses, we would argue that identifying the parameters, which are used to judge, whether a relation should be termed weak or strong may contain other aspects than e.g., number of exchanges between nodes. The parameter used is a very important issue that should not be rendered unproblematic.

Finally, we posed a question referring to what actually constitute the networks or unit of analysis. If we are increasingly interested in notions such as interacting networks, multimembership and boundary crossing, then what is the unit of analysis? Though, we are aware we have chosen a case that is not directly comparable to e.g. a university course, we would hold that we have chosen a case which actually shows the multiplicity of relations and networks most people are engaged in. Delineating the unit of analysis is of course a common challenge in all research enterprises, but if we explicitly aim to study multi-membership and boundary crossing or learning happening across contexts these tensions become aggravated. As we have pointed out in the analyses the users of the site engage in multiple networks and how we can follow the movements across such networks or even identify which networks are most important, becomes problematic as also [START_REF] Enriquez | Translating networked learning: un-tying relational ties online[END_REF] points out in her paper.

We cannot present final or full-fledged answers to any of these challenges, but we will suggest that one (out of many) venture points into understanding social forms of organisation and networks could be to incorporate the notion of identity or 'networked identity'. We find that this concept can give some direction in relation to the questions. We would suggest that this notion might serve as an anchorage in engaging in analyses of complex network environments. As we have argued we view networked identities as fundamentally multidimensional and relational, which means that the unit of analysis cannot be delineated to an individual, and neither can it be reduced to just one particular network (or CoP); rather the analytical task would be to engage in an understanding of the relations between the nodes and the multiplicity of networks they engage in. Since the term networked identity is very much inspired by [START_REF] Wenger | Learning for a small planet -a research agenda 2[END_REF] notion of identity it also rooted in the understanding of meaning. However meaning is not tied to a CoP, but is seen as being negotiated and acted out in the intersections of different, overlapping networks. The negotiation of meaning within particular network structures we view as important in relation to the challenges we have mentioned. From this we would argue that the meaning-making processes, which unfolds and are enacted in the networks, are central in order to understand and identify the parameters to judge, whether relations count as weak or strong; and also in unravelling the content of or types of relations.

  Hmm … Well, It's Something I Bother Spending My Time On" (Girl, 13) 3. "that I can arrange to meet with my friends and stuff like that!" (Boy, 13) 4. "that I can just sit and talk to my friends" (Girl, 17) 5. "that I have more contact with my friends… also when we're together… because then we might talk about something that happened in here…" (Girl, 15) 6. "It is almost my life…I have a lot of friends you know…" (Girl, 14) 7. " That I won't lose some of my IRL-friends!" (Boy, 17) 8. "it a fun way to get in contact with other people" (Girl, 15) 9. "… it is hard to explain, I have actually written with people in here who are some of my really close friends today…" (Girl, 15) 10. "Not so much… But it's a great way to meet new friends" (Boy, 15) 11. "I don't know… Nothing special. It's almost pastime" (Girl, 15) 12. "Arto is my way to all knowledge and humour I can capture-I don't think I could live without Arto, but I could live without my mobile phone" (Boy, 14)


Francesca Cirillo Diima

Massimo De Santo

Andrea Cozzolino

Marco Marsella

Saverio Salerno

A Metadata Based Distance Learning Platform

Keywords: Metadata, Distance learning, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Case Base Reasoning

Distance Learning is acquiring a role that becomes more and more important with the huge diffusion of the Internet and related technologies. Consequently, the investigation for adequate architectures and platforms supporting flexible Distance Le arning engines and solution is nowadays of great interests in the Scientific Community. The present paper introduces a platform based on the adoption of Metadata concepts and on the use of a "processorlike" behavior of the Web Course Delivery engine that appears to be a good solution when different and heterogeneous modules have to be integrated in the platform. The proposed system is currently under development and test in the framework of a European Esprit Project.

I. INTRODUCTION

The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) defines distance learning as "the acquisition of knowledge and skills through mediated information and instruction. Distance learning encompasses all technologies and supports the pursuit of life long learning for all". [1] During our first studies on web based distance learning, we discovered that often it is synonymous for "reading". As a result, we wondered on differences between distance learning systems and books. Our response on this topic is "interactivity" and "adaptiveness".

In typical distance learning, two different kinds of actors use the system: learners and teachers. Unfortunately they cannot interact each other without mediation due to the physical distance. For this reason, one of the main issues in such systems is the need to provide support for different kinds of Learner/Teacher interactions, for example:

1. Monitoring of Learners by the teachers through the system; 2. Automatic monitoring of Learners by the system itself; 3. Traditional teacher/learner interaction such as messages and forum areas.

Another point whose importance is typically misjudged is that learners are different one another in many ways. Usually, each learner exhibits a different level of sensibility to different didactic approaches, and, furthermore, she can react in different modes to the use of specific presentation media. Starting from her own cultural level, a given learner can be inclined to understand in a easier way some of the presented arguments or, what is sadly more often the case, she can find very difficult to understand a given subject. A truly complete system should be able to understand this kind of differences and react to them accordingly.

Finally, it can be noted that we are already in presence of a huge amount of didactical materials available through the Internet and that such an amount is increasing in an exponential way. Consequently, we decided to focus our work on the technologies needed for attending "web courses". Presently, to use a web browser, as unique tool to access the system, is the simpler, the more portable and easier solution a learner can find.

II. STATE OF THE ART

In the last decade much research has been done on distance learning and many solutions were implemented. We analyzed some platforms for distance learning and we evidenced the usual functionality that they have. In some cases, the intelligent components of an ITS enable computer interfaces to become more human or more "friendly" when interacting with human users. Namely, they customize lessons presentation on the basis of the learner preferences. In other cases, intelligent components are able to provide on-the-fly "ad-hoc" appropriate presentations of learning materials whose content is suitably tailored for different individual users or user groups.

The question is opened about the way in which the architecture of ITS has to be organized. The purpose of this paper is to present a system which has been designed to be a flexible platform for web courses delivery that can be used as a "core" system for the new generation of ITS systems.

III. ARCHITECTURAL ISSUES: COURSE MATERIAL ORGANIZATION AND STORAGE

One of the main aims of our system is to enable Tutors to organize in a unconventional manner the didactical materials. The flexible organization provided allow the tutor to create and assign courses on the basis of starting knowledge and preferences of any single student.

In the following, we describe the basic assumptions underlying the architecture of the system.

In order to obtain a flexible and open architecture, a very careful choice of used data structures is needed. We based all our data structures on IEEE LTSC Learning Object Metadata (LOM) standard [START_REF] Hodgins | Learning Object Metadata, Working Draft Document 2.5[END_REF]. Using LOM standard for Metadata, tutors can index the didactical material. This makes it possible for all modules to access and use in a flexible way information gathered and stored by the system.

Metadata is information about an object, be it physical or digital and its main goal is to locate in efficient and effective way resources over a system or a computer network.

Metadata is "data about data": a concept that can be easily understood using a "supermarket metaphor". In a supermarket, things inside boxes, like butter or shampoo, are the data; the information on the label is the metadata.

Metadata is organised into categories, or fields. Each field represents a characteristic of the learning resource, for example, the resource's title or a summary abstract. Each field has a value and some fields may have multiple values. For example, the abstract field may have only one value, a brief summary of the material, or the field may have multiple values, if the same abstract is provided in several different languages.

Let now us introduce the following definitions about Learning Object, Curriculum, Learning Goal and let us describe how Curricula are related to Learning Goals.

A Learning Object can be defined as any kind of webdeliverable document, for example:

1. A single lesson represented by an hypertext (an HTML page or a little sequence of them); 2. A simulation (an HTML page containing a Java interactive applet); 3. A virtual world (a VRML file); 4. A test (an HTML page with an evaluating Java applet).

A Learning Object Metadata Standard [START_REF] Hodgins | Learning Object Metadata, Working Draft Document 2.5[END_REF][7] [START_REF] Vv | IMS Metadata Specifications[END_REF] defines the minimal set of properties needed to allow these objects to be managed, located, and evaluated. The standard will accommodate the ability for locally extending the basic properties. Relevant properties of learning objects include type of object, author, owner, terms of distribution, and format. Where applicable, Learning Object Metadata may also include pedagogical properties, such as: teaching or interaction style, grade level, mastery level and prerequisites.

A Curriculum is an ordered list of Learning Objects, which can be used for providing a specific student with all the knowledge related to a specific Course.

A Learning Goal is a set of key concepts to be learned for successfully completing a specific Course. The concepts and their relations are represented using a Conceptual Graph [START_REF] Sowa | Conceptual Structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine[END_REF].

On the base of this definition, it is clear that Learning Goals indicate which concepts a student has to learn and the Curriculum specifies how these concepts have to be learnt. The system stores all information related to a single student, for example: the curriculum, the knowledge state, the time he spent on a given lesson, the amount of knowledge he learned from the lesson (for example, using test based evaluations) and his preferences (i.e., to which kind of resources the student has shown to be more receptive). All this information can be used by an intelligent tutoring system, which generates the best curriculum for a specific student.

The web course delivery engine is based on an extendible command interpreter and on a predefined set of commands that can be started by the student through the GUI interface (HTML pages). The engine works on learning domain objects in the same way a CPU works on a program flow instructions. Each command is constituted by a wellarranged sequence of queries to the database, whose final result is a new HTML page. A mechanism named "Extender" has been inserted into the engine in order to manage particular commands outside typical sequence of queries.

One of the key concepts of our system is that all the essential elements of a web learning system (for example, didactical materials and student activity) can be managed through the defined entities in a uniform way.

This allows tutors:

1. To perform the personalization of the course to classroom level and/or to learner level; 2. To build a learner oriented web course; 3. To control the learners progresses and understand their difficulties; 4. To arrange sequences of Learning Objects in a specific curriculum on the base of the didactical methodology adopted by the tutor himself.

Furthermore, the use of defined entities through a standard implementation based on Metadata allows easy interfacing with different Intelligent Tutoring Systems.

IV. ARCHITECTURAL ISSUES: THE CORE INTERPRETER

Our web course delivery platform is based on extendible command interpreter. A predefined (and context sensitive) set of commands is offered to the student through HTML pages. When a command is submitted, our interpreter (which can be thought of as an interface engine) retrieves instructions and data from a repository and generates a response page.

The core of our architecture is a simple cycle into a Java Servlet ™ that works on HTML template pages and data retrieved from a database. Unfortunately, in some cases this cycle is unable to allow the realization of all the operations needed to perform the requested task. For this reason we introduced a mechanism to "extend" the cycle. This approach allowed us to construct a flexible and extendible interface in a very short time.

To better understand how engine works, the reader can think to a CPU working on program flow instructions. It fetches from a "repository" the instructions (micro-code) needed to execute the requested machine language command. Then it applies those instructions on the input data. Our system applies this cycle in the same manner on learning domain objects.

The main cycle can be simply described as follows.

Each time a users requests an operation:

1. The system gathers the data inserted by the user into the current page through HTML/HTTP form interface; 2. A "command" identifier (always present) is extracted; 3. Instructions related to all needed operation are retrieved from database themselves. The system collects them using command identifiers as index to access the command database; 4. If needed, the system puts the data collected into the database; 5. Data needed to construct the response page are selected from database; 6. Response data are embedded into the template page by a textual substitution of predisposed tags using collected data.

Note that instructions collected into step 3 are both the SQL queries to use into steps 4 and 5 and the template page to use in step 6. An extender is a Java™ interface that we use to "extend" the main cycle. Between each step of the cycle and the following one, a function of the extender can be invoked.

Extenders are usually developed to implement "commands" that interacts with external data sources, e.g. an external intelligent tutoring system. Also the information on how and when to call extenders are stored into the command database.

As an example of the use of Extenders mechanism, let us consider the case of the milestone mechanism. A milestone is a marker that a tutor or an external module can insert into a learner curriculum. The goal is to set flags into course fruition where an external module must be invoked. When a milestone is reached, the extender mechanism is used for allowing the Interpreter to call and external module which is in charge for changing the students "state".

V. CONCLUSIONS

We implemented an innovative system for distance learning over the web. Using this platform we was able to reach three important objectives: the possibility to organize easily didactical material tailored to specific learning goals (knowledge that must be transferred to students) and arranging it into several curricula; the possibility to attend a course using a simple web browser; and, finally, the possibility to control in a fine grained manner the student knowledge progress. The system is also designed to be architecturally simple, easy to extend, to integrate with other modules and to customize. This allows fully exploiting system capabilities.

This system was designed and developed as base platform for InTraSys (Intelligent Training System in Technical Assistance), in the framework of the European ESPRIT project N. 29.082.

On the top of the described core structure, four different modules have been integrated: an intelligent tutoring system [START_REF] Capuano | ABITS: An Agent Based Intelligent Tutoring System for Distance Learning[END_REF], two different simulation engines [START_REF] Cavallone | Distance Learning Models and Web Simulation[END_REF] and a case based reasoning system. Among these modules, InTraSys interface platform and Intelligent tutoring system are particularly integrated but, according to our experience, it will be easy to integrate quite each kind of additional module into the system.

In particular, our system offers a privileged interface to the Intelligent tutoring system. Given that the ITS described in [START_REF] Capuano | ABITS: An Agent Based Intelligent Tutoring System for Distance Learning[END_REF] is based on a network of intelligent agents, we adopted the following strategy to integrate the two components. We simply added a dumb agent, the spooler agent acting like a bridge and distributing message between the platform and the tutoring system. Using extenders and spooler we realised also the logging mechanism. In order to support intelligent tutoring system we need a detailed log of learner activity, to better evaluate their response to the system. Extenders mark to the spooler each meaningful event and then the spooler logs it and, eventually, spawns it to other agents.

The system is now available in a prototype version and it is undergoing an evaluation phase. During this phase, we will teach the same arguments to two groups of students with homogeneous knowledge background. One of these groups will use our system and the other one will use class based traditional teaching methods, in order to evaluate the effective impact of the our proposed distance learning platforms and strategies on the student learning curve.

Figure 1 -Figure 2 -

 12 Figure 1 -Relationship between Concepts and Learning Objects (LO).

Figure 3 -

 3 Figure 3 -The main "cycle" of the system and the "extender" mechanism.

Figure 4 -

 4 Figure 4 -Integration of the Core Engine with the ITS


P Mcandrew

W I S Woods

A Little

M J Weller

Rob Koper

Hubert Vogten

Implementing Learning Design to support web-based learning

 as a flexible way to represent and encode learning materials, especially suited to online and web-based learning while neutral to the pedagogy that is being applied. As such it offers a chance to address a gap in the preparation of learning materials and their eventual use by students by providing a formal description of the approach, roles and services needed for a particular unit of learning. The potential in learning design that most interests us is its scope for the exchange of validated and formalised designs and so encouraging reuse. Until full implementations exist this potential cannot be explored and it is hard to predict if learning design will provide value in describing either full courses or in describing isolated activities. The initial work is therefore to implement a system for managing, validating and inspecting learning design building on collaboration between the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University UK (OUUK) and the Educational Technology Expertise

Introduction

The need to develop methods for the representation and sharing of effective learning methods and materials raises many challenges [START_REF] Mcandrew | Determining research questions in elearning[END_REF]. We take a position that a valuable contribution can be made by enabling accurate representation of different designs for learning and allowing their modification and exchange. It is worth noting though that there has been previous enthusiasm for building up an "Educational Object Economy" and that in practice such an economy has proved hard to support. Previous research (Laurillard & McAndrew, 2002) identified aspects of the barrier to success to lie in the granularity at which objects could be described and the ownership that attached to the different levels of the original design, particular instance and reinterpretations. These aspects remain important to investigate and the approach of learning design appears to offer both a possible solution to the need to represent the designs ldpaper-ausweb-preprint.doc Created on 03/26/2004 1 and also a possible tool to explore models of how to validate and share the designs. Once we have a practical instantiation we are then seeking to consider ways to analyse the designs and link them to the learning theories they implement. Example research questions are:

• Is it possible to analyses designs before they are applied them? (For example, construct an activity analysis using an Activity Theory approach [START_REF] Engeström | Learning by Expanding: An Activity-Theoretical Approach to Developmental Research[END_REF]). • Are there patterns within designs that are needed to support particular approaches?

For example if a social-constructivist approach is used, it might be that explicit collaboration and peer feedback must appear in the design. • Are designs stable? Minor variations in design may lead to very different learner experiences.

A distinction is worth making between "learning design" (in lower case letters) for the idea of capturing different designs and the IMS specification for Learning Design, in this paper that will be represented by the initials LD.

IMS Learning Design (LD) is described in detail in the documentation produced to accompany it as part of the suite of IMS specifications and standards (IMSLD, 2003), so is only described briefly here. It is a development of the Educational Modelling Language (EML) (Hummel et al, 2003) designed by the OUNL to enable flexible representation of the elements within online courses; not just the materials but also the order in which activities take place, the roles that people undertake, key criteria for progression, and the services needed for presentation to learners. The learning design specification does not detail how the course material itself is represented but rather how to package up the overall information into a structure that is modelled on a play, with acts, roles (actors) and resources. For those familiar with IMS and its application in VLEs this means that LD can take the place of the simpler Content Package but with more meaning. An XML schema and best practice guidelines are provided and there is scope to represent complete courses using LD and deliver them through "players", this would then is similar to the approach taken by the OUNL where courses described in EML are mapped onto sets of students and tutors and delivered through the EduBox system.

LD has clearly reinvigorated interest in standardised approaches to online learning and discussion has reflected dissatisfaction with the more monolithic approaches inherent in using most VLEs. Partly though this interest comes from what may be possible if the designs behind learning do become formalised and exchangeable (i.e. the possibilities of a learning design approach in general, rather than the IMS LD specification itself). Thus some work is current on learning design "inspired" approaches rather than systems that follow the specification in detail. Notable impact has been achieved by the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) [START_REF] Dalziel | Implementing learning design: the learning activity management system (LAMS)[END_REF] system which offers a very easy to use interface to creating a simplified sequence of sub-activities with a fixed choice of roles and limited control structures. The initial implementation provides a complete solution from specifying the activity, selecting cohorts of students, offering them tools designed to fit with those activities, and monitoring their progress as a group. The LAMS system follows the overall approach of learning design but avoids the rigour of using generic representations of roles and services to represent the resulting activity according to the LD specification. The strength and engagement of LAMS needs to be valued while recognising the limitations in the pilot system (of course these may well be addressed as the system ldpaper-ausweb-preprint.doc Created on 03/26/2004 itself develops). At present the limited set of roles quickly becomes a problem in representing existing activities, rather than modifying exemplar activities originally designed in LAMS, and the requirement to use built-in tools currently rules out its use in large-scale established environments such as are used in the OUUK.

While LD gives a way to represent a complete course it was apparent at a meeting of those interested in learning design (an informal commercial and university interest group formed of key players in e-learning) that a key driver for enthusiasm for the new specification is the opportunity it can give for more abstract representations and the capture of designs as templates for reuse. In our investigation we need to see if there is a viable way to produce abstractions of learning designs, possibly as a way to then produce further instantiations just as LAMS enables variations in the original activity patterns that fed into the building of the tool. For example, it is possible to envisage a "learning design wizard" that produces full specifications based on variations in particular design. The results of this can then be formal learning designs, typically produced as XML representations, ready to be validated and instantiated using a LD player based on the existing LD engine.

CopperCore

The CopperCore LD engine has the architecture shown in figure 1. In this architecture three application programme interfaces (APIs) are provided. The first provides access to validation; the second to services; and, the third provides the presentation aspects. be called or manipulated externally to provide file management and student management, this allows separation of the content and services from the engine itself. The final layer that is needed in a player system is interpretation for presentation, in the prototype implementation this is through XSL style sheets applied to the transformed learning design.

The core implementation uses Java to provide the combining and integration code, the work at the OU is to use the API to produce Java handlers for the particular designs and services we want to investigate. In particular we aim to use learning design within an existing knowledge management environment (the Knowledge Network) that is built using ColdFusion and Microsoft SQLServer. Using this environment enables us to take a very flexible and experimental approach to providing the services needed for designs to work, it will also help build experience towards using either a commercial VLE for services or a component based approach to services.

LD summary

Learning design is based on the analogy of a play, with roles and acts. The IMS Learning Design Best Practice and Implementation Guide states that the core concept of the Learning Design Specification "is that regardless of pedagogical approach, a person gets a role in the teaching-learning process, typically a learner or a staff role. In this role he or she works toward certain outcomes by performing more or less structured learning and/or support activities within an environment. The environment consists of the appropriate learning objects and services to be used during the performance of the activities. Which role gets which activities at what moment in the process, is determined by the method or by a notification."

It thus aims to be descriptive, or expressive, not prescriptive.

There are three levels of LD:

• Level A -this is the simplest form and covers the activities, roles, acts and environment used in a learning design • Level B -this introduces the notion of properties and conditions. It is at this level that LD becomes useful, as it allows what-if conditions and storing properties (such as student performance) to allow for multiple paths through learning material • Level C -this supports notification or messaging between system components, which allows for a more dynamic workflow and personalisation.

An LD example

To make the use of learning design more understandable we will introduce a particular example. The example has been chosen to be simple and involve only one actor (the learner) however it is important to realise that some of the power of LD is in its ability to extend to collaborative tasks. It has also been restricted to those aspects that are part of level A of LD; this still allows very rich structures but without explicit storing of progress, decision points (level B) or reference to other systems through messages or notification (level C).

The model for the example comes from a task designed by one of the authors for a Master's level course produced by the Open University and supported through the UK eUniversities platform [START_REF] Weller | Putting the pieces together: What working with learning objects means for the educator[END_REF]. In this task each student is asked to read a section, place their ldpaper-ausweb-preprint.doc Created on 03/26/2004

A simple UML view of this structure is shown in figure x. In this case it is assumed that a linear flow results; if a more complex example was used, e.g. with different orders possible, such diagrams can be extended with "swim lanes" to represent these alternatives.

Figure 2: UML representation of the activity in the design

The last stage in producing a LD is to encode it into XML. This has been carried out by hand for this existing example, in the near future it is expected that editors will be available to allow this stage to be completed with more assistance.

The XML represents the LD and includes references to the resources and tools needed (the "environment" in LD terms) to provide a complete description of this unit of learning.

Taking those files and passing them through the CopperCore validation produces a new set of XML files that instantiate the specific aspects needed, in this case the way to complete the grid, the set of readings and the timescale for the task to be completed. Rendering that output for the learner completes the LD Player and gives us a way to deliver the design to a learner. For us this is an important stage in developing use of LD, however it is even more important to reflect on what we have produced by following the separation encouraged by LD. We now have a description of the design that can be manipulated in several ways: we can change the presentation; we can change the tool sets; we can change the resources.

Further than that we can also revise the initial design conditions -for example we can add ldpaper-ausweb-preprint.doc Created on 03/26/2004 6

Reading

Introduction

Own views

Other views in a collaborative sharing of views by making the grids common across all users and synchronising the activity in some way.

This opens the way for a structure to parameterise this sort of design. In this case the parameters could be:

• Whether collaboration is expected • Resource sets (URLs) -for readings and for activity descriptions • Specification for the output tools (grid creation) From this we end up with a prototype LD wizard that is very simple but actually powerful to carry out variations on this design. A mock up interface is shown in figure 3 This example has served to illustrate the aims for the joint work between the OUUK and OUNL. We also believe that a complete learning design system can offer scope for managing the sharing of the designs and analysis of their structures. In the next section we outline the development plans and architecture to take forward some of these ideas.

Learning Design Instantiation Development Process

In the original planning for the LD instantiation at the OUUK we expected to spend initial effort on the engine components and interpretation and validation of the LD. The release of CopperCore has enabled us to avoid this development stage and change our focus to the generation and management of design templates and the representation of service for playing. The development process will now be conducted in two stages. Stage one is to develop a LD system which will run a single instance of a course based on level A LD. This stage has three development strands which weave together to form the system:

1. The first strand of development is being carried out by OUNL and involves the creation of the CopperCore system. CopperCore acts as the verification and validation mechanism for the IMS Learning Design. This also involves the extension of CopperCore to interact with external tools (e.g. authoring environments) and the Learning Design Player. 2. The second strand is the development of the Learning Design player, which will talk to CopperCore and will deliver the course material. The player will also be able to support service calls to and from OU systems or other external services. The player is being developed by the OUUK using Java using the Borland JBuilder X Enterprise environment. 3. The third strand will be the exploration of authoring tools (LAMS, Reload etc.) and the development of a bespoke authoring environment to support the input of OU course materials. A focus of this work is to produce a "LD Wizard" to simplify handling variations in designs and to encourage the reuse of standard specifications for services.

The first stage of the development process is expected to take around three months, after three months we will have expected to have produced a system which can deliver simple course objects (see figure 4 for details Stage 2 of the development process is to extend this architecture to deal with levels B and C of the IMS Learning Design specification. The second stage will take a further twelve to eighteen months and should produce a system which will accommodate all course delivery; this will involve the exploration of online course models and authoring systems. The planned approach is to use Simple Object Application Protocol (SOAP) to allow operation as web services. This approach will examine the work of the SAKAI project [www.sakaiproject.org/sakaiproject/] in the US to look at the applicability of their generic tool portability profiles (TPPs) which build on the Open Knowledge Initiative Open Service Interface Definitions (OKI OSIDs)[ http://web.mit.edu/oki/specs/].

The development relies on the creation or adaptation of course materials supplied by OUUK. These course materials will be stored in a course object repository within the Knowledge Network [http://www.open.ac.uk/kn], a powerful system developed for knowledge sharing built using a SQL database with ColdFusion middleware.

Conclusion

The approach taken in this work is to be pragmatic; we recognise the opportunities for a new style of tool that is web-based, values designs and separates out presentation issues. Such an approach is ideally suited to a modern component/services view of the tools available to students and offers a way to break the monolithic and proprietary approach encouraged by VLEs. Work within the OUUK on VLEs has found that their main value comes when there can be commitment to a single architecture; however the scale and existing practice makes such a single approach difficult to achieve and likely to introduce too much inflexibility. A design based approach on the other hand allows the existing ldpaper-ausweb-preprint.doc Created on 03/26/2004 division between academic work and presentation work to be emphasised and assisted. Our early work on Learning Design shows that it can provide a way to help represent both specific and generic designs and provide part of the solution. We believe this can then be a catalyst for overall change that will encourage reuse and speed up adoption of new solutions as components available to the learners. The collaborative work under way will develop the tools to assist this and align them with theoretical approaches to help us judge their value. This paper presents initial results as exemplars from real courses and an architectural design; this is now being translated into a programme of work to provide the tools needed by ourselves and the wider community.

Figure 1 :

 1 Figure 1: CopperCore interfaces and integrations

  Figure 3. A mock-up of a Learning Design wizard which feeds into CopperCore.

Figure 4 :

 4 Figure 4: System design for the Learning Design Instantiation built on CopperCore

own views on a two dimensional grid, then reflect on the positions of other authors and place those views on the same grid. The LD approach described in the best practice guide suggests first completing a template "use case narrative" describing the design, then mapping it into a UML representation before producing a document conforming to the XML schema for LD.


Lydia Montandon
email: lydia.montandon@atosorigin.com

Angelique Dimitrakopoulos

Nikos Avouris
email: n.avouris@ee.upatras.gr

Esther Casado
email: esther.casado@atosorigin.com

e-COMODE Services for the Implementation of Collaborative Modelling Environments in Schools

e-COMODE is an open digital learning environment, which assists young students (10-17 year old) in creating models. e-COMODE services aim to offer a collaborative modelling environment, including pedagogical, technical and implementation support services. The market validation of the different services has been performed in different environments, private and state schools, from different geographical areas; Greece, Spain and North Ireland in the UK, in order to confirm the business model developed and the services acceptance. Outcomes show that e-COMODE services benefit schools by providing mechanisms to solve the lack of sufficient and appropriate teacher's support to incorporate new technologies in their teaching practices, to implement collaborative learning in the educational systems and the learning via computer based modelling. Although end-users (teachers, students) have already adopted the e-COMODE facilities, the barriers for the exploitation of the services are at the level of the public administration. Therefore, the business model proposed is being revised in function of the experience gathered during the market validation.

Introduction

The e-COMODE offers to schools an open digital learning environment, which assists young students (10-17 year old) in creating models. This computer-based environment supports learners in expressing their ideas, building, designing and testing models of various situations with rich visualisation and simulation tools. Moreover, the e-COMODE eLearning Environment encourages and supports collaborative problem solving and online communication with peers and teachers, promoting the acquisition of these skills, which are also extremely important for young students' future.

The distinguishing characteristic of e-COMODE is that it combines a full set of learning and teaching facilities with technical, pedagogical, and organisational support focusing on modelling learning in a complete portfolio of services. The completeness and versatility of the service is new in the European market and it is expected that in future years, e-COMODE will efficiently support traditional teaching methods, thus enhancing the quality of education.

The e-COMODE service allows the access to a software environment including pedagogical materials, use manuals, collaborative support via ASP and helpdesk. In addition, e-COMODE provides associated services such as teachers' training and organisational, technical, and pedagogical consultancy. The environment can run on standard personal computers The e-COMODE environment is running in five different sites, covering two private schools networks -one in Spain and one in Greece -and three networks of state schoolsone in the UK and two in Greece -with the objective of performing a market validation of the service. This market validation study supports the elaboration of plans for the future market deployment of the service.

Objectives

In 2000 the size of the European Education market estimation was of 80 millions pupils and students, 4 million teachers and about 320'000 establishments -including various kinds of education and training institutions, as well as universities [1].

Furthermore, due to the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) it is now possible to use tools for assisting the process of learning beyond the boundaries of the classroom, due to the developments in ICT. The use of technology prepares learners for participation in a networked, information society where knowledge is the most critical resource for personal, social and economical development. School children and students increasingly need to acquire the individual and the group learning skills for use in learning societies and learning organisations [START_REF]Computer-supported Collaborative Learning Networks in Primary and Secondary Education[END_REF]. There is a need for schools to find a way to optimise their teaching of modelling, and thus helping teachers to stimulate the Critical and Creative Thinking of their students [START_REF] Dimitracopoulou | Modelling Activities in Schools with a collaborative technology-based learning environment: Scenarios of use in secondary education[END_REF]. "Critical and Creative Thinking can be described as qualities of good thinking processes and as types of thinking. Creative thinking is generally considered to be involved with the creation or generation of ideas, processes, experiences or objects; critical thinking is concerned with their evaluation" [START_REF]Understanding the Common Essential Learnings. A Handbook for Teachers[END_REF].

Scientific activity involves to a great extend creation, validation and application of appropriate models of the phenomena, systems or situations under study [START_REF] Orfanos | Technology based modelling activities and the contribution in learning concepts' relations in kinimatics[END_REF] [6] [START_REF] Smyrnaiou | The understanding of specific symbolic representations by students from 10 to 15 years old[END_REF]. Models appear in most scientific areas (economics, history, biology, meteorology, archaeology etc.), as well as in our everyday life.

Based on those premises, the main objective of e-COMODE services is to offer to schools a new effective way to teach and learn the most important concepts needed nowadays to survive in the knowledge-based society. Technology and pedagogical support allow teachers to convey reasoning and modelling concepts, while it permits to learners to express themselves and create in an appropriate environment. Collaboration and communication, which are extremely important skills for the students' future, are vigorous elements of the learning environment.

To address this main objective, e-COMODE combines software and technical services, as well as pedagogical and organisational consultancy services. The full option services aim to offer: 1. A collaborative modelling environment 2. Collaboration and communication services 3. Guidelines for implementation (teachers' training) 4. Learning materials 5. On-line support (technical helpdesk, pedagogical and organisational consulting services) This main goal of providing e-COMODE services to the society, in particular to schools and educational institutions, teachers, students and parents, has to be validated by a market sample, following the methodology described in the next section, in order to elaborate plans for the future deployment and exploitation of the services. Therefore the objective of the market validation is to investigate the potential market that would be commercially interested in a service providing a digital open collaborative environment for modelling, creative problem solving and expression including guidelines for teachers and school managers as well as appropriate teaching materials in the context of Secondary Schools.

Methodology

Three main activities have been combined in order to ensure the validation of the services.

(1) The localisation of the application has adapted the environment to a new market (the Spanish market) giving figures for the elaboration of a market entry strategy, and preparing the environment for the validation phase; (2) the training sessions and the dissemination campaign have been crucial in order to make the teachers able to use the application, and to start with the validation phase; (3) finally, the market validation has included several activities like the creation of feedback-questionnaires for students, teachers, ICT coordinators and Schools directors, as well as personal interviews in order to identify: 1. The market acceptance of the services 2. The key actors in the commercialisation process

Critical issues in the commercialisation process

To assess the adequacy of e-COMODE services to the market, a market validation has been performed in five different environments, covering 3 countries (Spain, Greece and Northern Ireland in the UK) and two different school structures (private and networks of state schools). Mainly teachers (and their students) have participated in the validation of the services. However, also potential buyers and decision makers have been involved, by means of personal interviews and services demonstrations.

The results of the services validation are then compared to a general market analysis of the potential market for the e-COMODE services. The combination of those two studies serve as the bases for the elaboration of the final deployment plan describing what are the next steps towards the exploitation of the services in the future. The system can be adapted to several educational situations: 1. to support inter-school collaboration activities.

Technology Description

2. to be used in the frame of schools activities in a single classroom. 3. to be used in the frame of intra-school activities in a several classroom, at different time. e-COMODE application is constituted by seven elements: 1. The Modelling Environment, built in Java, is the main tool. It is a direct manipulation space, which is used mostly by students for building and exploring models made out of primitive modelling entities, inherent in the environment, or built by the users using the Entities Editor (component 2). Models can be presented through alternative views. 2. The Entities Editor is the tool provided to create primitive entities. This is an independent tool, built in Delphi, which can be accessed from the Modelling Environment. The entities are the building blocks of the models. Each entity is representing an object or a concept of the real world. A number of properties can be associated to entities through this tool. A visual representation of the entity is associated to each of these states. The option of directly inserting video has been recently added. 3. Supervision Environment. This tool built in Java, is integrated within the Modelling Environment, or can be used as an independent tool. Its main functionality is the presentation and processing of history log files produced by the Modelling environment, recording actions and exchanged messages of partners engaged in the modelling. This environment allows playing back the modelling activity, using the history log file in a step-by-step or continuous way. 4. Collaboration Analysis Tool. This is a tool for analysis of video and audio recordings and synchronisation of behavioural data files with activity log files. This is an independent tool, built in Visual Basic, which can be used for viewing, annotation and analysis of the collaborative environment history log files. 5. The Common Repository, which is found in the collaborative environment server. It is developed in Java, JSP and XML. It contains the study themes, entities, libraries of entities, and models. The repository is web-accessible and provides the possibility of downloading and uploading material by its distant users (teachers and students). 6. The Community Support Tools, which are found in the collaborative environment server. They are developed in Java, JSP and XML. They provide services like group management, session management, registration and login of users, facilitating synchronous interaction of the modelling environments. This is a component that also facilitates interaction between Modelling Environments (component 1), with no direct user interface. 7. The Communication Relay Server is a stand-alone application built in Java. It provides facilities for network communication among clients across firewalls.

The technological environment of e-COMODE consists of two main parts: a) the client applications and b) the community services. While the client applications are distributed on each user workstation, the community services follow a centralized architecture meaning that they are running on dedicated servers of the provider.

As a collaborative application, the collaborative environment has some network requirements such as the configuration of proxies from both the client as well as the relay server side. The minimum network requirements are of low bandwidth as communication between the peers through the relay server follows a message passing mechanism.

Developments

We have seen that the e-COMODE services allow the access to a software environment including training activities, pedagogical materials, use manuals, collaborative support via ASP and helpdesk. In addition, e-COMODE provides associated services such as teachers' training and organisational versus pedagogical consultancy. Nevertheless, the core of e-COMODE solution is a software environment that provides the capability of applying modelling concepts at schools. This is complemented with tools used for collaborative modelling activities: entities editor, supervision environment, common repository, etc, and with a complete portfolio of consultancy and technological services.

The exploitation model of the e-COMODE services has been designed to be carried on at three complementary stages:

Stage 1 corresponds to the distribution of a basic version of the product, thus increasing the market share of the Modelling Space product.

• Some examples of accompanying educational material to familiarise the target users with the features of the product. • Significant part of the user manuals, showing the benefits of usage of an advanced version of the product. • Material to induce registration and license purchase.

Stage 2 corresponds to the licence + ASP. The main characteristics of this phase are: • Users enjoy all functionalities of the product.

• Users operate in a web-based collaborative environment via ASP.

• Technical support (help-desk facilities).

• Pedagogical materials and guidelines • Continuous upgrade of the product.

Stage 3 consists of the consultancy services. This level of service is superposed to the other ones in the sense that consultancy services may be requested either at the free demonstration stage or at the previous stage, or, the most obvious, in between both. The elements of this phase are: • Teacher's and ICT coordinators training.

• In order to satisfy the demands and growing needs of the target users, organisational, technological, and pedagogical consultancy services, including teaching material adaptation.

Consequently, the development of the services validation consisted of three main phases. The first phase, called pre-pilot, during which activities have been performed to prepare the validation phase:

• Localisation and adaptation of the application and materials: it consists of the localisation of the application to the Spanish market, creation of entities creation tools (Video2Frame tool) and adaptation of material when necessary.

• Teachers and ICT training activities: the realisation of several training sessions in order

to allow the users utilize the environment. • Market analysis and pilot needs analysis: theses activities covered the deep analysis of the market with the objective to know the market situation, the competitors and to identify the real potential of the service and the existence of the market niche.

The second phase corresponds to the pilot implementation: • Infrastructure adaptation and application installation. Each site had to create a minimum infrastructure, consisting of a personal computer and an Internet connexion for collaboration activities, to allow the students use the environment. • Pedagogical adaptation: teachers and pedagogical coordinators had to incorporate the learning activities in the curricula activities. Each pilot has identified teaching subjects and created or adapted learning activities. • Pilots roll out: each site has developed several activities using e-COMODE application.

Finally, the third phase concerns the post-pilot activities: • Analysis of the information.

• Development of a complete deployment plan.

Results

At the moment of the conference, there will be a complete set of results based on the analysis of the validation phase. As interim results we can use (1) the teachers quality feedback got during a workshop organised to allow the teachers and ICT responsible of the schools to share experiences, (2) teleconference organised in the scope of the project to follow the project activities:

• teachers find the application easy to use • teachers have easily incorporated modelling activities in the curricula • students smoothly understand the application and follow the learning activities completing them • pilots had had some technical problems during the installation phase that have been solved quickly with the helpdesk support • successful collaboration activities have been performed inside classrooms

In relation to market segments, we found out that there are two different approaches, one for state schools and the other one for private ones. The first market segment includes private schools:

• The market can be addressed directly through private schools directors, or key teachers in the school.

• Through content providers/pedagogical providers

The second market segment considered include public schools and networks of public schools: there are different channels depending on the country but some key profiles are identified.

• ICT providers (C2K [START_REF]C2K mission is to provide, for Northern Ireland's schools, a world class Learning Technology service and optimise its use throughout the Community[END_REF] in Northern Ireland, Red.es [START_REF][END_REF] in Spain) • Educational institutions linked to public sector (Pedagogical institute in Greece)

Learning Portals (LNI) In more general terms, the outcomes of the market analysis show that in most the European countries, there is a lack of sufficient and appropriate teachers' support to incorporate ICTs in their teaching practices. Besides the collaborative learning is a new direction in the educational systems, and the learning via computer based modelling is also a new or almost new activity. In most of the European countries, there are not existing established educational support mechanisms for those issues as well.

It is interesting to note that although the e-COMODE services is highly rated among the teachers and the learners (during the validation excellent examples demonstrating how the students take over the teachers activity and start developing themselves "learning activities" have emerged), the barriers seem to be at the level of public administration. The outcomes of meetings and interviews with representatives of regional authorities demonstrate that, although there is a need of consultancy services for the implementation of new technologies for teaching and learning purposes, there is limited power of acquisition of educational products, not to mention services. It seems that services are anyway provided (in all of the three countries under study), however the arrangements and business models are diverse.

Business Benefits

Based on the preliminary results, it seems that e-COMODE services fulfil significant gaps detected in the European educational systems, such as the lack of offering together the variety of simulation and modelling tools in a collaborative environment. The business benefits to be obtained through the commercialisation consider the licensing of a full e-COMODE environment, extra-fee coming from e-COMODE content reuse by the customers, and revenues from the technical, training and consultancy services.

Besides, the market validation has enabled us to discover that the target market of the e-COMODE services can be enlarged. For the market validation of the e-COMODE services, the students' ages considered were of 11-17 years old, however, after the analysis performed by the teachers while adapting activities, it happens that 10 years old students can also use the application. Furthermore, a large market at the University level, mainly in technical colleges, has also shown interest. The business benefits of this finding are that more and diverse users can be interested in the e-COMODE services, thus enlarging the market potential of the business.

Finally, although at the beginning the subjects considered were mainly technical; science, biology, math, etc, during the validation economics and geography have also been identified as disciplines that can benefit from the e-COMODE services. This also contributes to wider the possibilities of the application to convince schools directors to implement the environment.

At a higher level, e-COMODE services offer to European schools the only software that allows meta-analysis, multi-reasoning models: it is the only solution that combines all them: quantitative, qualitative and mixed. This is a very important benefit when considering the importance of providing new categories of skills to students entering the new knowledge-based economy.

Conclusions

Besides identifying and classifying the market needs, a complete e-COMODE services' portfolio has been defined. Based on the validation feedback and the definition of market segmentation, an improved business model oriented to the licensing of an e-COMODE full solution for the commercialisation of e-COMODE services is being studied.

In all the cases, there is one or more services that e-COMODE could apply. For instance, teachers from UK are very interested by the concept of the software application and they find essential the support services and consultancy provided by e-COMODE.

Further work needed to progress towards a full exploitation of the e-COMODE services by the market is to adapt the service and the business approach in function of the results obtained during the pilot phase and produce a realistic business plan in view of a full market deployment of e-COMODE. Beside, the results of the market validation must still be widely disseminated, in order to invite new customers to know more about the service, to show the benefits of the use of the service to the market segment e-COMODE is targeting.

As indicated in the development section, to introduce and facilitate the market validation, training of teachers has been performed. Although this step (together with a consequent awareness campaign at all level of the school staff) seems to be obvious when conducting validation pilots, we observed that it was one of the most important part of the services delivered by e-COMODE and that appropriate teachers' training was generally lacking in schools.

Regarding the technology, as the technical status of the e-COMODE collaborative environment is stable and reliable, only few implementation problems have emerged. Besides a technical support service is part of the e-COMODE offer. Important issues are more related to cultural and organisational barriers, which hinder the take up of the use of e-COMODE in schools. At least there are difficulties in finding a win-win solution with the public sector and enter the state schools market.

Finally, we would like to highlight that although the current organisation of the public administration in charge of school education in Europe is not flexible enough to be ready to adopt new teaching and learning methods and tools, the positive outcomes coming from the end-users (teachers, students) show clearly that e-COMODE is to become a valuable set of services in the near future.

Administrator ModellingSpace Application Student 1 ModellingSpace Application Student 2 WEB application Student 1 School 2 ModellingSpace Application Student 1 School

			School 1
			Support to Support to
			collaborative collaborative
			activities activities
			The school's administrator
			Management Learning Activities, Management Learning Activities,
				school or groups school or groups
	Relay Server Relay Server	Community server Community server	WEB application WEB application	Repository query Contacts Feedback, etc. Repository query Contacts Feedback, etc.
			Management of Management of
			collaborative collaborative
			activities activities

1 The school's administrator

Administrator Administrator ModellingSpace Application Student 1 Student 1 ModellingSpace Application Student 2 ModellingSpace Application Student 2 WEB application Student 1 WEB application Student 1 Student 1 School 2 ModellingSpace Application Student 1 ModellingSpace Application Student 1 Figure

1: e-COMODE system architecture