Steve Wheeler
email: swheeler@plymouth.ac.uk

Dawn Wheeler
email: dawn.wheeler@plymouth.ac.uk

Evaluating Wiki as a tool to promote quality academic writing skills

Keywords: Web 2.0, social networking, academic writing

In this study we investigated undergraduate teacher trainees' use of wikis, focusing on the use of shared spaces to communicate ideas and generate course specific content. We explored how students, through such activities, were to able to improve their academic writing skills. We discuss writing as a social practice and discuss how wikis might promote better academic writing. With data derived from student discussion boards and a post-module e-mail questionnaire (N=35) our findings indicate that most students raised their skill level in writing as a result of using the wiki space. Collaborative writing was limited due to students' reluctance to change each others' work, but students appreciated the shared environment to discuss the course. Students reported their academic writing skills improved through use of the wiki.

The rise of the Social Web

As the World Wide Web continues to evolve and pervade many aspects of modern life, users will discover ever more sophisticated and ingenious uses, particularly for social networking. The Web's second major incarnation -Web 2.0 -has been called the 'social web', for good reason. Compared to its precursor, Web 1.0, content can be generated and published more easily, and centralized control of content is subjected to democratic processes. [START_REF] Boulos | The emerging Web 2.0 social software: An enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and healthcare education[END_REF] The social web is very much at the vanguard of a significant shift in the ways the World Wide Web is being used across society, particularly within the entertainment, commerce and education sectors. Clearly, the social web has burgeoned in recent years for two important reasons. They are free and they are interactive.

Social web applications are generally offered free to all, and provide a means for dialogue with a potential audience of millions, through quick and easy publication and rapid feedback. Readers become writers, and users can become their own publishers, producers and directors in what has been dubbed the 'read-write' web. [START_REF] Boulos | Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education[END_REF] A myriad of new services and web spaces are appearing, including social spaces such as MySpace and Bebo, photo sharing sites such as Flickr and Picasa, and video sharing sites such as YouTube, all of which enable users to share their ideas with a potential worldwide audience. [START_REF] Boulos | The emerging Web 2.0 social software: An enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and healthcare education[END_REF] Blogging is increasingly popular as a means of publishing a regular diary online. Tracking services such as Technorati help Bloggers to promote their sites, whilst services such as Digg and del.icio.us offer social tagging and collaborative filtering options that allow users to alert their friends about new or favourite web sites and to vote for those they consider to be useful within their own community of interest.

Collaborative online writing

Users world wide are exploiting the benefits of a growing range of social software at a globally networked level to create their own personal contact spaces, share ideas, photos, videos and documents with their friends and family, and at a more formal level, as a serious educational tool to facilitate the discussion of key concepts. This paper was created by the two authors using Google Docs -a free collaborative writing tool allowing synchronous writing to be managed over the web. Wikis are one of the most popular tools available for collaborative writing on the Web and teachers are discovering that they provide a dynamic new set of tools to facilitate collaborative learning. 'Wiki wiki' in the Hawaiian language can be translated as 'to hurry' or 'rapid', and wikis are certainly quick and easy to learn to use. [START_REF] Boulos | Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education[END_REF] It is perhaps one of the most flexible applications found on the social web, and can be used in a number of valid educational contexts. Wikis house a shared web space which all users have equal access to, and include toolbars to import images, create hyperlinks and modify text. [START_REF] Wheeler | The Good, the Bad and the Wiki: Evaluating student generated content for collaborative learning[END_REF] Each page is typically accompanied by a discussion group, and all pages within the set are subject to a 'track back' history utility which can be used to revert content to an earlier version if vandalism occurs. [START_REF] Richardson | Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms[END_REF] This paper seeks to outline some of these utilities, describes the use of wikis in teacher education as a collaborative tool, and provides the reader with an initial evaluation of their use from a student perspective. We begin with a discussion on writing as a social practice.

In any collaborative writing space the initial contributors work at a disadvantage, as they have no other contributions to compare and contrast their own writing with. To ameliorate this problem the course tutors created a set of headings (writing framework) and accompanying questions within the root pages of the wiki spaces to prompt and scaffold initial student postings. Prior to our discussion of the findings of this study, we examine the nature of writing within a social context.

Writing as a Social Practice

The examination of Social Practice theory and the allied concept of 'New Literacies' has recently dominated the study of writing within social settings. The introduction of new technologies encourages changes in the nature and use of literacies within a social practice concept. Collaborative writing has a role to play in defining social practice and literacies. Street [START_REF] Street | Literacy in Theory and Practice[END_REF] suggests that we identify with domains in which different types of communication take place. Subsequently, writing for an academic audience might be grounded within an shared electronic environment such as FaceBook, if the reader also identifies with and subscribes to, the same medium. The language used within that agreed domain becomes socially acceptable within its own boundaries, but would perhaps not be as appropriate outside of this context. Shortis 6 believes that those who write within new technology mediated text environments formulate their contributions according to the expectations of others within the same social context. The grammar that is acceptable in say, an e-mail communication, may be socially unacceptable in a formal letter.

Thurlow et al [START_REF] Thurlow | Computer Mediated Communication: Social interaction and the internet[END_REF] discuss speech communities as shared communities where 'people organise themselves into communities around the way they speak'. The same could be said about writing and 'text communities'. We argue here that as with language, text does not need to be perfect in order for understanding to be gained. Complex issues are emerging from the multiple modes of text based communication available within the age of new media. [START_REF] Kress | Literacy in the New Media Age[END_REF] Carrington [START_REF] Carrington | Txting: the end of civilization (again)?[END_REF] argues that contemporary literacy is reflected in a number of ways by individuals who will become adept at shifting between text genres. Mobile phone texting, e-mail and writing to social networking spaces are different text genres that each own subtly emerging protocols and rules, some of which can be at odds with conventional grammatical structure and language use. Yet such text genres can still contribute toward the development of knowledge and can act as a cohesive force within online learning communities in the same manner that culture acts as a social glue.

For students, there is also the strong probability that larger audiences exist beyond that of the conventional essay audience of 'one'. When online pages are 'tagged' -that is, appended with key words -they become instantly searchable using search engines, and web visitors will inevitably be attracted. As social beings we are naturally aware of our audience and take care to present our 'best side'. Goffman 10 claimed that individuals tend to carefully manage their impression by presenting a 'front stage' version of themselves in public, which can greatly contrast with the self that is seen 'back stage'. It is highly likely that evidence of impression management might be present within the written postings of students on wikis, due to the potential for large 'hidden audiences' of casual web visitors. Such a phenomenon has already been observed in studies of students using blogs [START_REF] Miller | The Presentation of Self in Electronic Life: Goffman on the Internet[END_REF] and other social networking spaces. [START_REF] Wheeler | The Good, the Bad and the Wiki: Evaluating student generated content for collaborative learning[END_REF] Some students may therefore be reluctant to participate if they perceive the need to adapt their writing styles, or open themselves up to scrutiny from a hidden audience.

Academic writing and Literacy skills for trainee teachers

All undergraduates are required to write at a level which meets academic standards, where essays are coherent with acceptable grammatical structure and accurate spelling. Writing can present a challenge for some students as it is cognitively demanding, and invokes a deep and powerful kind of learning. [START_REF] Northedge | The Good Study Guide[END_REF] Students are also expected to demonstrate critical awareness of their subject and relevant focus in their writing. Many students enter higher education ill-equipped for such rigours, and some find the task of writing academically frustrating or confusing. [START_REF] Fairbairn | Reading, Writing and Reasoning: A Guide for Students[END_REF] Furthermore, studies show that the majority of students who drop out from university study do so within their first year. [START_REF] Benn | Higher education: Non-standard students and withdrawals[END_REF][START_REF] Bourner | Part-time students and their experience of higher education[END_REF] One study reported that 37% of student attrition in the first year was attributable to 'academic' problems. [START_REF] Johnston | Why do first year students fail to progress to their second year? An academic staff perspective[END_REF] It was deemed important for this study therefore, that an investigation should be made into the possible disparities between formal and informal writing styles in web based environments.

Method

Four cohorts of education students comprising first (n=10), second year (n=10) and third year (n=9) undergraduates, and a small post graduate cohort (n=6), participated in this study (N=35). Ages ranged from 18 years to 35, with the majority in their early twenties. The students used wikis as an integral part of their studies for one complete term of 10 sessions within their initial teacher training programme and were invited to report on their experiences periodically through their respective online discussion groups. Data were gathered through the wiki discussion boards after prompting by the researchers, and subsequently through a postmodule e-mail questionnaire. All names and identities have been withheld to maintain confidentiality. To ensure brevity, in this study we employ only the data from first and second year students. Data from the third year undergraduate and post graduate cohorts will feature in future publications.

6 Results and discussion: the benefits and limitations

Benefits

One area of focus for the study was to ascertain how participants used the wiki to develop their writing skills in general. Students were asked: What particular kinds of writing skill do you think you have you developed as a result of using this kind of web page? One student raised his awareness of the importance of developing his critical and analytical skills:

In terms of hand-writing and basic writing skills, the wiki has played no part in developing or extending my abilities, however for academic writing e.g. writing essays, it has showed me the importance of using a wide variety of sources and not basing fact or theory on one opinion that a website offers. I think I am now developing a healthy critical and analytical writing style thanks to the wiki. Looking at other people's opinions and findings has helped me to question what's in front of me and I have found myself researching certain areas further to see if all opinions are the same. So all of that put into one sentence is basically that the wiki has helped with academic writing skills. (2nd Year Male)

Others reported that they were keenly aware of the 'hidden audience' of visitors to the wiki, with their own student peer group exerting the most considerable influence. They reported that they had adjusted their writing within the wiki to manage their impression favourably. However, as is evidenced within the following quotes from the less public discussion groups, their writing within this domain was more informal, complete with spelling and punctuation errors. Some were concerned that they were seen to write content within the public wiki space that would represent their thinking in the best possible light: I concentrate more now on my spelling than ever before because anyone can see what you are writing so you have to take more care. (1st Year Female) … if anything it probably makes me write better. on the wiki you know that everyone can read your work so you make yourself as intelligent as possible. (2nd Year Female) … I know other people that I don't even know will be reading it. I will only write something that I'm sure about, and not things that I think might be wrong or questioned by other people. (1st Year Female)

Several students realised at an early stage that writing to the wiki was a challenging exercise, for a number of reasons. Sentence structure became an issue...

Writing on the wiki is a challenging activity which involves much thought about the length and structure of sentences as it is able to be read by anyone. The exclusion of a spell-check also provides more challenges of careful thinking. (1st Year Male)

...as did the utility of spellchecking:

I have noticed how much I do rely on Microsoft word, when I word process. Wiki has no spelling or grammar functions, so I have to pay more attention to what I write.

However, the problem is when you cross over from using Microsoft word to wiki. (1st Year Male)

5(7)

It's hard to get used to not depending on the spell checker to correct spelling mistakes. (1st Year Female)

One of the most useful utilities of the wiki was its capability to constrain students into dealing with manageable 'chunks' of study. Although one student argued that using the wiki did not appear to improve her writing, she reported that it enabled her to reduce her confusion about the topic as a whole:

Using the wiki has made writing much more focused on a part of a topic rather than gettin confused trying to tackle the topic as a whole-i found it particularly useful when doin all the learning theories. With regard to actual 'writing skills' i wouldn't say it's improved anything to be honest, i find myself writing in the same way I'd write a text or speak to friends on msn. I dunno if this makes it look unprofessional or appear easier to read cos its more informal? (2nd Year Female)

Students also experienced a more acute awareness of the need to provide accurate referencing for the thoughts and ideas they posted to the wiki. Others discovered that a more formal style would be appropriate for their postings to the space, and adapted their style accordingly: my referencing has improved through using the wiki, as it had made me realise how important it is to state where you got your information from initially. (2nd Year Female) I have developed more consideration for others when writing, as you know that everyone will be reading what you write. you have to consider whether or not it will be relevant to them before you write it up. (2nd Year Female) I believe the wiki has helped me to improve my formal writing skills and academic writing. I now realise that their is a great deal of research available to me to support my academic writing. I feel that my referencing skills have also been improved. (2nd Year Female)

Limitations

As with all digital communication tools, wikis have limitations, but these appear to be mainly perceptual. Some for example, avoided potential conflict with peers or moderated their opinions to minimize the potential to offend. Several students were of the opinion that the wiki restricted their writing style or constrained them from expressing themselves in a natural way:

Using the wiki has restricted me putting a lot of personal opinion into the findings, so to avoid conflict with others over a differing opinion. (2nd Year Male) I personally feel that, for me, the wiki stops you from writing your opinions in full. I feel very wary knowing that anyone else can read them, so tend to keep my opinions to myself. I know that this will restrict my learning, but i don't feel confident enough to write my full opinions on the internet. (2nd Year Female) Some however, held an alternative view, and decided that they would take the irsk of offending others as a trade off to expressing their full opinions:

I feel fine putting down opinions! If you feel you may upset someone -try and put it tactfully! (2nd Year Male and a now a regular Blogger)

When writing in the wiki, i am aware that anyone can look at it and i suppose this limits to an extent what il write but not greatly. Im still happy to write my own opinions and stuff its more the language im using that i find myself thinking about as this will differ for people i know. (2nd Year Female) A potentially detrimental issue was identified as a general artifact of all digital writing technology:

The wiki and using ICT as a whole has limited my writing skills and spelling, as i now depend more on the spell and grammar checker and my handwriting has got worse as i am using the computer more. (1st Year Female) However, it was interesting to note that the wiki used in this study had no spell checker, so students could not rely on this facility to auto-correct typographical and spelling errors. One student also reported that she had revisited the wiki after the module had ended and this had been instrumental in helping her to write her assignment. She used it to …go back and look up what others had written and use that as a starting point for my essay. (2nd Year Female) By contrast, another student considered that using the wiki as an aid to essay writing was unacceptable: I … think if I quoted from the WIKI it would not be deemed as a valid source. (2nd Year Male) Such perceived illegitimacy may of course be a legacy of students' use of other public collaborative spaces such as Wikipedia and Wiktionary, which have received bad publicity relating to their accuracy and validity as research and information repositories. One student made her views clear about all wiki based sources:

At the end of the day this is only someone's opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt unless it is backed up. (2nd Year Female)

Conclusion

This study focused on the use of wikis as a tool that could promote higher quality academic writing skills for undergraduate and postgraduate students. As with all new technologies, a number of benefits and limitations were identified, many of which were perceptual in nature. Students welcomed the chance to air their views and ideas about their course work on a public forum, with very few expressing a reluctance to contribute. Some even developed their own blogs as a direct result of their participation in using the wiki during class time. A great deal of 'impression management' was observed, which suggests that students were aware of an audience greater than that constituted by their own peers. Students were surprised by the number of outside visitors to the wiki, which they could view via the onboard hit counter. They were, however, less fastidious over their impression management within the protected discussion pages, where the correction of spelling and grammatical errors did not assume as much importance.

Conference ICL2007

September 26 -28, 2007 Villach, Austria 7 (7) Significantly, use of the wiki was observed to develop a healthy critical attitude for many of the participants. Students also reported that they took greater care in the referencing of their work, and found themselves taking more care to check the veracity of their sources. It remains to be seen whether such meticulous scrutiny of sources will be transferred across to the writing of academic essays with all future student cohorts. We intend to undertake further studies that will attempt to correlate the quality of students' academic writing with the quality of contributions they have made on the wiki spaces.


Karen Stepanyan
email: karen.stepanyan@bcuc.ac.uk

Richard Mather
email: richard.mather@bcuc.ac.uk

Janet Payne
email: janet.payne@bcuc.ac.uk

Stepanyan Karen

Janet

Dr. Payne

Awareness of the capabilities and use of social software attributes within and outside the educational context: moving towards collaborative learning with Web 2.0

Keywords: Social Software, Collaborative Learning, Web 2.0

 similarities in the ways of using social software within and outside the educational context.

Introduction

The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies promotes the growth of service-based applications and greater user-control over content and connection (O' [START_REF] O'reilly | What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software[END_REF]. The rapid growth in membership of social spaces such as MySpace, Flickr, del.icio.us and many others are evidence that web-based networking facilities are becoming an important part of our daily life [START_REF] Jacobs | Mobile learning, social learning[END_REF]. Given that people are apparently willing to collaborate, work and spend leisure time engaging with Web 2.0 technologies, it seems likely that educational interests may also benefit from adapting teaching practices, curricula and educational tools to exploit the social process and network benefits provided by Web 2.0.

Due to the diversity of educational theories and practice, it is unlikely that any single model for Web 2.0 educational use will emerge. However, this study aims to contribute towards understanding the widely popularized but unproven impacts of using Web 2.0 technologies in education.

Aims and objectives of the research

The main aim of this research is to study the patterns of use of both 'external' social software and educational social software within a collaborative learning environment. The purpose of such a study is to suggest possible administrative, educational and technical ways by which the levels of student engagement and learning experience may be improved. The detailed objectives of the research are to:

• Compare the use of educational social software with conventional educational tools.

Collaborative environments and the social aspects of learning

The importance of discussions and exchange of ideas during the study process are widely established. According to [START_REF] Dewey | Democracy and Education[END_REF], learning is a social and interpretive activity in which learners collaboratively construct explanations and understandings of materials and artifacts. Followers of Vygotsky attach great importance to social context and collaborative activities for learning [START_REF] Cole | Vygotsky and Context. Where did the Connection Come From and What Difference Does it Make?[END_REF].

Acceptance of a social dimension to learning led to the concept of Collaborative Learning or Cooperative Learning. This describes a form of active learning by which students work together in small groups toward a common goal [START_REF] Gokhale | Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking[END_REF]. This form of learning utilizes group discussions, long-term group projects, and group testing [START_REF] Castor | Their Grades Are Higher, but Are They Learning?: Examining the Impact of Cooperative Testing on Individual Learning[END_REF]. Roger and David Johnson, the exponents of collaborative learning, state that the exchange of ideas and opinions promotes critical thinking and increases motivation [START_REF] Johnson | Cooperative Learning Returns To College: What Evidence Is There That It Works?[END_REF]. Moreover, according to Samuel Totten, it is essential for the development of critical thinking, that students take responsibility for their own learning by participating in discussions [START_REF] Totten | Cooperative Learning: A guide to research[END_REF]. Many authorities on educational practice recognize the importance of social interchange; Resnick, Pea and Perkins presented their view on learning as a "dialogical process involving the social distribution of intelligence" [START_REF] Schrire | Knowledge building in asynchronous discussion groups: Going beyond the quantitative analysis[END_REF].

Collaborative software tools

Advances in web technologies continue to improve the communication, sharing and distribution of information. Attributes of Web 2.0 include greater integration of RSS/Atom feeds, cloudtags, mashups and rich internet applications as well as new ways and tools for managing content and delivering services. By supporting openness, collaboration and information exchange, Web 2.0 level weblogs and syndication provide the foundation for the growth of popular social spaces (Downes, 2004).

These recent developments in web-based services and the enhancement of collaborative tools have fueled the demand for similarly-specified educational software and services. Many schools and universities across the world now deploy blogs, ePortfolios and educational social software for use by the academic community. But despite the widespread promotion of these learning tools (Downes, 2005), there is little information to validate the extent of their utilization by institutions, tutors and students, or evidence-based guidance on best practices for promoting learning. Shedding light on these areas will help educators make informed decisions concerning appropriate software tools and to modify teaching practices as necessary.

Pedagogical and technical platform for the research

This study is based on the concept of collaborative learning and openness. It follows the educational philosophy of Dewey and Vygotsky and adopts a model of collaboration and cooperation among students and teachers. This is based on principles of social constructivism and the social nature of learning [START_REF] Popkewitz | Dewey, Vygotsky, and the Social Administration of the Individual: Constructivist Pedagogy as Systems of Ideas in Historical Spaces[END_REF]. While any learning process that is delivered within an effective collaborative environment can promote higher-level reasoning, process gain and transference of knowledge [START_REF] Mcconnell | Implementing Computer Supportive Cooperative Learning[END_REF], Web 2.0 has the potential for extending the collaboration to the level of using blogs, file exchange mechanisms and personalization. Hence, we can assume that a collaborative learning environment, enhanced by social software, can support the development of an effective collaborative learning environment and learning community.

Technology behind the pedagogy

In order to create the necessary environment, a set of tools was identified, evaluated and then selected for their appropriateness for collaborative learning. Most students (86%) attended the formal and introductory lecture on the technology, philosophy and principles of working with Moodle and Elgg. Support for learning tools is ongoing and is provided both in-class and electronically.

Openness and reduced competition

Openness is an important part of collaborative learning [START_REF] Mcconnell | Implementing Computer Supportive Cooperative Learning[END_REF]) and believed to be desirable for reasons such as encouraging learners to: share ideas and accept new ones; be intellectually-open and accept the possibility of change; be frank in self or peer assessment and to build healthy relationships. This study, bounded by the concept of collaborative learning, was designed to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is available. Competition can often hinder willingness to share information and work as a team, and so it was important to reduce competitiveness among the students. The competitive assignments and individual projects were mainly replaced by group projects and selective assignments encouraging peer review and mutual help.

Assignments and assessment

To promote reflection and information sharing, a set of tasks was developed and offered to students throughout the course. Initial tasks took the form of "mini-assignments" and were intended to serve as icebreakers as well as provide students with an opportunity to introduce themselves to each other and to share their personal and professional interests. These tasks are considered to be essential for creating a sense of community during the early stages of group formation [START_REF] Mcconnell | E-Learning Groups and Communities[END_REF]. The rest of the assignments were mainly concerned with educational content. It was suggested to the students that they could share completed assignments and learning experiences with the rest of the community, by uploading content to a personal or a common-file area or to a weblog.

The distribution and the nature of the assignments changed as the module progressed. In the early stages, tasks consisted of small, individual assignments. Later activities were based on group work and more complex tasks. For the group work, students were given freedom to form/join the groups. The group assignments were intended to promote online collaboration, and it was requested that the progress of group work was posted on an Elgg shared community space.

To observe the natural uptake of the software, student's personal space, artifacts and online activities were not subject to summative assessment. The course leaders specified that although online-participation was optional, it was nevertheless highly desirable. Whenever required, facilitators provided feedback of a formative nature on any student work inprogress. Suggestions were made for improvements to solutions by means of public weblogs as well as the more conventional forums available within Moodle.

Methodology, data analysis and target group

The main analysis was based on observing student access and use of educational tools as well as on the anonymous recording of student experiences of using other social software in a non-educational context, such as MySpace and LiveJournal.

Membership: Number: -HND (1 group):

14 -BSC (2 groups): 30 -Tutors: 2 -Observer:

1 -Administrator:

1 Participants Total: 48 Table 1: Membership of groups participating in the study of the use of collaborative software. Notes: [START_REF] Castor | Their Grades Are Higher, but Are They Learning?: Examining the Impact of Cooperative Testing on Individual Learning[END_REF] Subjects were first-year undergraduates attending a module on web development technologies; [START_REF] Cole | Vygotsky and Context. Where did the Connection Come From and What Difference Does it Make?[END_REF] Reported results are based on observations made between 22 September and 22 December 2006. The adopted research methodology was based on the following data collection techniques: a) Preliminary questionnaire -to record student experiences of using social software outside the educational context, prior to the study. b) Third party web statistics tool -to record frequencies of accessing integrated educational software systems throughout the study period. c) Recording students' posts, comments, level of personal customization, friends network, use of RSS and tagging throughout the study period. d) Recording independent comments received from and critical issues raised by students throughout the study period. e) Use of a web-access statistical plug-in integrated with the content-centered system as additional evidence for triangulation with the adopted third party web access tool.

The data analysis included: a) Comparison of web-access statistics of content-centered system and social software. b) Comparison of student experiences of using social software outside the educational context with that observed throughout the course study period. c) Mapping individual comments received from students regarding integrated educational software with their patterns of using the systems.

VLE versus social software

Students' access to both the VLE and the social software was monitored and logged. Due to the lack of a logging mechanism in the Elgg system and for the purposes of ensuring consistency of logged data for both Moodle and Elgg systems, a third party service -Google Analytics -was chosen for monitoring the access to the web software. Google Analytics (2005) is a free service that tracks the number of visits, pageviews, and IP addresses, and analyzes them along with many other parameters.

During the three-month period of observation a total of 1,092 visits and 2,509 pageviews were recorded for the Moodle VLE. During this time Elgg received only 234 visits and 351 pageviews. The fact that the number of visits and pageviews for Moodle were 4.6 and 7.1 times greater respectively than for Elgg demonstrates much less activity for social software than for the more conventional VLE.

Graphs 1 and 2 provide timeline summaries for daily access to Moodle and Elgg platforms. Both graphs show that activity and presence on both Moodle and Elgg systems was greater before 6 th November than afterwards. An attempt was made to explain why the social educational software (represented by Elgg) was not accessed as frequently as the Moodle VLE and why students were using the system more actively in the first half of the course and not in the second half.

It is likely that the frequency of access was influenced by changes in the type of exercises given to students during the period of observation. During the first half of the course there were six relatively small assignments, whereas in the second half there were two much longer and more demanding assignments comprising a group project and work towards an assessment. Both the Elgg and Moodle systems were visited some 4.34 times more frequently during the period when shorter assignments and intensive facilitation were provided. During this initial period students were frequently notified about approaching due dates and a much greater level of individual feedback was provided.

Another interesting finding demonstrates the similarity between the pattern for accessing educational resources and submitting shorter assignments. While shorter assignment submission required access to Elgg only, the logging tool records that there was also a significant number of visits to educational resources on Moodle during this period. It shows that during the period of working on shorter assignments, students were accessing educational materials on Moodle more often than during the period of working on larger group projects.

According to Moodle logs, during the period of working on shorter assignments, the learning resources were accessed 3.8 times more frequently than during the group-work period.

Although a comparison of web-access patterns with curriculum-based educational activities such as the number and nature of the assignments was not included in the research objectives, the observed facts suggest further research into the impact of the distribution and types of assignments on the uptake of such software.

Comparison of learners' behavior with previous experience

At the beginning of the course a questionnaire was issued to determine the level of prior experience of social software and Web 2.0 technology. This was mainly to determine whether or not the group were generally familiar with the use of weblogs and social software, thereby gauging how prepared they were for using these technologies in a learning environment. The results of 32 valid questionnaires showed that while the majority of participants lacked specific experience of social software attributes such as RSS and tagging, many of them had general experience of working with social software. Only 16% of students were either unfamiliar with any social software or had not knowingly been exposed to these technologies. The most popular social software (56% of students) was MySpace followed by YouTube (31%). However, according to the questionnaire the number of weblog users was comparatively low. Only 50% of students had a registered weblog while 31% of students were not familiar with the notion of a weblog (see Table 2). Have ever used tagging 12 38 17 39 Table 2: Comparative summary of questionnaire data (prior experience of non-educational social software) against log data (activity in the Elgg environment of educational social software).

Previous Experience

The questionnaire revealed that most of the students do not usually use many of the attributes provided by social software such as tagging or RSS feeds. The majority of students (97%) were either unaware what a feed is or had never used it. Tagging, however, was used always or frequently by 19% of students and only 34% were unaware of what tagging was. Tagging was used at least once by 38% of students.

Results from the questionnaire also indicated the characteristics of their social networks. The students were mainly divided into two groups, one group having significantly large networks, the other having very small or no network at all. Of the sample, 56% had more than 15 friends listed in their social software, while a smaller group of 28% did not network with any friends. The questionnaire also revealed that 75% did not run communities, in contrast to 25% who established and ran mainly 1 or 2 communities.

The observation and analysis of data recorded on student engagement with educational social software showed that no one used the RSS syndication available in Elgg. Only 39% of students used keywords for tagging their posts, and only 9% of registered students started at least one community. However, in contrast to the low demand for RSS, 70% of participants customized the appearance of their social space and provided personal information on their profile.

Table 2 shows the similarities between percentages for prior experience of using social software and the use of similar features in Elgg. This suggests a correlation between prior experience of using social software and engagement with educational social software. The Chi-square test performed on the data presented in Table 2 does not reveal a significant distribution at the 0.05 level and therefore shows that similarity exists. With a degree of freedom 6, the Chi-square equals 6.60, which is less than the value 12.59 required for significant distribution at the abovementioned level. Given the limitations of the study, including the lack of functionality of social software, the small target group, and the anonymity of the questionnaire (which prevented comparison between previous and observed used of the social software), we suggest the results are used with caution.

Given the range of patterns and reported similarities of behavior with prior experience, it seems likely that an introductory lecture giving a basic overview of integrated technology might not be sufficient for optimal engagement with the software. A more intensive and longer period of formal support might be required to embed these technologies and the desired learning behavior associated with them into teaching practice.

Research restrictions

In contrast to Moodle, the Elgg social software has a shorter development history. As a result the specifications of the two technologies are not always easily comparable. The records of independent comments received from students revealed that most students were disappointed with the lack of e-mail notification functionality in Elgg. The version of Elgg used for this study does not send notification of important events such as the posting of public or community messages, adding participants as friends or when new members join the community. Students and tutors often favored Moodle forums because of the provision of automatic email alerts for spreading important information or requesting feedback. Additionally, Elgg has relatively limited functionality for managing users and monitoring their actions. It is therefore possible that the lesser popularity of the Elgg environment was affected by the limitations of its technical specification.

As recorded earlier, the number of students who participated in the research was relatively small, which does not allow for generalizations. Another limitation was that the anonymity of the questionnaire, which prevented a one-to-one comparison of previous and observed use of social software to triangulate the results.

Conclusions and future research

The results of these preliminary studies suggest that within the student group there are [START_REF] Castor | Their Grades Are Higher, but Are They Learning?: Examining the Impact of Cooperative Testing on Individual Learning[END_REF] great variations in the awareness of the capabilities of social software and in the use of features (tagging, RSS feeds etc.) both within and outside the educational context; [START_REF] Cole | Vygotsky and Context. Where did the Connection Come From and What Difference Does it Make?[END_REF] similarities in the ways in which learners engage with and utilize attributes of the social educational software.

Further research directions suggested by this study include that: [START_REF] Castor | Their Grades Are Higher, but Are They Learning?: Examining the Impact of Cooperative Testing on Individual Learning[END_REF] it is important to establish why the VLE software (Moodle) was found to be a more popular platform than the social software (Elgg). The level of prior experience with social software is one possible factor, suggesting a need for a fuller and formal induction for educational use. However, it may also be that students found the social software to be less functional than the conventional VLE, for example due to the absence of an email-alert mechanism; [START_REF] Cole | Vygotsky and Context. Where did the Connection Come From and What Difference Does it Make?[END_REF] given variations in engagement with VLE and social software, there is a requirement for a more detailed understanding of patterns of use of educational software, thereby ensuring the development of appropriate teaching practices for utilizing these technologies across all styles of engagement and learning.

Figure 1 .

 1 Figure 1. Timeline summary of student pageview and visit frequency for the Moodle platform.

Figure 2 .

 2 Figure 2. Timeline summary of student pageview and visit frequency for the Elgg platform.

  Elgg 2004). Elgg possesses much of the typical functionality of social software and provides access to Web 2.0 features such as weblogs, RSS, tagging, mashups, personalization and file-sharing mechanisms. It therefore satisfies many of the technical requirements for this research, namely promoting information sharing, open collaboration, reflection, feedback and a sense of community.

	These included the open-source
	software Elgg version 0.65, which allows "… users to establish personal digital-identities and
	connect with other people, collaborate with them and discover new resources through their
	connections" (

The Moodle version 1.6 open source Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) was also selected on the basis of a student-centric architecture, again, aligning with principles of social constructivism. Core VLE and other functional modules extensively used during preliminary studies included: features for managing and distributing course resources, messaging course members, course planning and administration. The use of the Moodle system was coupled with the Elgg social software through a module called ePortfolio. All core course content and many additional materials and resources were provided on both Elgg and Moodle.

September 26 -28, 2007 Villach, Austria 4[START_REF] Jacobs | Mobile learning, social learning[END_REF]


Alexander Zlotnik

Juan M Montero

DRAC (Distributed Remote ACess system) An On-line Open Source Project-based Learning Tool

Keywords: project-based learning, Remote and virtual laboratories, mashUp technologies, Cost-effectiveness, Pilot projects

Project Based Learning is an essential component in modern engineering education. However, it is difficult to implement in a virtual simulation-based approach, and the need of expensive or specialized equipment can make difficult to use this PBL approach in remote learning. In this paper, a web-based portal is presented; it allows remote access to the resources of several PBL laboratories on Electronics, with a significant emphasis on real-time digital and analog processing and multidisciplinary interactive applications. While other approaches to remote laboratories are not general or they are based on proprietary solutions, the design of the new environment has been focused on the use of free open-source tools. DRAC is being tested on a microprocessor-based laboratory course in the first semester of 2007, allowing students to use an integrated development environment from their homes.

Introduction

Project Based Learning is an essential component in modern engineering education [START_REF] Solomon | Project-Based Learning: a Primer[END_REF] [START_REF] Montero | A Project-Based Learning Approach to a Curricular Design on Electronics[END_REF]. However, it is difficult to implement in a virtual simulation-based approach, and the need of expensive and/or specialized equipment can make it difficult to use this PBL approach in remote on-line learning. Some of the advantages of remote laboratories [START_REF] Auer | Online Laboratory Standard Tools for Mobile Learning[END_REF] [START_REF] Anido | Internet-based Learning by Doing[END_REF] are:

An efficient use of the available resources (up to 24 hours a day, 365 days a year). It is a new flexible way of integrating practice in theoretical courses. It allows integration of students involved in international exchange programs. The main purpose of the system is to provide access to software or hardware resources [START_REF] Nieto-Taladriz | Antares: A synergy between University Education and Research, Development and Technology Innovation Groups[END_REF] for several students at the same time. The whole design of the system was dictated by the specific needs of several graduate and undergraduate subjects related to microcontroller programming and digital electronic design. A cost-effective mashup approach was followed: several open source technologies, not designed for interoperability, are combined in a single system using the best of their individual features. The main implementation problem was the classical one in this kind of system: glue logic. DRAC mechanism can be summed up in the following way: one or several users connect to a server (DRAC main server or DRAC MS), which provides them a temporary and restricted connection to sub-servers (DRAC SS) or other network-accessible resources (such as RFID readers with a web interface). The only requirements for the end-users are a modern Javaenabled web browser, a VPN client and a 128Kbps (or better) Internet connection.

DRAC from a user's perspective

Features

Users can be organized in teams: Several members of the same team can share files and they access the same client computer at the same time, enabling efficient collaboration. Usage scheduler: An automated scheduler supervises how much time each team has been accessing a specific resource and disconnects every team member if a specific usage limit has been reached. This supervision strategy guarantees fair access to limited resources. Connection manager: Connection data is stored, if a user closes his browser for some reason, and logs in afterwards, DRAC reconnects him to the host and resources he was using. A simple web-based file manager: The provided file manager enables the users to create/edit/upload/delete files and create/delete directories. All user files are stored on the server: therefore they are accessible both through the web interface and on the remote session on the client computer. Hence, if files are uploaded through the web interface, they become accessible on the client computer. In addition to this, user's work is always saved, a critical feature since a user might get disconnected by the scheduler if the user's session times out.

User interface

The user interface is designed with intiutiviness and easy-of-use in mind. After promting for a password, the following interface is shown to the user: The "My work files" button shows the abovementioned web-based file manager. The "Reserve session" button allows reserving a resource in advance.

The "Connect now" button enables a user to connect to a resource which is not occupied. It might occur that a DRAC SS is marked as free but it is actually turned off (it might be reasonable to power off DRAC SS periodically, if the frequency of use is not high). If this happens, the DRAC MS will try to turn it on remotely when a connection to it is requested.

In Figure 1, there are several DRAC SS, although only the first one is available. Finally, the user is connected to the DRAC SS itself through a web interface: It is important to note that the files accessible through the web interface (with the "My work files" button) are also directly available in the DRAC SS itself through a "network drive".

A simultaneous connection with a nearby web-enabled camera is also possible: DRAC follows a simple n-tier approach: there is one DRAC MS and several DRAC SSs.

Before connecting to the DRAC MS, the user must use his individual private key on a VPN server (main interface to the department's network from the outside). OpenVPN is an open source VPN client which can be used for this purpose. This structure is imposed by security purposes: the VPN server is constantly monitored and regularly updated; it also stores a log of every user connection. Therefore, security requirements for the DRAC MS can be relaxed.

The DRAC MS displays a web interface, where the user must provide the username and a password associated to his team (note that the username and password provided in this second authentication stage are associated to a group; however, private VPN keys are individual). Afterwards the DRAC MS builds a NAT connection to the DRAC SS requested by the user. It is also possible to create a simultaneous connection to a DRAC SS (which can be controlled through a web interface) and a web-enabled resource connected to the private network, such as a camera with a web interface. The connection to all the aforementioned is resources is managed using iptables software package. Should more users from the same workgroup connect to the DRAC MS, it will create NAT routes to the same resource(s) that the first user of the group requested since concurrent connections to this system are possible.

6(6)

Conclusions and future work

A web-based portal has been implemented. The system allows remote access to the hardware and software resources of several PBL laboratories on electronics, with a great emphasis on multidisciplinary interactive applications. It has been tested on a microprocessor-based laboratory course in the first semester of 2007, allowing the students to use the microprocessor platform and the integrated development environment from their homes.

Several improvements are possible, mainly those related to real numerical scalability and a better fault tolerance. In both, cases a reasonable solution seems to be that of using redundant DRAC MSs and SSs. This strategy would also introduce several non-trivial challenges and it will likely require severe changes in the software architecture.

Figure 1

 1 Figure 1

Figure 2 DRAC

 2 Figure 2

Figure 3 4

 3 Figure 3

Acknowledgment

We want to thank all the members of the GRIDS group and Dpto. de Ingeniería Electrónica at ETSIT-UPM for their continuous effort on higher education innovation; especial thanks to Ruben San-Segundo and Javier Macías-Guarasa. This work has been partially financed by a UPM innovation project: "Desarrollo de una plataforma para la docencia semipresencial en asignaturas masivas de carácter práctico basadas en proyectos (Project Based Learning)".

Software architecture and hardware requirements

DRAC SS

DRAC SS can be any kind of operating system with VNC support. We chose VNC for its multiplatform and web interface capabilities. There are several VNC servers for many operating systems with slightly different features, but most of them have the possibility to access this server using a Java applet in a web browser.

In our particular case, a Windows client was a requirement, since the EDColdFire software package -essential for our needs -was designed for this operating system. Therefore, we chose the best VNC version for this OS -UltraVNC.

Since Windows was a must-be, we also decided to make use of the Microsoft Windows Server Domain system. We were particularly interested in a very important feature -make user group's directories available on the DRAC SSs through a network-based drive in Windows Explorer. This is relatively easy to achieve if the DRAC SS is associated to a Windows Domain Server, which can be emulated with a Linux server with the Samba package installed.

DRAC MS

Surprisingly, hardware requirements for the DRAC MS are very modest -our prototype is running on a PII 333 with 128 MB of RAM, and it could easily support up to 10 concurrent connections.

DRAC MS' operating system is Linux Fedora Core 4. The relevant software packages installed on it are: Apache web server with PHP 5 scripting support module. MySQL database. iptables packet filtering ruleset program. Samba SMB/CIFS networking protocol module.

The web interface was built entirely in PHP using the MySQL backend to authenticate users and manage their session information. Iptables NAT route creation is handled entirely using PHP scripts. A cron daemon periodically executes a PHP script to check for overtime in user sessions, and closes them (deletes the NAT route and resets the target DRAC SS).

The DRAC MS is also a Samba Domain server, which enables Windows-based DRAC SSs to use their files on the target DRAC SS. In is important to point out that Samba is a reverse engineered implementation of the SMB/CIFS protocol, therefore it lacks some features available with real Windows Domain servers, in our case, however, their implementation was sufficient. If this feature was required for UNIX / Linux DRAC SSs, it could be easily added activating and configuring the NFS service on the DRAC MS.

Finally, the DRAC MS can send Wake-on-LAN packets to DRAC SSs in order to turn them on. This, obviously, requires a WOL-compatible card on the target DRAC SS.

Author(s):


Michal Klaučo

Bohuslava Gregorová

Ugljesa Stankov

Vladimir Markovic

Polina Lemenkova

Lemenkova

Landscape metrics as indicator for ecological significance: assessment of Sitno Natura 2000 sites, Slovakia

de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

The area of Sitno was protected in 1951, in order to conserve significant natural landmarks of Štiavnica Mountain. The study area has very few affected or disturbed natural environment, which provides suitable living conditions for some types of rare species of nature. The study area is protected under national (Slovak) and European conservancy system. The study area is almost 260 meters elevation (750 to 1009 m), and falls to four forests vegetation zones. The most widespread vegetation zones in that area are oak-beech and oak forest type nitrophilous beech. Forest age ranges from 60 to 160 years. Southern part of the study area is represented by natural forests. Its varied species composition of the forest is a unique ecosystem across the Carpathians. Economic activity is strictly limited in this area due to the degree of high protection. In the past, beech wood from the surrounding forests were used for production of wooden charcoal (Cvachová, 1991). According to [START_REF] Farbiak | Fauna[END_REF] extensive forest complexes are refuge for many species of animals. In invertebrates, there are a considerable number of species represented by molluscs, butterflies and beetles. The study area is a large presence of roe deer and red deer. Also here occur thermophilic species and mountain species. All these facts make study area of Sitno, Slovakia ecologically significant. The tourism has impact on the landscapes by changes in land cover types, which is detected within the study area. Contemporary landscape changes are generated principally by human activity, directed at usage of landscapes [START_REF] Turner | The Earth as transformed by human action: Global and regional changes in the biosphere over the past 300 years[END_REF][START_REF] Ojima | The global impact of land use change[END_REF][START_REF] Walker | The terrestrial biosphere and global change: Implication for natural and managed ecosystems[END_REF]Cassman et al., 2005). Urbanization, industrialization and intensive agriculture result in landscape changes, losses of ecological capacity, diversity and scenic beauty, as well as damage of cultural heritage (Bastian et al. , 2006).

This paper analyses landscape components (habitats), where human impacts are detected due to the intensive tourism. The landscape elements can be defined by attributes of the Earth's surface as well as by ecological significance of each one land's surface elements. Landscape represents biophysical unit -an aspect of landscape which is determined by its natural components: geological and geomorphologic structure, soil, water, climate, flora and vegetation, fauna (Bastian et al., 2006). In contrast to the biophysical unit, the term landscape describes elements that are determined by natural conditions as well as human impacts. The main purpose of this study is therefore to measure and interpret landscape's habitats of the study area.

Methodological framework of ecological signification is based on quantifying habitats and their patches. According to [START_REF] Mcgarigal | FRAGSTATS, spatial pattern analysis program for quantifying landscape structure[END_REF], each landscape element can be measured by landscape metrics, e.g. size, density, shape, edge, diversity. The outputs values from landscape metrics directly indicate the quality of the on-going ecological processes at different levels. The result of the quantification process is interpreted by the degree of ecological significance of the landscape elements. The basis of the methodological framework is measurement of landscape elements according to principles of landscape metrics. Most of the landscape metrics are based on the mathematical-statistical approach that measures area, perimeter, length and shape. Many researchers have defined wide scale of landscape metrics [START_REF] Pielou | Ecological Diversity[END_REF][START_REF] Forman | Patches and structural components for a landscape ecology[END_REF][START_REF] Mcgarigal | FRAGSTATS, spatial pattern analysis program for quantifying landscape structure[END_REF]. Numerous metrics were developed to measure and describe composition and configuration of the land cover features. Landscape metrics became common tools in landscape pattern monitoring, assessment and planning since 1990s [START_REF] Lausch | Applicability of landscape metrics for themonitoring of landscape change: issues of scale, resolution and interpretability[END_REF]. For this study the most frequently used metrics was selected: identification of spatial composition and landscape configuration as Number of patches (NP), Patch's density (PD), Mean patch size (MPS), Patch's size standard deviation (PSSD) and Mean shape index (MSI). These metrics were selected since they have potential effects on the on-going ecological processes within landscape ecosystem [START_REF] Forman | Land Mosaics: The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions[END_REF], and used as predictor variables in the statistical analysis to examine the significance of habitat's patch and of the whole landscape.

On the base of the measured variables each habitat's patches were interpreted towards a quality of the on-going ecological processes. The output of the interpretation is determined by the level of ecological significance in the following levels [START_REF] Hrnčiarová | Ecological carrying capacity of landscape -methodology and application to three benefit territories part I. -IV. Environmental Project of the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic[END_REF]: 1) Very significant land cover patches 2) Significant land cover patches 3) Moderately significant land cover patches 4) Almost insignificant land cover patches 5) Insignificant land cover patches. With the increase of the level of ecological significance, the quality of landscape ecological processes in the landscape increases as well. According to [START_REF] Klaučo | Ecological significance of land-cover based on interpretation of human-tourism impact. A case from two different protected areas[END_REF] the first step of the interpretative process was to assign level of the ecological significance (SA) for every habitat. The next step modifies the assigned degrees by the percentage proportion (P%) of habitat s metrics to the total number of the metric ́s value. Percentage proportion modified starting value of the ecological significance (SA) by the following scale: 0 -20 % = SA same value; 21 -40 % = SA, one level up; 41 -60 % = SA, two levels up; 61 -80 % = SA, three levels up; 81 -100 % = SA, four levels up. The result value of the modification factor is partial ecological significance (SB). The value SC represents match average of values SB. It is the final ecological significance for habitats.

Landscape of the study area is diversified into three base categories (Table 1): 1. Artificial surfaces, where abstracted human impact, then 2. Agricultural area, without any part of arable land, and the last one is 3. Forests and semi-natural areas. Mentioned categories are divided into another 19 sub-categories. The number of categories is defined in accordance with used referenced scale and with the methodological concept of habitat classification. The study area is represented (91,81 % of Total Area) mostly by Forests and semi-natural areas. The number of patches (NP) in the study area reaches 105. Patch density (PD) shows distribution and concentration of patches in the landscape, with values 11,22 patches per 1000 ha. It is very small value, which indicates large and compact patches. Based on values from Table 1: A) Number of categories and sub-categories, B) Number of patches, C) Patch density and D) Class area (CA) and Total Area, one can state that study area is not fragmented in a wide range, but notably, however. From the Number of patches and their area we can assess Mean patch size (MPS). The output values of the MPS (Table 1) is based on the fact that Artificial surfaces has very small mean size (2,21 ha) within mutual relationship with NP and CA / TA occupy total landscape in partial form. On the other side, the category of Forest and semi-natural areas occupies wide range of the landscape and is diversified into big sum of NP and MPS. The final degree of the ecological significance is assessed by the mathematical average using partial ecological significance. The study area has final ecological significance (SC) at degree 3, but this value is needed to be diversified to the main class categories of habitats which are represented in the study area. "Artificial surfaces" occupy only 1,49 % of the total area and have final ecological significance at degree 5. "Agricultural areas" occupy 5,69 % and have value of SC at degree 2. Finally, the last class is represented by "Forests and semi-natural areas", which occupy 92,81 % and have degree 2 as well. The mentioned values represent background data for the diversification of the study area on zones with special regime of nature and landscape conservation within each zone accordingly. Diversifying study area on zones Natura 2000 sites are designed according to the ecological and biogeographical criteria, in order to meet specific conservation objectives that are to be achieved by the appropriate conservation measures. Sitno Natura 2000 Site represents type of the protected area, where human impacts are detected, though not in a wide range. The final ecological significance of the study area is in the same range as at the initial level. One may conclude that human impact is not destructing natural processes, naturalness and natural functioning (self-regulatory processes) within the habitats. The spatial division of the study area is classified according to the final ecological significance and partial ecological interpretation of the landscape metrics. Every part of the study area represents zone with different regime of conservation. Three different types of zones are described and defined as parts of the holistic nature of the protected area, diverse in natural values, originality, ecosystem extent, human actions and human land use types (Figure 2). First, "zone A" represents the "silent" zone, i.e. the most stringent level of protection, "zone B" is an area under limited using, and finally, "zone C" is an area suitable for human sustainable development.

The main result of this work consists in determined ecological significant areas of habitats that are under protection s system of Natura 2000 Sites. The patches quantification of habitats is the partial result that influences process of determination of ecological significance. The interpretative process examines land cover patches by the set of landscape metrics for the area, size, density and shape (NP, PD, MPS, PSSD and MSI). The ecological significance of landscape elements represents numerical values (degrees), which interpret quality of the on-going ecological process in landscape. According to the degrees of the ecological significance the protected area was zoned (Figure 2). This map divides study area into three (3) different zones with separately regime for nature conservation and landscape usage: Zone A, Zone B and Zone C. This division is based on the objective and ecological approach that respects human sustainable development. This research contributes to the methodological development of the ecological landscapes protection using landscape metrics and spatial analysis. 2. Cassman, K., Wood, S., Choo, P. S., Dixon, J., Gaskell, J., Khan, S., Lal, R., Pretty, J., Primavera, J., Ramankutty, N., Viglizzo, E., Kadungure, S., Kanbar, N., Porter, S. & Tharme, R. (2005). Cultivated systems. In: R. Scholes & H. Rashid (Eds.), Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Working group on conditions and trends. Washington D. C.: Island Press.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Study area: Sitno Park within Slovakia.

Figure 2 .

 2 Figure 2. Zone map of ecological significance of Sitno Natura 2000 area, Slovakia

  ., Krönert, R., & Lipský, Z. (2006). Landscape diagnosis on different space and time scales -a challenge for landscape planning. Landscape Ecology, 21 (3), 359-374.

Table 1 .

 1 Quantification of habitats by landscape metrics

	LCC 1.1.2.	X(1.1.2) 4	3,81 0,43 3,81 0,47 0,53 0,29 0,27 1,34 3,37
	1.2.2.	X(1.2.2) 7	6,67 0,75 6,67 1,73 1,96 1,80 1,70 8,86 22,25
	Agricultural areas	X	33 31,43 3,53 31,43 9,05 10,27 5,16 4,87 11,71 29,45
		65,10	15 14,29 1,60 14,29 2,05 2,33 1,89 1,79 1,70 4,27
		X(2.3.1) 1	0,95 0,11 0,95 0,34 0,39 0,00 0,00 2,15 5,40
		6410	5	4,76 0,53 4,76 0,51 0,58 0,45 0,42 1,40 3,51
		6110*	3	2,86 0,32 2,86 0,51 0,58 0,31 0,29 1,46 3,68
		6210	4	3,81 0,43 3,81 0,69 0,78 0,67 0,63 1,41 3,55
		6240*	4	3,81 0,43 3,81 3,47 3,94 1,84 1,74 1,96 4,93
		6230*	1	0,95 0,11 0,95 1,48 1,67 0,00 0,00 1,63 4,11
	Forests & semi-natural areas X	61 58,08 6,52 58,11 76,85 87,22 98,48 93,15 17,88 44,91
	3.1.1	X(3.1.1) 2	1,90 0,21 1,91 1,22 1,38 0,91 0,86 1,77 4,44
		91G0*	18 17,14 1,92 17,15 12,85 14,58 30,96 29,28 1,88 4,72
		91H0*	5	4,76 0,53 4,76 2,13 2,42 2,67 2,53 1,33 3,33
		91M0	4	3,81 0,43 3,81 5,64 6,40 3,24 3,07 1,61 4,06
		9180*	7	6,67 0,75 6,67 13,21 15,00 21,15 20,01 1,78 4,47
	3.1.3	9130	14 13,33 1,50 13,34 35,17 39,92 37,07 35,06 1,90 4,77
	3.2.4	40A0*	4	3,81 0,43 3,81 1,42 1,61 0,52 0,49 1,58 3,96
		X(3.2.4) 5	4,76 0,53 4,76 1,37 1,55 1,96 1,86 1,91 4,81
	3.3.2	8150	1	0,95 0,11 0,95 0,29 0,33 0,00 0,00 1,60 4,03
		8220	1	0,95 0,11 0,95 3,55 4,03 0,00 0,00 2,52 6,32
	Total landscape value		105,00100,0011,22100,00 88,11 100,00 105,72 100,00 39,80 100,00

Code Annex Code NP1 NP2 PD1 PD2 MPS1 MPS2 PSSD1PSSD2 MSI1 MSI2 Artificial surfaces X 11 10,48 1,18 10,48 2,21 2,49 2,09 1,97 10,2 25,62


Lemenkova Polina
email: pauline.lemenkova@gmail.com

Risks of cryogenic landslide hazards and their impact on ecosystems in cold environments

Research area:

The research area is geographically located on the Bovanenkovo region, the north-western part of Yamal Peninsula, West Siberia, Russia. Yamal Peninsula is a flat homogeneous lowland region with low-lying plains of heights lower than 90m. Such geographic settings create specific local environmental conditions in the region. Thus, Yamal is the worlds largest high-latitude wetland system covering in total 900,000 km² of peatlands, complex system of wetlands, dense lake and river network. Typical for this region are seasonal flooding, active erosion processing, permafrost distribution and intensive local landslides. Dominating vegetation types are typical tundra species: heath, grasses, moss, and lichens), and woody plants (shrubs and willows. the main environmental problems of this region are climate change and active landsliding, which affect on the landscapes and cause changes in vegetation coverage, i.e. land cover types.

Research problem:

The specific environmental problem of Yamal region is cryogenic landslides. The processes of superficial cryogenic landslides are especially active in tundra. Distribution of the permafrost, which serves as a shear surface for sliding, highly contributes to the landslide formation in this area. Cryogenic landslides developed on the fine-grained, saline marine sediments are common destructive disastrous geomorphological hazards on the Yamal Peninsula covering ca 70% of the area).

Abstract: The research focuses on monitoring landscapes downgrading in specific conditions of Arctic ecosystems with cold climate conditions (marshes, permafrost, high humidity and moisture). A specific case study of the current work is cryogenic landslides which are typical for cold environments with permafrost distribution. The research region is located in Yamal Peninsula, north Russia. This work analyses environmental consequences caused by the cryogenic landslides in northern landscapes and overall climate changes affecting sensitive Arctic ecosystems. The thaw of permafrost layer leads to the destruction of the ground soil layer and activates cryogenic landslide processes. After disaster, vegetation coverage needs a long time to recover, due to the sensitivity of the specific northern environment. As a result, land cover types change significantly within the landscapes of the regions affected by the disaster. The application of GIS software was used to analyze and process two satellite images (Landsat TM) taken at different time (1988 and 2011) in order to assess spatiotemporal changes in the land cover types of the Arctic landscapes. This work demonstrates how GIS spatial analysis can be applied to studies of the environmental disasters, as well as monitoring and mapping changes in the landscapes patterns caused by the external factors such as landslide hazards..

Methods:

The research main method consists in Landsat TM image classification, spatial analysis and thematic mapping, technically performed in ILIWIS GIS software. The choice of Landsat scenes for land cover mapping is explained by their well-known advantages of application in geosciences and cartography, almost 40 year old history of the image record, and free availability. The Landsat scenes are a series of imagery received from the Earth-observing satellites jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (NASA, 2011), which provide free of charge and regular updates of satellite imagery with 30-m resolution. In the current work we used orthorectified Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data files in Geographic Tagged Image-File Format (GeoTIFF) acquired over the area of Bovanenkovo region, Yamal Peninsula. The images have a time span of 23 years: 1988 and 2011, taken in growing season, i.e. summer to early autumn, with clearly visible vegetation coverage.

Land Cover Types:

The defined classes include following landscapes types: shrub tundra, willows, tall willows, short shrub tundra, sparse short shrub tundra, dry grass heath, sedge grass tundra, dry short shrub tundra, dry short shrub sedge tundra, wet peatland, peatland (sphagnum). The pixels were associated with land cover classes using their digital numbers, similar to key samples. Conclusions. Analysis of the results shows noticeable overall increase of woody vegetation (willows and shrubs) which are not typical for local environment, and decrease of peatlands, grass and heath areas. This illustrates both environmental and climatic factors affecting landscapes. Environmental factors include active cryogenic landsliding, typical for this area. Climatic factor includes increase of annual average temperatures, which leads to permafrost thawing and process of greening in Arctic, i.e. the unnatural increase of woody plants.

Results:

Gradual changes in plant species patterns and distribution affect landscape structure in Yamal. Triggering factors for these processes include complex climatic-environmental changes in Arctic and local cryogenic processes (e.g. successive change in vegetation recovering after cryogenic landslides).

Landslide types

The Yamal peninsula occupies low plain. The relief of the region is almost completely flat with dense river network. This leads to the seasonal river flooding and active erosion processing that intensify local landslides formation.

The adjusting shelf area of Kara Sea is also shallow: almost 40% of the continental shelf is no deeper than 50 meters, and the sea coasts are mostly flat, flooded during the high tide. Located in the area of permafrost distribution, the soils in the region are frozen for the most of the year, with the depth of the frozen soil reaching up to 0.2 m in the north and 2 m in the south. The ecosystems of the region are adapted towards specific Arctic environment.

Geographic specifics:

Cryogenic Landslides

  3958.40 ha against 2765.41 ha in 2011 by 'wet peatlands', and 625.71 ha in 1988 versus 488.69 ha by 'peatland (sphagnum)' class (Tab.1).

  Classification results. Left: 1988 (initial situation). Right: 2011 (current situation) The research workflow. 1. Data capture and converting import of .img file into ASCII raster format (GDAL). After converting, each image contained collection of 7 Landsat raster bands. 2. Pre-processing: Enhancement of visual color and contrast. Geographic referencing of Landsat scenes included setting of UTM projection (Universal Transverse Mercator), Eastern Zone 42, Northern Zone W, WGS 1984 datum (Georeference Corner Editor). 3.Creating Area Of Interest (AOI). The area of interest (AOI) was identified and cropped on the raw images This area shows Bovanenkovo region in a large scale which best represents typical tundra landscapes. 4.Supervised Classification. The images were classified by Minimal Distance method. This method is based on the spatial analysis of spectral signatures of object variables, i.e. vegetation types at various landscapes. The classes sampling was performed using Sample Set tool in ILWIS GIS. Training pixels for each land cover type were selected as representative samples and stored as classification key. They have contrasting colors, visually visible and distinguishable on the image. IRLA2014 International Symposium. The Effects of Irrigation and Drainage on Rural and Urban Landscapes. | 26-28 November 2014 Patras, Greece

  Negative effects of landslides. Cryogenic landslides have origin in thawing of underground permafrost layer, which destructs upper soil layer and vegetation coverage. The development of permafrost results in scarce vegetation coverage. Several years after landslide formation the vegetation coverage changes gradually, dominated by grass, moss, lichen and shrub, then by sedge and finally by willow meadows. As a result, landslide-affected areas of bare slopes are usually occupied by willow shrubs, which can serve as an indirec indicator for former landslide processes in this area. Moreover, different stages of the vegetation coverage provide information about the age of the landslides: early-stage vegetation (primitive mosses or lichen) indicate recent landslide formation while meadow and willow shrubs with high canopy points to the final stage of the landslide activities. Besides type and age of vegetation coverage, the salinity of ground waters as well as sediment chemical content indicates the relative age of the landslides.

Table 1 . Land cover classes as detected on the images of 1988 and 2011.

 1

	Land Cover Class Nr. of pixels, 1988	Nr. of pixels, 2011	Area, ha , 1988	Area, ha , 2011
	Shrub tundra	220447	168226	1146,3	874,7
	Short shrub tundra	165079	270158	858,4	1404,8
	Willows	192645	457004	1006,9	2376,4
	Tall willows	103954	71952	540,5	374,1
	Sparse short shrub tundra	176511	759380	917,8	3948,7
	Dry grass heath	641420	231719	3335,3	1204,9
	Sedge grass	27545	57052	143,2	296,6
	tundra
	Dry short shrub tundra	8984	16993	46,7	88,3
	Wet peatland	761231	531809	3958,4	2765,4
	Peatland (sphagnum)	120328	93979	625,7	488,6
	Dry short shrub-sedge tundra	173693	92242	903,2	479,6

Current work has been supported by the Finnish Center for International Mobility (CIMO) for research stay of Polina Lemenkova at University of Lapland, Arctic Center (Contract No. TM-10-7124)


Polina
email: pauline.lemenkova@gmail.com

Polina Lemenkova. Detection of Vegetation Coverage in Urban Agglomeration of Brussels by NDVI Indicator Using eCognition Software and Remote Sensing Measurements

published or not. The documents may come

Detection of Vegetation Coverage in Urban Agglomeration of Brussels by NDVI Indicator Using eCognition Software and Remote Sensing Measurements

Introduction

The study area encompasses selected regions of the Brussels municipality, Belgium. In the past years the city of Brussels is experiencing intensification of the density of building structures. Unlike in some other European cities, where the most evident problem is urbanization and expansion of the city margins to the suburbia, the urban structure Brussels is the intensification of the buildings density in the city centre and the existing dwelling districts. Thus, the city structure tends to become more intense and dense, due to the process of filling the empty spaces in the urban patterns and high level housing. Another example of urban processes in Brussels is reorganisation of the industrial areas. At the same time, monitoring vegetation areas is essential for environmental sustainability of the capital city. The lack of the green spaces may cause ecological instability and increase atmospheric pollution. For studies of the specific problems of the Brussels city the remote sensing data (raster image) was used together with NDVI function, in order to detect areas covered by city parks.

Abstract:

The study focuses on the semi-automatic detection of the vegetation on the satellite panchromatic image covering area of Brussels, Belgium. Using functions of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and spectral reflectane parameters of the image, the vegetation was identified on the satellite scene. The research question was to assess, how NDVI measurements can be used for urban studies using remote sensing data. The aim is to distinguish and separate on the map built-up areas from the green spaces (parks, gardens, etc) within the urban landscape.

Methods and Results

Step I. The panchromatic image was loaded into project and processed.

Step II. The image was segmented using the principle of Multiresolution Segmentation. This operation consists in the splitting of an image into segments in order to simplify complexity of the whole initial image. It is performed by the machine embedded logic based on mathematic algorithms and simplifying models. The general rule divides the area into regions according to the principle "neighbour pixels have similar parameters" (spectral reflectance value, texture, form, shape). Research objective -to evaluate, how to efficiently use object oriented image analysis approach for mapping land cover types from the raster images. Detecting vegetation and built-up areas using remote sensing data enables to assess the percentage of the coverage of the city by the newly created building. The vegetation areas were masked, to focus on the settlement growth. This method is based on the use of remote sensing and cadastral data, processed by model-based sub-pixel supervised classification and non-parametric machine learning method. The main software is eCognition focused on object oriented multi-resolution processing of raster images. T h e eCognition is the first object oriented image analysis commercial software on the geospatial market. It provides an appropriate link between remote sensing imagery and GIS. The eCognition processes images according to the principle that information contained in the image is not represented by the single pixels but by objects and their topology. Accordingly, using segmentation algorithm and extraction of image object primitives (e.g. parks, gardens, buildings), it classifies the whole segments of the homogeneous image, which are recognized as objects rather than pixels. Conclusions The urban landscapes have complex environmental and socio-economic function and serve as habitat and agricultural surface in the surroundings. Land cover studies supported by satellite image contribute to the development of urban management system. Using objectoriented approach together with GIS techniques applied to remote sensing data enables to perform geospatial analysis with focus on urban landscapes.

Cryogenic Landslides

Step III. All vegetation coverage has been detected and separated from other objects (impervious structures) using natural characteristics of the vegetation spectral reflectance. For this, first the arithmetic expression for Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was created in eCognition operators using formula for spectral reflectance in visible (VIS) and near infrared (NIR) bands. This enables to detect pixels of vegetation: NDVI=(NIR-VIS)/(NIR+VIS). After this operation was created, it was added to the conditions of objects processing.

Step IV. After this, the operation of extraction of vegetation was performed. The logical condition for vegetation detection is that we assign all objects which have values of NDVI more than 0.3 to vegetation. This is based on the properties of vegetation: dense tree canopy usually have positive values of NDVI (0.3 to 0.8). On the contrary, other objects, which do not belong to vegetation, have low NDVI values. For example, water bodies have low reflectance in both spectral bands (band 3 and band 4). Therefore, they have very low positive and sometimes slightly negative NDVI values (depending on local hydro-chemical conditions, depth, etc). Bare soils usually also have small positive NDVI values (0.1 to 0.2), since their spectral reflectance in near-infrared bands is larger than in red ones. So, using this knowledge, the NDVI formula was applied, and green areas within the city of Brussels were distinguished. The objects with NDVI values more than 0.3 were assigned to the "vegetation" class.

  The research is supported by the raster imageand the eCognition software for image analysis. The results show detected vegetation areas in eastern part of Brussels. The research demonstrated methodological applicability of eCognition software for GIS-based urban mapping and ecological assessment (areas and sizes of vegetation coverage). Тезисы (абстракт): Цель исследования -мониторинг растительного покрова г. Брюссель (Бельгия) с использованием спутникового панхроматического растрового снимка выского разрешения и программыeCognition для распознавания растровых изображений. Используя функцию NDVI (Нормализированный вегетационный индекс) и свойства спектральных характеристик пикселов на снимке, растительный покров (напр., парковые зоны, сады и зеленые участки) был идентифицирован на снимке. Конкретная цель исследования -установить, можно ли использовать измерения NDVI для задач градостроения и урбанистики с использованием программы eCognition. Результаты работы показали возможность различения разных типов земного покрова от застроенных кварталов (т.н. "спальные" районы) и зеленых зон (городские парки, сады, и т.д.) в пределах городского ландшафта. Результаты показывают позитивный опыт применения eCognition для картографирования городских территорий на примере восточной части Брюсселя. Также, исследование продемонстрировало методологическую применимость и совместимость технических функций eCognition для пространственного ГИС-анализа, тематического картографирования и природоохранного мониторинга городских районов. Data The research data include vector and raster types of data. Raster data consists o f VHR Pléiades satellite imagery covering Brussels city. The image IMG_PHR1A_P has been provided by the Astrium, EADS company, projected in UTM (Universe Transverse Mercator projection system), 31°N, WGS84 reference ellipsoid. Vector data include ground topographic map in shp format (ArcGIS), a part of the municipal project of Brussels URBIS.

3rd

  International Conference on GIS & Remote Sensing, 17-19 November, 2014 | Armenia, Tsaghkadzor.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig.1. Creation of NDVI conditions, eCognition


Lemenkova Polina
email: pauline.lemenkova@gmail.com

Bringing Geospatial Analysis to the Social Studies: an Assessment of the City Sprawl in China

Research problem: In the past decades, the process of urbanization has become more notable in the East Asia. Since past decades, Taipei city undergone serious urban changes.The development of urban landscapes in Taipei has unique feature; Taiwan's exceptional economic and industrial growth since 1980s, which is often referred as "industrial wonder of Taiwan". Recently, the country quickly transformed from an agriculture-based traditional economy into a highly industrialized society. As a result, Taiwan has now a new face of hightechnology oriented, economically restructured economy. This caused changes in the face of the country, modifying both its social and natural landscape patterns. Taiwan is nowadays a highly urbanized country with almost 80% of the total population of Taiwan living in urban areas. Intensive urbanization necessarily create new conditions for human-nature coexistence, since rapidly growing city and high urbanization rate affect biodiversity and ecosystems sustainability. The process of urbanization includes transformation of natural landscapes: typical natural land cover type are being transformed into human-affected artificial surfaces and the city area enlarges. Anthropogenic pressure increased rapidly due to the expansion of Taipei metropolitan area. Rapid urbanization affects complex interrelations of natural and urban ecosystems, changes their structure, size and shape, which becames a serious environmental problem. At the same time, Taiwan has unique natural landscapes with high environmental value, outstanding natural beauty, rare and extinct species. In vies of this, environmental monitoring should be considered for effective city management and nature conservation on the island.

Methods:

Workflow includes following steps: 1) Preliminary processing 2) Creation color composites 3) Classification using K-means algorithm 4) Mapping using classification results 5) Accuracy assessment. The preliminary data processing includes image contrast stretching, which is useful as by default, ENVI displays images with a 2% linear contrast stretch. For better contrast the histogram equalization contrast stretch was applied to the image in order to enhance the visual quality.

Land Cover Types:

Yeh and Huang (2009) developed classification of the land cover types in the city. Their studies were adopted and adjusted to the current studies suggesting following types : 1) Forests; 2) Urban areas -2 (roads); 3) Grasslands; 4) Open fields (little or no vegetation); 5) Water areas; 6) Urban vegetation -1 (bushes); 7) Cultivated lands 8) Agricultural facilities; 9) Urban vegetation -2 (parks andsquares); 10) Urban areas -2 (built-up surfaces). To resume a resulting table, following conclusion can be drawn.

and 1990 Landsat TM scenes classification (fragment). Random color visualization

Combining classes

Comparing regions I, II and III, the conclusion is the following: Region I has changes in the land cover types since 1990s. It has much more changes comparing to the core, old city area (region II) Region II (the core city) is the most stable region. It has the least changes, because this area has been already industrialized for a long time. Region III, has undergone notable changes. This is caused by the intensive relocation of the population to the Taipei area after 1980s. This is regions is dynamically developing within the Taipei since 1990s.

Creating Region Of Interest (ROI) Subset Data via ROI Regional division of Taipei city

		1990, %	2005, %
	Region I: "urban areas"	17,1	21,9
	Region I: "urban vegetation"	5,7	4,1
	Region I: "forests" 19,8	18,6
	Region I: "grasslands"	21,4	18,3
	Region II: "urban areas"	79,3	83,2
	Region II: "urban vegetation"	4,3	5,2
	Region II: "forests"	32,7	31,8
	Region II: "grasslands"	15,9	14,7
	Region III: "urban areas"	24,3	38,2
	Region III: "urban vegetation"	3,7	4,3
	Region III: "forests"	42,4	41,8
	Region III: "grasslands"	13,8	12,1

Region I Region II Region III Change detection statistics: process 1). Change detection statistics (selection the tool from the menu )2). Setting options of process 3). Choice of 'Initial Stage' image 4). Choice of 'Final Stage' image 5). Defining equivalent classes 6). Defining pixel size for area statistics 7) Statistics output

Current work has been supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Education Short Term Research Award (STRA) for research stay of Polina Lemenkova at National Taiwan University (NTU), Department of Geography during April-May 2013.