Working Life Communication and Social Web

Wikicampus

Minna Scheinin, Mervi Varhelahti, Turku University of Applied Sciences

The new challenges of working life communication in the social web

- How to prepare work communities for better communication

Introduction

The aim of the present paper is to discuss the role and the challenges of the new media and social web in working life communication. The starting point for this discussion is the experience gathered from the cooperation with corporate customers at the Language Centre at Turku University of Applied Sciences. The paper concludes with a recommendation for the relevant issues to be considered when designing training programmes for working life. This recommendation covers the aspects of the trainer and those of the enterprises who intend to carry out training for the staff. The language Centre at Turku University of Applied Sciences has trained corporate customers in communication skills for 4 years. The role of new media in working life communication has changed remarkably during these years. Today, the communication is again finding new ways enabled by the introduction of social web.

Work activities are carried out in physical as well as virtual and mental and social spaces ). In other words, people work, for example, in offices, cars, hotels, as well as with devices and applications, such as laptops, e-mail and databases and finally through common experiences and human interaction interaction and collaboration (Vartiainen 2006, 16). This dispersed modes of activities may be a challenge for working life communication in general. According to a case study, which focussed on web-based corporate personel training through carried out with a customer group this is a challenge

The role of innovators?

Communities and learning

Nonaka & Takeuchi. Seci-model Minna

Learning Organisation (Senge)
fifth discipline, systems theory Organisations have to be able to change when their operational environment is changing. The challenge is harder for the educational system; it has to be in advaced of it´s time. The education has to be forward-looking. Added to operational environment it has to take account of the mobile work, changes in age groups, and technological developments. (Tulevaisuusluotain 2006, 45.) Minna

The workers may form communities of practice. According to Wenger, these are Communities of practice are 

"groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." (Wenger 2008. COI vs. COP)

Wenger E., Mcdermott R., Snyder W.M. Cultivating Communities of Practice. 2002. USA Refroitu täsät kirjasta. täytyy vielä miettiä, miten sitoo...
Communities of practice means “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger al. 2002, 4) Organizations have become more international and they have to become aware of the competitive advantage the knowledge will give them if they know how to manage knowledge. Complexity of knowledge is increasing; science and technology are developing fast. Organizations have to focus on the critical and strategic knowledge and manage it systemically. Knowledge is challenging organizations. Organizations can´t just store the information and knowledge in databases, they have to design structures and technology for it and they have to manage these. 1-9 . Managing the knowledge means that knowledge resources are well organized, it supports the business strategy, full advantage is taken from the knowledge resources( 178). Today the understanding the collective nature of knowledge is important. The world is changing too fast for individuals to master. We need more opinions to make decisions and develop new ideas. Organizations have to cultivate the communities of practice. Communities of practice develop naturally but the evolution can be helped by managing. (64) These communities could connect expertise also cross traditional teams, and cross unconnected activities. (14) These communities can act in the organizations as invisible or they can be given an official status in the organization. In this article we will focus on the distributed communities of practice, who will not communicate face-to-face. These communities will have huge advantage of tools and services the semantic web is offering.

In worldwide communication networks the communities of practice are linking people “across vast distances, size, organizational affiliation and cultural differences.(116) The member of distributed communities of practice can´t often meet face-to-face due to the geographic distances and time zone. They use technology to connect. But technology is not a real substitute to face-to-face contact. The use of technology can make the members of communities less present. You can be present but invisible. Networking isn´t easy. Also the size of the distributed communities is often very large at it causes that the members can´t know all the people personally. (116 -117) The large amount of members can also prevent someone to share his ideas. The questions of property rights rises. Also the amount of different opinions, needs, interests takes time to define the focus. The cultural differences in a community can also cause problems in communication. Who has the right to comment others, who will speak first. Also the language can be a barrier to take full membership. Because these communities are distributed the technology has a very important role in communication. And the technology can also be a barrier; all the members don´t have the access to similar equipment or technology. In worldwide communities the members have to work hard to build trust and relationships in the community. All these characters together mean that the distributed communities of practices have to deliver more remarkable value to it´s members that the local communities, who have the possibility of face-to-face meetings and spontaneous networking.

To overcome these barriers the distributed communities of practice have to be designed.

• 1. Achieve stakeholder alignment. Engage all members.
• 2.Create a structure that prpmotes both local variations and global connections: the global community consist of local communities.there are local coordinators and global coordinators. the local communities work local, habe face-to—face communication and the clobal coordinator is their link to the global community. Coordinators connect people.
• 3.Build a rhythm strong enough to maintain community visibility: members in distrinuted communities are not as visible as in local ones. due to the timezones the members often prefer to use asynchronous tools as discussion boards. To keep the community alive it needs some regular activation using synchronous tools to remind members of the presence. Using for example conferencing tools for virtual meeting strengthen the feel of presence . The members feel that they are obligated to join the conferencing. Also organizing face-to-face meetings makes the community more powerfull. Coordinator can also activate the community by setting provocative questions .

Use website powerfully before after and during the virtual conferencing. Also broadcasting the information regularly keeps the community active. For example newsfeed, subscriptions, newsletters. (133)

• 4. develop the private space of the community more systematically: one-to-one networking inside the distributed communities is crucial. The most important role of the coordinator is to connect people not to collect the knowledge in the web site.

The technology makes the communication between distributed communities easier but it´s the members who create the relationships.(123-136) The change of information production and communication
It´s important ot remember that the Web and Internet are tools created to meet basic human needs; to communicate and share information. They are a media for communication and they are characterised by our need to connect. The need to network and connect is as old as we are as a species. (Khor 2006, 16-17.) The social web applications support rethinking the information. Information is no longer seen in bits, information is a process. The web has changed from a platform for information into a community platform.(Toivonen 2007, 10-11.) The social media produces collective intelligence (Kanga & al.2007, 16). The change of information leads to increased user autonomy and democratisation. It changes the nature of communication and social relationships. It also affects the ways we produce and access knowledge and information.(Participative web, 5.) Due to these changes in information production and communication fro example the email will no longer be used in organisations. Reasons to this are that emails are oldfashion, slow and they are not for real time communication. Instead of emails the organisations will be using Microsoft Messenger, Skype, chat-programmes, Facebook.(Kuusela 2008, 44-46.) The new generation of knowledge workers will communicate and work efficiently in virtual teams and networks(Boothby 2006, 1).

Social Web and communication
Mervi

Social web can be characterised by openness, interaction and confluence of forms of communication. Social web refers "to the current developments in Internet and web technologies, defined by their collaborative and user-as-content-provider-nature" (Khor 2006, 5). At the same time the technology is developing also the existing channels for communication are confluencing. Services and contents are produced in interaction, in social communities.(Laitinen 2007, 11).

(koko allaoleva participative web 27-38) There are many drivers that are tukemassa the way we can communicate more and more effective in the web.

• Technological drivers : The technoloy has developed very fast and it has become possible to create and share information and knowledge. Availability of the broadband has increased, technology and new software are available and in lower prices. The software tools are so simple that it´s possible for the normal people to create and share information.
• Social drivers: The new generations is willing and used to use the services and the social web is offering us. They want to interact and be active in various virtual communities.
• Economic drivers: It has become cheaper to buy the ICT equipment, tools and software. Also Internet connections have become cheaper.
• Institutional and legal drivers: It´s possible for the content creators and for people who share knowledge and information to make agreements which grant copyright.
  

These drivers are encouringing users to share content, information and knowledge in the for of text, photos, audio and music, video and film, virtual content, mobile content.

Social web platforms and services

• Blogs; blogger, Skyblog

A blog is a webpage that displays entries(text, images, videos)in reverse chronological order. It´s a platform for sharing information. (Participative Web, 36.)

• Wikis; Wikipedia, SocialText

A wiki is defined as a website that allows users to add, remove, edit and change content collectively. Initial author of a wiki allows other users to edit their content (usually text) . The content can be edited instantly with a simple tagging language(Participative Web, 37).Wikis are organized by topic and it´s easy for the large teams to share information.(Boothby 2006, 1.)

• Social Bookmarking; del.ici.ous

Social bookmarking-sites allow "Del.icio.us lets users bookmark web pages for themselves and others, check out what others bookmark, and organize bookmarks in one place for portability. Besides its well-known basic tagging and bookmarking capabilities, del.icio.us offers a built-in tool set and application programming interface (API) that let libraries do practically anything with their data. Its tag roll and link roll features—which update steadily—provide any account user with a snippet of JavaScript for any web page or blog, allowing easy access to a library's del.icio.us links". (Rethlefsen 2007.)

• Podcasting; iTunes, FeedBruner

A podcast is a multimedia file distributed over the Internet for playback on mobile devices and computers (Participative web, 37).
.

• Virtual Worlds; Second Life, Active Worlds

Virtual Worls Content is a game-like digital enviroment, to which users subscribe. For example Second Life, enables users to build new objects, host events and businesses.(Participative Web, 38-39.)

• Social Network Sites; Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn

"We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site."http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

• mash-ups

“are interactive web applications that draw upon content retrieved from external data sourses to create entirely new services (Participative web 2007, 103).Merril 2006 ikeasti tämä lähde Merril, D. (2006), “Mash-ups. The new breed of web app”, IBM developerWorks, updated 16 October, available at www-ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-mashups.html

Use of these tools in working life is increasing. They have an important role in sharing information and knowledge and creating new ideas and content. Use of these tools will impact widely both economically and socially. The increasing use of the services and tools the social web is offering impacts on the whole ICT sector. Users are spending more money on various tools, hardware and services. This affects the whole value chain and involves people from industry and marketing. also the number of users is increasing and especially the number of professional users for example photographers. The social impacts can be seen in the way the communications is changing. We are more willing to interact, change knowledge and join various communities. We have the freedom to express ourselves. We communicate globally, virtually and this has also cultural impacts. We have for example easy access to other cultures literature, music. When using these tools also users ICt skills will develop. Having NÄKÖKULMa working life one of the most important social impacts is that of developing, sharing information and knowledge. The users have access to large amount of information for example Wikipedia. Very important aspect considered in this article is also how communities of practice are using the tools mentioned above and how they could be used effectively in sharing ideas and knowledge. (53- 69)It´s important that organizations are able to see the importance of social web and it´s tools when creating communities of practice. And not to forget the skills and training needed when implementing new tools and software (ICT-skills and legal aspects).

Social Web and successful communication

Dialogi on yksi vuorovaikutustaitoisuuden keskeisistä osa-alueista, ja se on harjoiteltavissa ja opittavissa oleva taito. Kaikki keskustelu ei ole dialogia. Keskustelulle (discussion) on ominaista väitteiden 'erilleen heittäminen', jolloin yritetään kilpailla siitä, kenellä keskustelijoista on parhaimmat ideat. Dialogissa (dia + logos) yritetään tuoda näkyväksi omia ajatuksia ja viedä niitä eteenpäin yhdessä muiden kanssa. Kyseessä on kahden tai useamman keskustelijan välinen kommunikointi, joka on aktiivista, sitoutunutta, vastavuoroista, kunnioittavaa, avointa ja vilpitöntä.

Aidossa dialogissa ihmiset kohtaavat toisensa erillisinä, tasavertaisina persoonina ja he ovat valmiita kohtaamaan omista käsityksistään poikkeavia näkökulmia. Keskeistä dialogissa on väitteiden testaaminen, jolla tarkoitetaan nimenomaan toisen mielipiteen merkityksen arviointia. Väitteistä (niin omista kuin muittenkin esittämistä) ei etsitä heikkouksia, vaan niiden voimaa - kysymyksessä on siis enemmänkin ajattelun kuin argumentoinnin taito. Dialogissa ei voi absoluuttisesti pitää kiinni omista kannoista tai koetella vain toisten väitteitä - omat kannat täytyy laittaa testiin ja kyseenalaistaa ne, muussa tapauksessa kysymyksessä ei ole dialogi, vaan yksipuolinen monologi.

Tieto- ja viestintäteknisessä ympäristössä tapahtuvassa kommunikoinnissa on omat rajoituksensa, mutta niiden ei tarvitse olla kovinkaan ratkaisevia pyrittäessä ymmärtämään toista ihmistä ja hänen merkityssisältöjään ja saamaan myös itselle ymmärretyksi tulemisen kokemuksia. Tieto- ja viestintätekninen ympäristö saattaa tarjota oivan mahdollisuuden harjoitella tietoisesti vuorovaikutusta erilaisten ja erilaisista kulttuureista tulevien ihmisten kanssa. Tällaisessa vuorovaikutusympäristössä voidaan kommunikoida rauhallisesti ja harkitusti ja voidaan ottaa aikaa tietoiseen pohdittuun reagointiin. Halukkaat voivat osallistua keskusteluun ja kehittää itseään aktiivisesti yhdellä elämän ja työelämän hallinnan kannalta keskeisellä kompetenssialueella. Ihmisten välinen vuorovaikutus ja sen onnistuminen on erittäin monimutkainen toisiinsa sidoksissa olevien erilaisten tekijöiden kokonaisuus. Globaalissa verkkoympäristössä dialogin taitaja ei kompastu kulttuurien tuomaan eikä muuhunkaan ihmisten erilaisuuteen vaan osaa lähteä siitä liikkeelle kohtaamisessa. Verkkoympäristön hyödyntäminen ei saisi kaatua kommunikaation vajavaisuuteen.

Dialogissa osallistujat käsittävät, että dialogi verkossa on vain johonkin tai joihinkin asioihin kerrallaan keskittynyttä ja luonteeltaan viipyvää. Osallistujat eivät heittele verkkoon mitä tahansa, vaan pysyvät ongelmanratkaisuteemassa riittävän pitkään dialogin aikana.

Keskustelijat tutkivat, pohtivat ja kyseenalaistavat, ja sen ansiosta osaamista koskeva tutkiva ja luova ajattelu kehittyy vähitellen, askel askeleelta. Osallistujat ihmettelevät ja kehittelevät asioita avoimesti ja hakevat mahdollisia uusia tapoja edetä ongelman työstämisessä tyyliin: ”Entä jos tehdään niin tai tehdään toisella tavalla, niin mitä siitä seuraa?” Vapaus tällaiseen tutkivaan ja luovaan työskentelyyn kehittyy yhteisössä vähitellen.

Kysyminen tiedustelumielessä ja kysymysten muotoileminen on olennainen osa osaamisen rakentamista dialogissa verkossa. Osallistujat harjoittelevat tätä taitoa tietoisesti oppijayhteisössä ja tiedostavat taidon merkityksen oppimiselle. He käsittävät, että on olennaista ottaa vastaan kaikkien osallistujien ymmärrys ja osaaminen ja mahdollisesti hyödyntää sitä ongelmanratkaisussa.

Dialogin käyttäminen opetuksessa ja oppimisessa on mitä parhain tapa, lukemisen ja kirjoittamisen ohella, koetella omia ja muitten ajatuksia, löytää uusia merkityksiä asioille ja tuottaa uutta. Jotta dialogi opetus- tai oppimistilanteessa onnistuisi, se edellyttää tietynlaisten kommunikatiiviseen toimintaan liittyvien "sääntöjen" noudattamista. Näitä sääntöjä ovat seuraavat:

1 Osallistuminen: Osallistuminen edellyttää aktiivisuutta ja sen on perustuttava vapaaehtoisuuteen. Jokaisella osallistujalla on oltava mahdollisuus vaikuttaa keskustelun aiheeseen, asettaa kysymyksiä ja haastaa esitettyjä näkemyksiä.

2 Sitoutuminen: Kommunikatiivisena toimintana dialogin päämääränä on yhteisesti prosessoituun ymmärrykseen tai merkitykseen pyrkiminen, vaikkei sitä saavuttaisikaan. Osallistujilta vaaditaan keskittymiskykyä ja kärsivällisyyttä, kykyä kuunnella muita, taitoa ja uskallusta ilmaista itseään, kykyä perustella väitteitään ja taitoa kysyä - kysyminen on jopa tärkeämpää kuin vastausten etsiminen! Osallistuminen on siis otettava tosissaan, eikä saa luovuttaa ensimmäisen vastoinkäymisen tai vastaväitteen kohdalla.

3 Vastavuoroisuus: Osallistujien kesken vallitsee keskinäinen kunnioitus ja huolenpito. Muilta ei voi vaatia mitään sellaista, jota ei vaadi itseltään. Eli jos vaadit perusteluja muilta, sinun täytyy perustella myös omat väitteesi; jos vaadit muita ottamaan omat näkemyksesi vakavasti, sinun on otettava vakavasti myös muiden näkemykset.

4 Vilpittömyys ja rehellisyys: Harhauttaminen ja valehtelu eivät kuulu dialogiin, niitä ei saa käyttää edes keskustelun provosoimiseksi. Dialogiin sitoutuminen tarkoittaa myös vilpittömyyteen sitoutumista.

5 Reflektiivisyys: Dialogin päämäärään kuuluu paremman ymmärryksen saaminen niin omien kuin toistenkin käsityksistä. Tämä edellyttää osallistujilta pyrkimystä kriittiseen itsereflektioon eli omien uskomusten ja ennakko-oletusten kriittistä arviointia. Myös toisten esittämät ajatukset on alistettava kriittiselle reflektiolle, ei siksi, että ne kumottaisiin, vaan niiden testaamiseksi ja yhteisen merkityksen luomiseksi.

Onnistunut dialogi on kekseliästä, kriittistä ja avointa, jopa hauskaa. Onnistunut dialogi mahdollistaa kaikkien siihen osallistuneiden oppimisen.

Perinteinen koulutuskulttuurimme ei ole kovin paljoa tukenut keskustelun tai dialogin taitoja. Kuitenkin omien näkemysten argumentointi, esille tuominen ja niiden perusteleminen sekä puolustaminen, samoin kuin keskustelukumppaneiden kuunteleminen ja heidän esittämiensä ajatusten arviointi ovat avainasemassa oppimiskeskustelussa. Dialogia voidaan harjoitella niin suullisissa keskusteluissa kuin kirjallisestikin, vaikkapa sähköpostikeskusteluissa tai tietoverkon keskustelupalstoilla. Dialogissa tarvittavat kommunikatiiviset taidot ovat opittavissa ja niitä on mahdollista kehittää.

Dialogissa kaikki ovat tasavertaisia. Vastauksia tärkeämpiä ovat kysymykset. On tärkeää, että keskustelussa tulee esille erilaisia mielipiteitä. Olennaista on niiden perusteleminen, ei se, kuka ne esittää. Myös ujojen ja arkojen keskustelijoiden tukeminen ja rohkaiseminen on tärkeää.

Lähteet: http://openetti.aokk.hamk.fi/diana/index.htm; http://www.uta.fi/tyt/verkkotutor/dialogi.htm

Technological developments and the social web demand that we expand our communication skills. People are now able to communicate in two-way dialogue and in real time. (Kohr 2006, 18-19.) When designing communication training it´s important to explore if some of the social web platforms are used by the personnel and which of these fit in the corporate´s business thinking or which of these have added value for the organisation. "Nowadays end-user applications come first, professional applications subsequently". Social media and Web 2.0 have started as user-driven development . Readiness for users to provide information for everyone has improved.(Toivonen 2007, 35-36.)

Framework for a successful communication in the social web

STEPS WHAT TO DO? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

MUUTA TÄRKEÄÄ LISÄTTÄVÄKSI SOPIVAAN PAIKKAA:

Blogs, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm http://www.businessblogconsulting.com/

1.. existing educational content vastaan user-created-content UCC ( *Participative web, 37-38.) UCC which harnesses the collective intelligence of all users is influential mechanism to provide students with knowledge. UCC encourages sharing, collaborative production of content and knowledge. This information and knowledge is accurate, accessible and often free available, Information, knowledge an material provided by individuals can have positive educational impacts. For example wikis may be used for group projects, for assignements. Podcasts may improve the quality of education (Participative web, 37-38.)

2. Future ; Web in the future will meet human needs better than today. Web will continue as a platform for information, communication, entertainment. It may also offer an alternative for real life. (Khor 2006, 9.)

3. Changes in the society; multiculturalism is increasing, there is a huge gap between age groups concerning living in information society (Mannermaa 2008, 16).
4.Opimme verkostoissa, ei verkossa

Definitions Mobile working environments Mobile learning Communities of practice (COP), Wenger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communities_of_practice#Communities_of_Practice_and_Organizational_Learning http://www.ewenger.com/

Substance:

Jarvis, P. (1998). Paradoxes of the Learning Society. In Holford, J., Jarvis, P. & Griffin C. (eds.) International Perspectives on Lifelong Learning. London: Kogan Page Limited, 59-68.

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Kantola, M. (2007). ’Using ePortfolios’. Blog entry posted 11 September 2007; http://blogs.open.ac.uk/H808/mk4785/2007_09.html (Accessed 23 Jan 2008, 16:30).

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Kangas, P., Toivonen, S., Bäck, A. (2007). Googlen mainokset ja muita sosiaalisen median liiketoimintamalleja. VTT tiedotteita 2369. Espoo 2007. http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/tiedotteet/2007/T2369.pdf (accessed 12 March 2008, 15:06)

Khor, Z., Marsh, P. (2006). Life online: The web in 2020. A study by the Social Issues Research Centre on behalf of RAckspace MAnaged Hosting. http://www.sirc.org/publik/Web2020B.pdf(accessed 30 March 2008, 10:50)

Kuusela, S. (2008). Suomen Kuvalehti. 15.2.2008. 92. vuosikerta. 44-46.

Laitinen, K., Rissanen, M.TOIMI!!! (2007). Virtuaalisia yhteisöjä, ajatuksia ja avoimuutta-sosiaalinen medai opetuksen ja oppimisen tukena (SMOOT) hankkeen selvitys. http://www.smoot.fi/dokumentteja/SMOOT-julkaisu.pdf (accessed 12 March 2008, 15:40)Kuopio 2007.

Mannermaa, M.(2008). Mania. Varsinais-Suomalainen talousaikakauslehti. 3/2008, 14-16

Participative Web and User Created Content. 2007. Web 2.0, wikis and Social Networking. http://213.253.134.43/oecd/pdfs/browseit/9307031E.PDF (accessed 15 June 2008) OECD 2007

Toivonen, S. (2007). Web on the Move. Landscapes of Mobile Social Media. VTT Reseach Notes 2403. http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/tiedotteet/2007/T2403.pdf (accessed 12 March 2008, 15:45). Espoo 2007.

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Mervi Varhelahti
Olen FM (Turun yliopisto 2001), KTK (Turun kauppakorkeakoulu 2006), ruotsin ja saksan kielten opettaja sekä kielikoulutuskeskuksen koulutussuunnittelija. Työssäni opetan, avustan EU-hanketoiminnoissa, suunnittelen työelämän viestintäkoulutuksia, tutkin verkon hyödyntämistä kielten ja viestinnän opetuksessa. Opiskelen Turun kauppakorkeakoulussa Johtamisen laitoksella, tietojärjestelmätieteitä ja johtamista.

Minna Scheinin
Licentiate of Philosophy (University of Turku 1999). I work currently as the Head of the Language Centre at Turku University of Applied Sciences. I am studying the Masters Degree in Online and Distance Education at Open University, UK. My special interests are digital environments and good practices in e-learning and foreign language teaching, new teacher roles in online teaching, and authentic learning.