1. eResearch:
Community of Practice and
Social Media for PhD Students
Denis Gillet • École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
ED-MEDIA Graduate Student Program • Toronto, Canada
Friday July 2, 2010 • 2:00-2:30

2. Abstract
• Discuss the potential of communities of practice,
online scientific repositories and social media to
conduct effective and collaborative research in
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) or related
disciplines
• Share your best eResearch practices with others
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3. STELLAR Network of
Excellence in Technology
Enhanced Learning (TEL)

4. STELLAR
• Single European Network of Excellence for
Strengthening Integration and Fostering
Excellence in Technology Enhanced Learning
• The Open University, UK (Coordinator) • Université Joseph
Fourier, FR • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, DE •
University of Bristol, UK • University of Nottingham, UK •
L3S Research Center, Leibniz Universität Hannover, DE •
Knowledge Media Research Centre, DE • Centre for Social
Innovation, AT • École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne,
CH • Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, BE • Istituto Tecnologie
Didattiche, Consiglio Nazionale Ricerche, IT • Open University
of the Netherlands (CELSTEC), NL • Know Centre, AT •
University of Freiburg, DE • Atos Origin, ES; SCIENTER, IT
• http://www.stellarnet.eu
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5. Grand Research Challenges
• Three initial interlocking challenges (interdisciplinary
research clusters) in TEL
• Connecting Learners
Social Learning, Informal Learning, Learning
Communities, Social Media, Competence Management
• Orchestrating Learning
New Pedagogy and Scenarios, New Roles for Learners
and Educators, New Business Models for Institutions
• Strengthening Contexts
Formal and Informal Contexts, Physical Artifacts,
Mobile Devices, Virtual and Physical Spaces,
Interoperability and Reusability, (De)-Standardization
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6. STELLAR Instruments
Capacities Instruments Target Groups
Leadership Meeting of Minds Executives
Podcasts Integrative
Researcher Theme Teams Mid Tier Researchers
Incubators Early Stage researchers
Rendez-vous Integrative
Doctoral Doctoral CoP Integrative
Academy Mobility Programme Late and mid stage
Doctoral Consortia doctoral candidates
Doctoral Schools Early stage
(1 week) doctoral candidates
Community Community Channels Stakeholder Network
level Science 2.0 Platform(s) Integrative
Driving and being driven by the Grand Challenges

7. Stakeholder Network
http://www.teleurope.eu

8. Communit(y/ies) of
Practice in Technology
Enhanced Learning

9. Community of Practice
• Communities of practice (CoPs) are knowledge-
oriented groups of people freely aggregated and
operating as social entities (Wenger)
• to share ideas or passions, deepen practical
knowledge and expertise, or solve problems
about a topic and develop relationships
• mainly based on flat structures and driven by
tacit rules, with little or no hierarchy and little
or no institutional control
• Trust, recognition and learning are key issues in
CoPs: Members learn from each other by making
their knowledge and practices explicit, sharing
them with their peers, and reflecting on them
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10. Community of Practice
• Interaction in CoPs rely on time, topic or goal-
oriented sessions or activities
• Awareness regarding satisfaction or achievement
is essential to support and sustain the activities
• Members’ involvement (roles) ranges from hidden
(privacy), passive, (re)active and proactive
• Most CoP activity and interaction patterns evolve
during its existence, including members’ profile
(novice, expert, …)
• CoPs operate and grow via a careful combination
of face-to-face and mediated interaction
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11. The TEL Doctoral CoP
• PhD students, PhD advisors and experts in TEL
share research practice and learn from each other
• Reduce isolation, enable co-authoring
• Establish broader discussion, co-coaching
• Enable sharing of datasets and testbeds
•…
• Questionnaire sent to former TEL doctoral summer
and winter schools participants, as well as
doctoral consortia ones (EC-TEL Conference)
• 72 responses collected between Nov 2009 – Feb
10, 58% Technology-oriented PhD students, 42%
Education- and psychology- oriented ones
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12. DoCoP Questionnaire
• How could a DoCoP benefit you in terms of
completing your doctoral studies?
• What type of services would you need in the
framework of the DoCoP?
• Please indicate the academic and social platforms
you use for professional and research work
• What blogs, Wikis, Twitter channels or RSS Feeds
related to TEL do you read or contribute to?
• Results on SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.net/dgillet/doctoral-
)
community-of-practice-in-technology-enhanced-learning-requirements
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13. DoCoP Questionnaire
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14. DoCoP Questionnaire
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15. F2F DoCoP Events
• Be part of the DoCoP in face-to-face events and online to
interact with peers and experts and shape the community
• ED-MEDIA Graduate Student Program 2010
• EC-TEL Doctoral Consortium 2010
Barcelona, September 29 (www.ectel2010.org)
• Winter School 2011, March 2011, French Alps
http://www.stellarnet.eu/programme/wp3/rendez-vous
• Summer School 2011, tbd, End of June
• ED-MEDIA Graduate Student Program 2011 Portugal
• CSCL Doctoral Consortium 2011, Hong Kong
July 4-9 (www.isls.org)
• Send an email to denis.gillet@epfl.ch and you will be
added in the DoCoP mailing list (include the email of
your PhD advisor)
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16. Science 2.0

17. From Science 1.0 to 2.0
• Understand Science 1.0 to shape Science 2.0
• Science 1.0 is about contributing to
• common understanding and formalization
• shared knowledge and practices
• accepted models and methodologies
• innovative, disruptive or alternative solutions
to general challenges and problems
•…
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18. From Science 1.0 to 2.0
• Understand Science 1.0 to shape Science 2.0
• Science 1.0 practices
• Formalization, creation, investigation, validation
• Generalization and reproducibility (universal)
• Publication and presentation
• Peer review and discussion in expert bodies
and communities
• Contribution to advances by constructing or
relying on previous works and achievements
• Citation-based recognition and promotion
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19. From Science 1.0 to 2.0
Science 1.0 issues Science 2.0 solutions
Disconnected discussions in closed Targeted discussions in large and open
communities (castes) of experts communities (blog, wiki, twitter, …)
Overload of scientific production Search & recommendation for experts &
and relevant conferences results (google scholar, repositories, …)
Slow and biased reviews, late Immediate reactions, comments and
publication, no possible revisions revision in interest groups (LinkedIn, …)
Slow social network construction Smooth integration in various communities
and personal recognition in silos with quick ways to get influential roles
Sharing artifacts limited to papers Sharing datasets, analysis methods and
(difficult access to data) grids, visualization solutions
Research carried out individually or Collaborative distributed works with more
in small teams co-authoring opportunities
Selective, publisher dictatorship, Open, democratic, timely, …
anachronistic, … Academic practice resilience !

20. From Science 1.0 to 2.0
• For more thoughts on Science 2.0
• Google Scholar
• Wikipedia
• SlideShare (“Science 2.0”, “Erik Duval”, …)
• http://erikduval.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/
science-2-0-approach-to-research/
•…
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21. Science 2.0 Platforms
• THE STELLAR Open Archive (http://oa.stellarnet.eu)
• can be automatically fed by your institution
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22. Science 2.0 Platforms
• Mendeley: Academic reference management
software for researchers (www.mendeley.com)
• Most read versus most cited paper approach ;-)
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23. TELeurope Dashboard
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24. Take Home Question
• How can you better support your
research practices and reach higher
scientific achievements by relaying
on relevant communities and
suitable social media ?
• The answer is yours !
• Share your feeling now …
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25. Contact & Links
• denis.gillet@epfl.ch
• http://interaction.epfl.ch
• http://graaasp.epfl.ch
• http://www.stellarnet.eu
• http://www.role-project.eu
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