International Knowledge Conference 2015 Knowledge: The Key to a Better Tomorrow
Using Web 2.0 Tools to Support Self Directed Learning in Cultural Institutions
Mohsen Haji Zeinolabedini Assistant Professor, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
[email protected] Sanam Ebrahimzadeh1 Alzahra University, Theran, Iran
[email protected] Nahid Parvini Chief of medical science library, Tabriz branch, Islamic Azad university, Tabriz, Iran
[email protected]
Abstract: The study aims to propose a model of integrating Web 2.0 technologies in self-directing in cultural centers and museums. Nowadays, many cultural institutions put increasing emphasis on access to information, self-directing learners and provide information to the cultural institutions visitors and educators. Hence, librarians in cultural organizations are concerned how they can manage the information to allow users to find their own way. One solution is Web 2.0. Web 2.0 tools are perhaps the most significant and growing set of new technologies in the current landscape. Web 2.0 platforms are seen to have an emerging role to transform their static content authorities to dynamic platforms for content generation and sharing. According to the features of Web 2.0, authors found that Web 2.0 technologies could expand librarians' mission and their function in cultural institutions. Hence, the purposes of this paper are both to promote scholarly inquiry about the need of a new type a solution and the development of best practice in providing information, supporting self -directed learning, and making information available to a global community with Web 2.0. Methods used included a review of the relevant scholarly literature and content analysis. The article's main purposes are: 1- To present a model of integrating Web 2.0 technologies in self1
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directing, accessing of information, making information available in cultural centers and museums. 2- To identify the potential benefits of these technologies as well as highlighting some of the problematic issues surrounding the use of Web 2.0 by librarians in cultural centers and museums. The findings of the present study will help librarians to appreciate the impact of the web 2.0 technologies in cultural centers and museums. Keywords: Web 2.0, Self- directed learning, Cultural institutions.
Introduction Now cultural institutions and museum librarians are perceiving themselves as information professionals. Libraries are increasingly called upon to deliver and provide access to collection information and educational programming, often in electronic form. Nowadays, many cultural institutions and museums put increasing emphasis on access to information, self- learners and provide information to the visitors, as well as to the educators and curators. All of them are the most interesting challenges in information management. Meantime, selfdirected learning is crucial for lifelong learning (Dunlap, 2006); Self-directed learning and lifelong learning have both been important keywords in educational discourse for a long time. Self-direction learning refers to the increased freedom, independence, responsibility and autonomy of one’s activities (Saks, 2011). Lifelong learning is increasingly recognized as a critical educational goal. Lifelong learning is intentional learning that people engage in throughout their lives for personal and professional fulfillment to improve the quality of their lives (Dunlap & Grabinger, 2003). The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies, has great potential to support lifelong learning endeavors, allowing for informal, just-intime, day-to-day learning. Web 2.0 distributed social spaces enable learners to simultaneously keep their personality in multiple social-, work- and learning spaces
and mark their presence in different modalities. The result of keeping distributed self-increases likelihood that person‘s external knowledge, artifacts, meanings, activity patterns will be noticed, modified and duplicated. Keeping distributed self keeps the person in touch with different learning-, work- and social communities. Being simultaneously the member of different communities enables to the person to bring information across the borders of the communities, enabling to constantly create new knowledge (Dunlap& Lowenthal, 2014). So, Web 2.0 technologies can be used to support the development of self – directing learning. Not surprisingly, Web 2.0 and social media are perhaps the most significant and growing set of new technologies in the current landscape. Web 2.0 platforms are seen to have an emerging role to transform their static content authorities to dynamic platforms for content generation and sharing. In recent years, a plethora of digital and networking tools has been established on the internet. These digital applications – which enable interaction, collaboration and sharing among users – are frequently referred to as Web 2.0 (Birdsall, 2007). Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of design and development that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration between a host and the public. The term “Web 2.0” was officially coined in 2004 by Dale Dougherty and Tim O’Reilly in O’Reilly Media Inc. The company famous for its technology-related conferences and
high quality books (Anderson, 2007). In general, Web 2.0 is a second phase of World Wide Web that show more interactive, collaborative and facilitative feathers. Web 2.0 tools motivate the user community and broaden participation to get rid of the traditional user base that has ruled the work of service organizations like the academic libraries (Neal and Jaggars, 2010). Major features of Web 2.0 include user created Web sites, self-publishing platforms, tagging, control over data, and add value to the application (O'Reilly, 2005); also, examples of Web 2.0 technologies include wikis, blogs, video- and music-sharing applications, social bookmarking, social networking sites, and content syndication (RSS). Nowadays, many cultural institutions and museums around the world have adopted Web 2.0 technologies and are using these to communicate with the public about their collections, upcoming or ongoing exhibits, and educational programming because of the living in the information age. Current developments in the Web such a Web 2.0 will bring new ways of using collections services. Using web 2.0 tools by librarians in cultural institutions can bring all the resources in their institutions together, and making them available to a global community as well as taking on a leading role as information strategists and create a dynamic environment. Some cultural institutions and museums have taken a more cautious approach to Web 2.0 technologies. For example, the Canadian Science Technology Museum has created a presence on Facebook to connect with its members, while other museums use their websites to serve this function (Dawson & McDonald &Trépanier, 2008). The Canadian Aviation Museum created an internal Wiki to promote collaboration within the Museum. The Wiki served as a meeting place where staff across various departments could co-
author and edit content for the Museum's projects. One key goal was to facilitate participation, for example to encourage people to contribute content to the museum's website and to promote repurposing of content, for example, adapting newsletter content for the website (Dawson, B., McDonald, F., & Trépanier,G , 2008). In Australia, PANDORA Archive has been the repository for archived web resources in Australia. Crook (2009) discussed the current state of web archiving in Australia, and how libraries can adapt their services in recognition of the expanding role that online material plays in their collections. He founded that today the gap between what is available and what can be archived is decreasing. But as librarians’ archives and archiving abilities increase, librarians are still confronted with new technologies and Web 2.0 applications. British Museum uses social media, for example, the BM aims to be: “A museum of the world for the world” (Pett, 2011). According to the official site of Museum 2.0, the project explores ways that web 2.0 philosophy can be applied in museum design (www.museumtwo.com). It’s a definition of web-based application with “architecture of participation,” in which users generate, share and curate content. As noted, museums and cultural institutions across the world are using web 2.0 tools to promote their collections, to connect people with them, to care for them, and to learn about what they have, Web 2.0 opens up opportunities (Gaitanou & Tsoubrakakou, 2008) and can be used to support the development of self – directing learning in cultural institutions, hence the purpose of this paper is both to promote scholarly inquiry about the need of a new way (Web 2.0 based) and the development / adoption of best
practice in providing information, making information available to a global community and self – directing users with Web 2.0. The article's main purposes are: • To present model of integrating Web 2.0 technologies in self-directing, accessing of information, making them available to a global community and providing information in cultural institutions. • To identify the potential benefits of these technologies as well as to highlight some of the problematic issues surrounding the use of Web 2.0 by cultural institutions' librarians. Web 2.0 technologies in museums and cultural institutions This part gives some possibilities and examples of using Web 2.0 technologies by the authors of this article as a support for providing information, promoting their collections, learning people about what cultural institutions have, connecting people with them etc. Blogs
Blogging is an easy process for publishing ideas on the web to get the reactions of other users of the web. This model includes blogs. Blog in this model makes the librarians pull cultural institutions blogs together into one area for easy tracking. Librarians can quickly give feedback to the visitors. They can develop their own knowledge by using their peer blogs in cultural institutions. Librarians also can share their points on the bogs. Blogs can usually use to update new information such as new objects in cultural institutions. Wikis
According to Wikipedia, a wiki is defined as “a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. A wiki would be a perfect database for frequently asked questions. In the proposed model Wiki can use for collaborating on ideas and organizing
documents, resources of individuals and groups of librarians institutional presentations. Librarians can share, comment, and add notes to photos or images which be seen in the cultural institutions. Users and librarians can share professional information in the cultural institutions’ objects and have it available anywhere, anytime, to anyone. Also, a private wiki can provide accessible only by a group of team members or it could be set up as publicly readable, but editable only by members of the group (Kille, 2005). Video sharing
Video sharing provides the user with the ability to save favorite videos, create a playlist, rate videos, make comments about them, and share them with other users (Buckley, 2008). Video sharing in proposed model can be used to announce new programs. It helps users get to know their new in the cultural institutions and museum objects. Also, news can be provided about events happening in the cultural institutions and museums. Syndication of Content through RSS
RSS feeds enable users to have a single, customized, personal library page (Maness, 2006). Proposed model includes RSS feeds for updating new items and time saving in the cultural institutions. Information comes from constraining sources by using RSS feeds. Besides, RSS feeds can be used to keep the cultural institutions web pages current and relevant and share work with other cultural institutions and museums' librarians. Social networks
Social networks allow registered users to post brief messages for other users who follow the account and to comment on other users’ posts. An example of social networking site gaining popularity is Facebook. Social
networks in a cultural institution enable users to share interesting content, tell about the awesome work that they do and create an interesting contest. Furthermore, librarians can engage their visitors, connect with their loyal fans, look for inspiration from their peers and imagine a better platform for connecting with those who are already visitors and fans. Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is a tool used to mark web pages which a user found relevant, tag them with a keyword which will make them retrievable in the future, and also to send these sites to other users who might find them useful as well (Gorden-Murname, 2006). Users can track the cultural institutions and museums' activity updates by using social bookmarking in cultural institutions. It’s clear that librarians can conduct researchers and share that researches with peers.
A proposed model Figure (1) describes the services in museums and cultural institutions that Web 2.0 tools can meet them for an effective self-directed learning. Web 2.0 – Opportunities and Challenges in museums and cultural institutions While the benefits of Web 2.0 tools have been well documented, it's now time to take a step back and look at some elements involved with identifying potential barriers and opportunities to implementing a sustainable Web 2.0 tools service within the museums and cultural institutions. We will mention both of them briefly. They can be seen in Table (1) and Table (2).
Giving feedback, Updating new information Blogs Sharing professional information Web 2.0 tools in museums and cultural institution s
Tracking cultural institutions, Conducting and sharing researches
Wikis Social Bookma rking
Responding to followers, Sending information about upcoming events
Social Bookma rking
Sharing interesting content, Engaging the visitors
Social network s
Time saving Updated, keeping the institutions web pages current and relevant
RSS Announcing new programs, Providing news about events
happening
Figure 1. The models of integrating of web 2 tools in cultural institutions services
Video sharing
Table 1. Web 2.0 – Opportunities in museums and cultural institutions
Web 2.0 – Opportunities Sending information and reminders about upcoming events and exhibitions to local followers; Keeping ”top of mind” as a weekend or evening destination for members; Getting the word to writers and promoters who increasingly rely on Twitter for regional news and event information. Reduction of costs; Flexibility; Working with the exhibitions staff (in-house & external); Marketing services and collections within institutions; Offer evolving content and social networks that enable interaction models and built-in economy for donations merchandise etc. Telling the stories of their collections to new audiences.
Table 2. Web 2.0 –Challenges in museums and cultural institutions
Web 2.0 –Challenges in museums and cultural institutions Should try to find how the Web 2.0 tools working; Setting up a Web 2.0 tool, such as selection of software and hosting decisions; Losing of exhibits or digitizing collections affective power (An image of the object is not the same thing as the object itself); Time and knowledge invested in the Web 2.0 technologies; Internet connection is required; It has limited security; Being able to outline policy considerations which best fits their individual or organizational purpose; Have learnt about tools for measuring Web 2.0 success; Bullying and anti-social behavior.
Lack of expertise in implementing the right social media solution for a particular situation; Copyright; Terms of service changes Privacy concerns; Internet filtering in some countries; Lack of access to high speed internet; Encouraging participation versus lurking; Providing a scale within the photo should give the viewer a sense of the scale; Institutions blocking of social media; Management of single identity can be time consuming if working on a highly interactive topic.
Conclusions Museum librarians are concerned how they can manage the information to allow users to find their own way (Jan Koot, 2001) because right now cultural institutions' budgets are tight. Cultural institutions and archives staffs are stretched and time is at a premium; while, cultural institutions need to offer enriched and value-added content, exceed their physical limits, adopt new perspectives, and enhance their role in changing socio-cultural and economic landscape, so as to achieve better quality services. Librarians in cultural institutions still all have the same needs; to support self-directed learning, to promote their collections, to connect people with them, to care for them and to learn about what they have. People in the cultural institutions have a need to develop and learn. At this time, librarians and archivists in the museum and cultural institutions have a fundamental tool for helping them more than before. This fundamental tool is Web 2.0. This article explored how cultural institution professionals can use Web 2.0 tools in selfdirecting, accessing to information, developing interactive participation and providing information. However, librarians should be aware it is not vital for librarians to
be an expert in the IT world, they should push themselves to learn about it and its challenges and get over those things they are normally scared about them. It is important that they know about how big the web 2.0 tools world are in the field of museums and how can visitors enjoy major works and context of art of the whole world at the tip of their fingers, on the monitor of their computer. The authors of this article hope that the librarians in the cultural institutions and museums will use the Web 2.0 technologies, efficient and promising to provide information and educate users. Overall, if cultural institutions want to succeed in taking advantage of Web 2.0 technologies, it is crucial to identify correctly what needs to remain stable and what can change, because it is a means of achieving that goal. Moreover, librarians should not forget that abusing Web 2.0 can block or annihilate information processing, and can decrease the quality of servicing in museums and cultural institutions. At this moment, all librarians must be initiated by means of special programs or special topic training sessions to face with challenges (mentioned some of them). It is needed to remember that we are at the beginning of a new era and the museums and cultural institutions on the Web 2.0 are different kind of museums and cultural institutions. References Anderson, Paul. (2007). All that glisters is not gold’ Web 2.0 and the librarian. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 39 (4), 195- 98. Birdsall, W. F. (2007). Web 2.0 as a social movement. Webology, 4 (2). 10 May 2014 culture? . 4 March 2014.http://www.webology.ir/2007/v4n2/a40.htm Buckley, B. (2008), SueTube: Web 2.0 and copyright infringement, The Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts, 31 ( 2), 235-263.
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