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Tech Report kmi-06-15 Abstract


ERA (Enabling Remote Activity): A KMi designed system to support remote participation by mobility disabled students in geology field trips
Techreport ID: kmi-06-15
Date: 2006
Author(s): Mark Gaved, Lewis McCann, Chris Valentine
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This paper describes the design and initial field testing of the ERA (Enabling Remote Activity) system - a mobile wireless network devised by the Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) to support participation by mobility impaired students in geology fieldwork trips. We describe our approach and its relevance in educational and network research. We describe the set of tools implemented to facilitate remote learning, report on trial tests and lessons learnt. Finally we suggest future possible developments for the system and how it may be more widely applied.

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Social Software is...


Social Software
Social Software can be thought of as "software which extends, or derives added value from, human social behaviour - message boards, musical taste-sharing, photo-sharing, instant messaging, mailing lists, social networking."

Interacting with other people not only forms the core of human social and psychological experience, but also lies at the centre of what makes the internet such a rich, powerful and exciting collection of knowledge media. We are especially interested in what happens when such interactions take place on a very large scale -- not only because we work regularly with tens of thousands of distance learners at the Open University, but also because it is evident that being part of a crowd in real life possesses a certain 'buzz' of its own, and poses a natural challenge. Different nuances emerge in different user contexts, so we choose to investigate the contexts of work, learning and play to better understand the trade-offs involved in designing effective large-scale social software for multiple purposes.