Cooperative research and collaborative learning

There are also examples in the formal learning sector of gradually developing a robust technology and customizing the application to enhance and build learning. At Malaspina University College in British Columbia, there are two examples of interactive databases that support cooperative research, both among learners and researchers engaged at the same time in a project, and between one cohort and subsequent groups of learners and researchers.

In one example, a multimedia application developed for researchers working in the field of killer whale vocalization became a huge sound database that each student can use, adding their own input for others to use. Essentially, once sounds were recorded, the user could isolate one segment of sound, make notes about the whale behavior for that segment and save that particular sound and the descriptive notes to a new screen. By adding the element of interactivity, users can dynamically add to and change the application for other users, as well as building up a dynamic body of research over time.

The other example from Malaspina involves the development of a stream survey database which has been built up over time. Each year, students walk up the streambed making video and audio notes as they observe the bed, link it to the GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) and input information into a database. One year, aquaculture students might concentrate on the salmon in the stream, the next year biology students might document the vegetation, a third year students might look at soil structures and so on. Again, the user is customizing the database and making it more and more useful for others, contributing to longitudinal studies.

Women's Studies

Using the new technologies to build histories and databases, whether they be of women's lives or whale vocalizations, can contribute to knowledge creation and learning. At Massey College in New Zealand, a new Women's Studies Program includes an extensive distance education component (all but one core undergraduate course are offered at a distance). Program developers have identified two skills sets as necessary for their undergraduates (both intramural and extramural): familiarity with communications technologies like e-mail, file transfer, gopher and the Internet: and educational "chat" programs. With access to one on one tutoring to help them learn computer skills, first year students are assigned projects which will introduce them to online feminist resources, with the intent that by, the completion of their studies, students will be able to design and compile databases. "The impetus for this comes from a lack of oral histories of women's lives and the sense that networked knowledge bases that have social issues as their focus may be able to become learning and activist tools of use to both the university and community-based feminists."⁶³

Management training

In the Northwest Territories the government is currently implementing a long term plan to double the representation of Inuit people in the public service. The challenge is how to provide the required education and training for learners who are dispersed over a vast area. The Human Resources Planning department has negotiated a tripartite agreement on Inuit training (Inuit group, the federal government, and the NWT). The project employs a variety of technologies to address the challenges of the project. Vast distances in the North present a significant barrier. Discouraged by the results of packaged computerized learning without support mechanisms, they have turned to a blend of techniques that combine information/communication technologies and personal support.

The program uses management training courses currently offered by the Canadian Centre for Management Development in Ottawa. Participants, all employed adults, spend two and a half weeks per year in a classroom, and the rest of the time keep in touch by e-mail to instructors and by using technology to form peer support groups. Mentoring in the workplace and participation in different development assignments are integral parts of the training plan. The initial perception is that the first year is going well. A student evaluation is yet to come.