Enabling professional learning in distributed communities of practice: Descriptors for multimedia objects

Smith, Christine and Goodyear, Peter (1999) Enabling professional learning in distributed communities of practice: Descriptors for multimedia objects. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 22 (2). pp. 133-145. ISSN 1084-8045

Abstract

This paper explores how we may use multimedia communications technologies to enable key elements of real-world working knowledge, that are tacit and embedded in working practices to be rendered into shareable forms for professional learning. Communications technology offers innovative ways for geographically distributed communities of practitioners to create, annotate, discuss and reflect upon multimedia objects that capture working practices, such as problems of practice. The paper reports on work-in-progress on multimedia objects (primarily digitized video clips). Use of multimedia in professional learning is a relatively novel approach, and it is surfacing issues about the requirements for creating shareable, effective representations. A set of descriptors for multimedia objects has been developed and the paper focuses on applying the descriptors to an example video clip, to identify potential relationships between the descriptors. The duration of the clip, its use of artefacts and the social cues given in the clip are considered key factors in creating a shareable representation for discussion and reflection among practitioners in distributed professional communities