A del.icio.us opportunity:bringing tagging inside

Blackboard

Dr Malcolm Murray

Learning Technologies Team LeaderInformation Technology Service

2 OverviewIntroduction

• What are tags and tagging?• Motivations for tagging• Use of Tag clouds

Social Aspects of Tagging• Why use it in Blackboard?

Two Implementations• del.icio.us• Bb Scholar

Where might it lead?

3 Caveat/Gag

Durham University is participating as a Product Development Partner in “Project Duckpond” – Scholar v2

As such I have signed a Non Disclosure Agreement about this…

4 Focus

Ask the Audience:• How many people use del.icio.us?• How many use Bb Scholar?

Would you label yourself a:• Teacher• Administrator• Developer • Psychological/Educational Researcher• Lawyer

5

i n t r o d u c t i o n

6 Origin of the Species

Started with:• Bookmarks/Favourites• Word clouds

Then came:• Tags• Tag clouds

7 Bookmarks

Familiar concept• List of URLs• Possibly ordered• May be stored in folders• Tied to a single browser• or PC• Sharing/Export can be tricky

8 Word Clouds

An attempt to help people analyse large volumes of text

• Weighted lists• Textual version of a histogram• Easier to interpret for large numbers of

variables ?

9 Some Crude Examples

10 Temporal Word Cloud

http://chir.ag/phernalia/preztags/

Based on entries in Encyclopedia Britannica:

• e.g. http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116853

• Developed by Chirag Mehta

11 Tags: an age-specific term?

12 Tags sensu del.icio.us

Conventions developing• Short• Single words or rarely camelCase

• Controlled vocabulary• Taxonomy/Folksonomy

13 Tag Clouds

14 Visualising a semantic field

I believe tag clouds are revolutionary in their ability to translate the concepts associated with nearly anything you can think of into a collectively visible and actionable information environment, an environment that carries considerable evidence of the original understandings that precede and inform it.

In a practical information architecture sense, tag clouds can make metadata - one of the more difficult and abstract of the fundamental concepts of the digital universe for the proverbial person on the street - visible in an easily understood fashion.

The genius of tag clouds is to make semantic concepts, the frames of understanding behind those concepts, and their manifestation as applied metadata tangible for many, many people

Joe Lamantiahttp://www.joelamantia.com/blog/archives/ideas/tag_clouds_evolve_understanding_tag_clouds_1.html

The genius of tag clouds is to make semantic concepts, the frames of understanding behind those concepts, and their manifestation as applied metadata tangible for many, many people

15 Ways to use tags & clouds

Searching & Filtering

Navigation aids• http://www.priceline.co.uk/pcln/hotel/re

views/123785• http://83degrees.com/

16 Examples

17

s e r v i c e s

18 del.icio.us

External Web Service• http://del.icio.us

Need to create an account (free)

Optional Browser ToolsTag web pages & add commentsTags can be private or shared

19 Tagging a page

20 del.icio.us – popular tags

21 del.icio.us – recent tags

22 del.icio.us - network

23

i m p l i m e n t a t i o n

24 Integration Drivers at Durham

Three aims of linking del.icio.us and Bb:

• Meet User requests – “can I see my tags in duo?”

• Lure staff to resources – via our tag cloud

• Supporting collaborative learning in courses

25 Blackboard Implementation - 1

26 Breaks out

27 Technical Comments - 1

My del.icio.us Tags Module• Simple • Not JavaScript!• Passwords managed by the User but stored in

Blackboard• Initial data fetch using del.icio.us APIs is saved

on server to reduce the reload/redraw overhead• Module uses standard customisation route• Access can be restricted by institutional role• Still provides the familiar del.icio.us interface• Hard for Service Desk to support

28 Blackboard Implementation - 2

Pass in the request (using JavaScript):

tagName = news

numberOfTags = 4

caller = view

module_id = _853_1

29 Technical Comments - 2

System del.icio.us Tags Module• More complex, uses a Servlet and JavaScript• Passwords managed by the SysAdmin but stored

in Blackboard• Each initial data fetch using del.icio.us APIs is

saved on server to reduce the reload/redraw overhead

• Module uses standard customisation route• Access can be restricted by institutional role• Mimics the familiar del.icio.us interface• Easier for Service Desk to support• Loggable => Learning possible

30 Data Tracking

Added extra tables in separate tablespace on our Bb ORACLE serverLogs:

31 Why log their use?

Although there are lots of tag clouds about, we’ve not seen much research about how people use them.

Do people• Go for the big words?• Go for the new entries?• Browse repeatedly, or grab & go?• Browse alphabetically, or by frequency?• Keep using it?

32 Patterns Found

Still a work in progress…The logging broke after a recent upgrade and wasn’t spotted until late last month

33 Sharing

Course integration found to be tricky• del.icio.us not really designed for this

purpose• Can share links by tagging them as ‘for:’

someone e.g. for:duoteam but these need approved before they are seen by others.

• Some staff were unwilling to have to sign up to a new service and remember this username and password.

• Concerns about another dot.com bubble bursting…

34 Enter Bb Scholar

Also an external web serviceHosted by BlackboardSSO with existing systemGreat Course ToolAdditional Networking Options: Social Bookmarking

Missing a Portal Module?Catch 22: no users = no content = no users

35 Scholar

36 Scholar in a Course

37

r e f l e c t i o n

38 Why do we tag? - 1

• Bring your bookmarks with you• Share them• Manage them• Taxonomy/folksonomy - controlled

vocabulary• Learn with them• Connect with others

39 How do we tag?

• Lack of cultural consensus in digital domain• Optimising the chance of finding it again in the future• Less effort required in maintaining the taxonomy

Rashmi Sinha (September 27, 2005) A cognitive analysis of tagging (or how the lower cognitive cost of tagging makes it popular)http://www.rashmisinha.com/archives/05_09/tagging-cognitive.html

40 Why do we tag? - 2

For many, tagging is for sharing their own information and watching others. Even if you tag mostly to remember your own stuff, it is difficult to remain untouched by the presence of others

• Community hum• Reinforcement• Trendsetter/MavenRashmi Sinha (January 18, 2006) A social analysis of tagging (or how tagging transforms the solitary

browsing experience into a social one) http://www.rashmisinha.com/archives/06_01/social-tagging.html

41 The Wisdom of Crowds

Diversity of opinion • Some tags only used by a few (long tail)

Independence• Large body of taggers from different

places

Decentralisation • User-led• c.f. adding a document to a course• But may be influenced by “key taggers”

Aggregating opinions • Tag clouds and lists

42 Social Bookmarking

Knowing the taggers

http://www.twoantennas.com/projects/delicious-network-explorer/

43 BbWorldBoston

44 Dangers of Tagging

What about the words omitted?• E.g. negative modifiers

Meaning in phrases and pairings• e.g. “collective wisdom”

Anglocentric

45

n e x t

46 Where next – not Scholar v2!

Tagging of content items in Bb?• Private or shared?

Content System • tagging = the new meta data?

47 Where next

Word Cloud tools• to help students analyse documents• staff to interpret free text survey

responses

48 Where next

Word Cloud tools• Help staff interpret free text survey

responses

49 Where next

Picking up temporal trends from tagging

• what’s new to students• what’s popular• what’s no longer accessed?

• Making their connections visible

50 Any more ideas/questions?

malcolm.murray@durham.ac.uk