Social Networking among Students

In the preparation phase students used blogs, flickr and flash-meeting conferences for communication. During this phase, each student and facilitator has introduced himself or herself by (1) publishing personal profile which included educational background, personal interests, and contact details (using blogs); (2) publishing a photo (using flickr and blogs), and (3) doing an oral presentation of oneself in a virtual meeting where all facilitators and students participated. The virtual meeting of students and facilitators had a very significant impact on further social networking. Students from four countries had felt like in real “meeting” meeting, where they presented information about themselves, asked questions. The purpose was to give an opportunity of visual contact and strengthen disembodied. During the implementation phase the social networking among cross-cultural group members was elaborated the most significantly. The first attempt for e-collaboration among cross-cultural group members was a creation of virtual space for group communication, that is, the group blog. The group blog was used by individual group members to post their insights about the artifact development. The facilitator assigned to the group became an extra member of the group blog. While working on an artifact development, the group members communicated by means of e-mails, Skype or MS Messenger chats or video conferences (mainly using Flashmeeting) and not in face-to-face. In the reporting phase the main mean of communication was e-mail which students used to send their evaluation marks to facilitators.

Social Networking among Facilitators

The computer mediated communication was the main mean of social networking among facilitators except for one face-to-face meeting held in one of the iCamp project conferences prior to the preparation phase of the trial. Facilitators used e-mail, Flashmeeting video conferences and postings on the Nextspace virtual environment. The Nextspace virtual space was open not just to facilitators but also to other members and administrators of the iCamp project involving all of them into social networking and virtual discussions about iCamp events and problems.