GUEST EDITORS
Francisco J. Garcia-Peñalvo, PhD, Universidad de Salamanca, SPAIN.
Ricardo Colomo-Palacios, PhD, Universidad Carlos III, SPAIN.
Miltiadis D. Lytras, PhD, The American College of Greece, GREECE.
INTRODUCTION
Web 2.0 or Social Web is changing the way users express themselves in Internet. Everyone has the opportunity to be an author, a photographer, a video maker, a blogger or thousands of other possibilities.
The social activities that occur in the Web 2.0 provide further scenarios for communication and interaction. This exchange of information and the interactions that occur as a result of it, make it the perfect informal learning environment. Jay Cross states in his book Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways that Inspire Innovation and Performance that „workers learn more in the coffee room than in the classroom.‟ Perhaps using this metaphor we can suggest that Web 2.0 or Social Networks more specifically, are the new coffee rooms. However the question remains whether enterprises and other types of institution have fully discovered the power of the Social Web for both informal learning and permanent learning, and the potential that it has for combination with more traditional training methods.
We would like to know of both successful and unsuccessful cases where Social Web platforms have been used for informal learning in training processes linked to the workplace. We are also interested in the technical issues of the platforms used for this purpose. Here, the questions pile up: Are these platforms ad-hoc ones? Are these platforms developed from scratch? Are these platforms mush-up applications integrated in corporate portals? Do the existing learning environments support new social tools? Do institutions choose open learning environments? How about workers?
This special issue is devoted to answering the questions above. This includes a wide spectrum of topics, but we are especially interested in the current practices used to manage informal learning in workplaces which are based on Web 2.0 solutions. This issue intends to emphasise how informal learning changes or influences online information in the Social Web and the training strategies used in institutions.
TOPICS
Areas for inclusion in this special issue comprise of those related to Informal Learning based on the Social Web. Every submission must spell out distinctly the implications of findings for both online information and training in the workplace.
Topics covered include but are not limited to:
- Social Web informal learning cases: successful and unsuccessful histories
- Social networking for informal learning
- Authoring rights and copyright licenses in Web 2.0 informal learning
- Informal learning and Open knowledge relationships
- Knowledge management in informal learning
- Technological issues related to informal learning platforms
- Corporate blogging and nanoblogging and their influence on informal learning
- Codified Vs. Not-codified knowledge management and Web 2.0 in enterprises
- Learning organizations and informal learning supported by Web 2.0
- Multicultural issues about the informal learning enabled by the Social Web
- Sociosemantic Web and informal learning in the workplace.
KEY DATES
| Paper Submission: | 15th March 2011 |
| Final decisions: | 31th May 2011 |
| Submission of Revised Papers: | 30th June 2011 |
| Final submission to BIT: | 31th July 2011 |
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
Manuscripts should not exceed 18 double-spaced pages. Papers should be prepared according to the BIT‟s guidelines for authors and should be submitted online. Illustrations must be provided in separate files to the main text of the article in TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), PostScript or EPS (encapsulated PostScript) format. APA Publication Manual style is used and the use of colour is discouraged.
The guidelines for authors and the online submission portal are available at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tbit. Submission is through the standard BIT website, all submissions should be submitted clearly stating they are for the Special Issue on “Informal Learning in work environments: Training with the Social Web in the workplace”. All papers will be blind reviewed.
Potential authors should contact Francisco J. García-Peñalvo (fgarcia@usal.es)
Ricardo Colomo-Palacios (ricardo.colomo@uc3m.es) or Miltiadis D. Lytras (Lytras@ceid.upatras.gr) with any questions about the special issue.