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myNetworks - a collaborative web environment for sustainable environmental technology Urs Karl Egger; Andreas Schonborn and Marcia Pereira There is still a huge knowledge gap between North and South and within the South. Many development organisations and institutions, experts, consultants and coaches located worldwide need updated and adapted information and knowledge to tackle the prevailing problems. Often, it is not so easy for them to get information and knowledge and attending a course somewhere is time consuming and costly. The Internet has somewhat facilitated the access to information and knowledge. But often it is not easy to find the right information and one does not know whether one can trust this source. Existing face-to-face and on-line courses still focus on the one-way transfer from the teacher to the student. Normally, after the training the course folder is placed somewhere in the bookshelf. In addition, the knowledge transfer in the classical courses style has difficulties to deal with the cultural gap between the Western world and the South and Eastern Asian tradition.
The Idea – A collaborative web environment The community of active professionals in Ecological Engineering (EE) is presently struggling with the above-mentioned problems. EE is a rather young discipline in the field of Engineering Sciences, yet at the same time it is an old field that builds on hundreds of years of experience in South and East Asia. EE can be defined as the “design of sustainable systems consistent with ecological principles that integrates human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both” (Bergen 1997). The International Ecological Engineering Society (IEES) has started to develop the collaborative web environment “myNetWorks” in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The goal of this new web environment is to generate an on-line learning community that is able to exchange basic principles, course materials and approaches to problem solving in the areas of sustainable environmental technology, via common activities and courses. myNetWorks aims to nurture and sustain an online community of practitioners and academics, without following a one-sided technological viewpoint. Social and economic aspects play an important role alongside the technical and ecological aspects. Last but not the least, the promotion of collaboration and exchange between developing and developed countries shall be facilitated.
Objectives The specific objectives of myNetWorks are as follows:
The objective of myNetWorks is therefore not only to provide tools for capturing and locating, transferring and sharing of knowledge but also for enabling knowledge creation.
The target groups of myNetWorks are engineers, technical experts, teaching staff and students at educational institutions (universities and colleges); project staff and partner organisations of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and its coordination offices; consultants working on behalf of SDC and of other development organisations and non-governmental organisations in developing and developed countries.
myNetWorks offers five main spaces for information and communication: an entrance space giving an overview and general information; a personal space, a strictly private space where users can access their own profile and collect their own information, a resource space with a common collection of articles, photos, case studies, chat records, reports, links, downloadable software, among others; an exchange space that gives access to discussion forums and chat rooms; among other communication functionalities; and a courses space where all the course related activities and information are accessed.
The use of labels helps to classify resources and
functionalities. Documents are labelled as “reviewed” (by the
editors) or “not reviewed”. Chat or discussion groups have “free
access” or “restricted access”, they may be “moderated” or “not
moderated”. This allows a quick visualization of the state or
quality of a resource or function. Course Concept The concept for the structure of the courses provided on myNetWorks is based on “reflective practice” theories and on the socio-constructivist approach. A major difference to other e-learning platforms is that the courses on myNetWorks are held in a workshop-style. They make largely use of real case studies and therefore impart practical, applicable knowledge. Participants are encouraged to compare case studies with their own experiences, share them with others and to reflect upon the presented learning material. In this way, a learning process can be established where knowledge is not only transferred one-way from a trainer to a student but is recreated by participants according to their experiences. Learning and knowledge sharing on myNetWorks takes place in different ways:
In addition, conference calls can complement the dialogues on myNetWorks.
myNetWorks was developed on the basis of the web
environment provided by the “The Network University” (TNU) .
During the development of myNetWorks a needs assessment was carried out to identify users’ needs. The assessment was made in two ways: short workshops with three focus groups and an electronic survey in the EE community. The results of the assessments defined the main target users of the environment and actions that these target users would perform within the environment, The highest interest was on a working environment for networking and exchange. The highest rated option in the electronic survey was “quickly accessing other people’s experiences in dealing with similar problems”. The respondents were also interested in quickly finding information that could help them to develop their projects. “Time to access the web environment” was the most important restriction among the respondents and although “restricted access to the internet” was not a great problem among our respondents, low bandwidth was, especially in developing countries The initial needs assessment generated important input and was determinant in the development of myNetWorks according to the users’ needs.
The development of the web environment “myNetWorks” is divided into three phases. The initiation phase was started in May 2002 and ended after the test workshop in February 2003. During the implementation phase (June 2003 until December 2005) it is planned to run 3 or 4 courses and workshops per year, which still have a pilot character, with continuous and user-driven networking activities going on all the time. It is planned to fully open myNetWorks for course activities in 2005.
To check the developed prototype of myNetWorks a 2-week test workshop on “Guidelines for effective ecologically engineered wastewater solutions” was carried out from February 10 to 21, 2003. After the test workshop the implementation phase of myNetWorks has started. Together with partner organisations approximately 12 workshops will be conducted on myNetWorks. In cooperation with various universities and educational institutions a system of credits, which is appropriate to the modular workshop style concept of myNetWorks, is to be developed for selected courses. An important issue is the design of a sustainable business model. The basic idea of myNetWorks is to be an open platform to as many participants as possible. However, some financial return will be necessary to become financially sustainable. The course fees will be adjusted according to the financial means of the relevant target group and ill be regionally differentiated. All workshop participants will receive one year of free access to the myNetWorks community. Interested people who do not wish to participate in a workshop, but nevertheless would like to utilise the other aspects of myNetWorks, can register as user, with the payment of an annual fee. It is anticipated that myNetWorks community will grow to at least 2000 members in 3 to 4 years.
In this paper the design and development of the web environment “myNetWorks” - an online learning community for professionals in the area of sustainable environmental technology have been presented. A first test workshop with worldwide participation generated important hints for future developments. In general, the feedback from participants in the test workshop seems very positive, although there are still some challenges to tackle. In the implementation phase of the web environment these teething troubles will now be solved. Nevertheless, the limits of myNetWorks should not be neglected. This web environment will and can never replace face-to-face courses, trainings and workshops.
But overall the conclusion can be drawn that myNetWorks
has the potential to become a powerful tool for knowledge sharing on
sustainable environmental technologies.
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The specific
platform for myNetWorks was programmed with PHP and mySQL. To use
myNetWorks, users need Windows 95 or Mac OS9 (or newer), the
Internet Explorer 5 or Netscape 4.76 (or newer) and the Acrobat
Reader 5. The URL of “myNetWorks” is: http://www.mynetworks.org.