The Informatics Seminar is held on Fridays at 3:00pm in ICS2 136 followed by a social hour at 4:00pm. This week’s social hour will also be a chance to meet with faculty candidate Tapan Parikh. Please join us!

This week’s Informatics Seminar speaker will be Professor Werner Beuschel.

Abstract: Recent system developments in the realm of Social Software and
Web x.0 created high hopes in many application areas. But is there a way
from the buzz to concepts? In this talk I will seek an answer focusing on
the potenzial of Social Software to support informal learning processes
within a curriculum. But before we try to develop new practices of
learning through Social Software we should explore our understanding of
the terms in order to gain common ground for devising and evaluating
concepts. This leads us to the question whether there actually is a
research field above and beyond the current collection of applications
like Weblogs, Podcasts, Wikis or social networking systems. The answer I
want to develop provides a perspective in terms of a media view. With
any analytical approach we should also be reminded of the interdependency
between theoretical understanding and subsequent findings. Some examples
of professional social networking systems, originating in Germany, are
used to illustrate the media perspective. A variety of student projects
under development then serves to explore issues and dilemmas of informal
learning concepts. Among the systems are a Web-based frame for
personalizable homepages, a review system for students’ homework, and
the Europe-wide project “Directly to the Chancellor”.

Biography: Werner is professor of information management at the
University of Applied Sciences in Brandenburg, Germany. He acquired
his Ph.D. in computer science in 1987 from the Technical University of
Berlin. Most recently he was on the board of directors for the 5-year
federal project “Virtual University of Applied Sciences”. More than
600 students are now enrolled in its various online-curricula. Ever
since working at ICS as a post-doc, Werner was a regular visitor many
times, currently staying with the department of Informatics during
winter and spring. His research interests are CSCL, Social Software,
and Collaborative Virtual Environments.