The opening event of Interdisciplinary Research Week is a panel debate called "Truth, Trust and Trolling: how we handle the web"

It features Les Carr, Wendy Hall, Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon and myself.

Full details here: http://blog.soton.ac.uk/wsi/interdisciplinary-research-week-trust-truth-tro...

For my contribution I decided to focus on what "truth, trust and trolling" could mean in the context of digital literacies.

This is based on current experience with MOOCs and my Curriculum Innovation module Living and Working on the Web:

http://www.haikudeck.com/feedback-in-a-digital-world-education-presentation... (with Olja Rastic- Dulborough)

students publicly blog all their assessments and comment on the work of other students

They provide the majority of module content, by sourcing and sharing relevant materials via their blogposts and tweets

At the end of each topic, they reflect on what they've learned from each other (and from random external contributors!)

The process helps them evaluate the authenticity of content sources and build trusted networks.

Sam tweeted a link to a diagram which two people from her network responded to saying it was false.

So she blogged a response about the importance of checking sources:

http://samanthaeslinger.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/uosm2008-progress-topic-3-...

This led to the feedback shown in the picture.

Blurring boundaries between personal, educational and professional networks

showing off is counter productive, authenticity rules

we can still be truthful by focusing different parts of our lives on different networks

by reading the work of other students, they learn there is no "one right way" - potentially there are many "truths"

student tweet exchanges demonstrate the value of sharing and learning that "truth" has many facets - there are many ways to approach a task and we learn from how others do it

The successful blogger and public speaker Chris Brogan talks about ‘paying it forward’ – meaning we should give before we receive.

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/feeding-your-system/

Focus on sharing useful information with your network and commenting on relevant blog posts on an ongoing basis, so that when you need some help in return, your request is well received and is actioned positively

This interaction is between a student and an Australian Marketing Director for recruitment companies (@chyams, 10,000 followers)

Kim contacted Carolyn to thank for sharing a useful article...a helpful dialogue began and a good contact was made.

Malicious or random disruption is possible due to public nature of online work (but not observed on CIP module or MOOC)

In my experience, personal attacks tend to come from very close to home rather than from random strangers online

The lone WebSci MOOC troll was criticised by some learners, but ignored by most.

I have known of only one case of online impersonation of a student - it was a nasty one though

Building their social capital and adding to their employability :-)

http://blog.soton.ac.uk/digichamps/blog/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/181627485256086/

NB - I think the birds are feeding each other, but Olja says they are fighting :-)

#myglassishalffull

MOOC enthusiast and online marketing educator at the University of Southampton.

Occasional bright ideas for Curriculum Innovation and development of the Web Science Institute and Digital Economy Research Group.

Fascinated by disruptive effect of technology on business and education. Open access only please. Carpe Diem.