Supporting ‘word-of-mouth’ Social Networks via Collaborative Information Filtering
Article comments
Copyright for this article remains with Ed/ITLib Digital Library, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) and is being published here with permission. Original publication in the Journal of Interactive Learning Research with online access to the article.
Abstract
Altered Vista is an instructional system that supports a form of ‘contextual’ collaborative learning. Its design incorporates an information filtering technique, called collaborative information filtering, which, through computational and statistical means, leverages the work of individuals to benefit a group of users. Altered Vista is designed to provide, upon request, personalized recommendations of Web sites. It can also provide recommendations of like-minded people, thus setting the stage for future collaboration and communication. An empirical study involving in-service and pre-service teachers was conducted using Altered Vista and presents results from an empirical study. The study examined the feasibility and utility of automating the well-known social feature of propagating word-of-mouth opinions within educational settings. It also examined the impact of Altered Vista’s ability to recommend a social network of potentially unknown people.