Difference between revisions of "Convivial Help Sites"
From Internet Database
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| − | The word "tool" in its broadest sense includes objects designed to help us learn, such as books or websites | + | The word "tool" in its broadest sense includes objects or artefacts designed to help us learn, such as books or instructional websites. One large category of instructional websites are so-called "help sites," which are intended to provide the user with help for specific problems. |
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| + | ==Types of Help Websites== | ||
| + | There exist a great many sites that provide all sorts of help in virtually any field of activity. The main types of help websites include the following: | ||
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_help Online help] generally refers to guided assistance to a user of a software product | *[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_help Online help] generally refers to guided assistance to a user of a software product | ||
*A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Review_site review site] prevents reviews about products or services, posted either by professional writers or by site users (see also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rating_sites rating sites]) | *A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Review_site review site] prevents reviews about products or services, posted either by professional writers or by site users (see also [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rating_sites rating sites]) | ||
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*A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wiki] is a collaborative website which allows any user to create or to edit the web pages making up the site | *A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki wiki] is a collaborative website which allows any user to create or to edit the web pages making up the site | ||
| + | ==Making Help Websites Convivial== | ||
The "convivial tool" is one which increases the user's autonomy, augmenting their ability to solve their own problems. While providing help is thus a convivial activity in itself, most help websites are far from being "convivial" since their [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability usability] is generally low. Anyone who has searched for answers in online [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_forum forum]s knows that this experience can resemble searching for a needle in a haystack. Another problem with most help websites is that the information presented is too often untrustworthy, because of the bias or ignorance of the contributors (on a forum one will often find ten wrong anwsers for each right one). | The "convivial tool" is one which increases the user's autonomy, augmenting their ability to solve their own problems. While providing help is thus a convivial activity in itself, most help websites are far from being "convivial" since their [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability usability] is generally low. Anyone who has searched for answers in online [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_forum forum]s knows that this experience can resemble searching for a needle in a haystack. Another problem with most help websites is that the information presented is too often untrustworthy, because of the bias or ignorance of the contributors (on a forum one will often find ten wrong anwsers for each right one). | ||
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==See Also== | ==See Also== | ||
| − | *[[Convivial | + | *[[Convivial Internet]] |
*[[Michael's Projects]] | *[[Michael's Projects]] | ||
[[Category:Projects]] | [[Category:Projects]] | ||
