Reflections and Next Steps: August 23-31, 2010

Hi Sylvia,
I'm really glad you've provided this opportunity to reflect together on what I think is a fascinating initiative you have here. It raises so many issues and questions in my mind not least about ideas to do with 'open everything' and web 2.0/3.0 and all the rest.

Let me say up front and early on that I think this is an example of wonderful and valuable community - a sense of kinship and shared interests etc. I also want to be critical as a way of trying to understand my own thoughts and those of others here. In that vein then I wonder about the future of other notional and similar initiatives. Is this one working because there are few others provided by institutions for example? Might it be seen for less virtuous goals as a device for marketing to get the name out there and then recruit people or exploit the participants as data? Alternatively, should we each have our own goals and purposes in a spirit of shared data?

I tried to think about this in the context of web 2.0 etc. with inputs here equating to pictures and videos posted online to youtube and flickr etc. I view them as more openly exploitative in that they use a crowd to view the adverts and sell data to others. Despite this people do enjoy those facilities and gain enough from them to be indifferent to the consequences. Again we might say the spirit of shared data and mutual benefit applies.

I think with Scope there is a community of shared feelings and ideas and mutual support in a spirit of enquiry. Web 2.0 on the other hand strikes me as an illusion of community. I tend to view that concept as something akin to leaving my house door open and then everyone else in the street/town/world leaving their doors open. The contents are shared but there is no real sense of knowing each other or caring about each other. Scope does have a feeling of reciprocity and a coming together of people rather than just a coming together of content.

So, from all of this rambling I would say that this is participatory and relational learning and that much of this is conditional upon perception and disposition coupled with power/opportunity to gain something meaningful from it.

Whatever way we view it I *like* Scope. Thanks for the questions, for being here and for the opportunity to discuss this together.

Nick
Faculty of Education,
University of Glasgow
Scotland

http://www.sharedthinking.info

It is great to take a few moments to thank everyone for the experiences and the generous contributions by all. Thanks to Scope participants, I feel more in tune with what is happening and with a community of learners in online learning and teaching and technology.

I do not participate as much now, as I used to, when I was a student -- mostly because I'm way to busy with work, and just having the opportunity to contribute and to lurk keeps me reading and reflecting on a regular basis.

I'm presenting in NY in a month on Dance/movement therapy and technology and I know that my confidence to present is partly because of the modeling from Scope presenters. There is professional effort and care put into all the interactive presentations facilitated on Scope. The learning bar is high, but the support is sensed.

I am honored to be part of this community and look forward to this continued outreach to others as I think it is live giving and more than a virtual exchange. I hope to take more time to integrate what I learn, yet I feel I am learning and that encourages me to keep engaged.

Thanks everyone,
Jo Ann

Sylvia, I've been meaning to contact you for some time to thank you and tell you how much I appreciate YOU, this SCOPE community you started, and the modeling YOU do for me as a learning community facilitator. I've learned more from you and the SCOPE community about how to accomplish professional development through discussions in this format than any other single person or source. My user experience is perfect and I do not have any suggestions to change it. I am ever so grateful for the topic announcements and the promotion that happens through my subscriptions to the site.