I find the idea of formal recognition for informal learning problematic. It is like trying to measure smell with a ruler, or distance with a sponge.
Participation that is intrinsically motivated - you participate because your participation has some kind of value or meaning for itself - is fundamentally different from extrinsically motivated participation - where your activity is principally aimed at achieving some kind of ulterior target, but is not necessarily of itself important. There can be overlap, but the two should not be confused.
My perception of Scope up to now is that people contribute when they are interested in the discussion and feel they have something to contribute. The level of "noise" is therefore low; most posts are highly focused, relevant and bring something new to the discussion. That is why we keep returning.
In courses where participation is part of the assessment process, the noise level increases. People post because they have to. There can be a lot of thinly disguised repetition and circular debate.
Of course recognition would be nice, but I would hazard that up to now people have participated because Scope is valuable to them of itself. My own anecdotal experience is that those who know Scope tend to value references to participation in Scope but though valuable, this is informal relational recognition and therefore perhaps less "cast iron" than official accreditation (though often more effective).
I suspect that implementing some kind of official accreditation might devalue Scope. I see Scope as a kind of virtual staff room in many respects; especially because the kind of conversations that take place remind me of the discussions that can happen in staff rooms. In staff rooms, when the director, or school head, (or whoever is responsible for evaluating staff performance etc) walks in, there can be a lull in the conversation.
The evidence of the very interesting previous debates is that though the issues are clear enough, workable solutions are some way off (if they are feasible at all).
Nick Kearney
Posts made by Nick Kearney
Curious, I was reflecting on the poverty of satellite navigation this weekend. I was taught with the detailed Ordnance Survey maps of the UK. You can look at these and practically see the landscape. Compared to this richness for me using the system was like being led blindfolded. And frustrating therefore.
I wonder if the resistance I encounter frequently to the idea of mind maps is not a question of cognitive styles, but rather that many, whatever their "style" have their way of "mapping" the terrain. Each to their own, like handwriting. Early childhood curricula should perhaps teach us different ways of organising and relating concepts. And as long as we find a way that is comfortable to us, and more comprehensible than the average doctor's scribbled prescription, then vive la difference?
Mind you, my doctor has taken to typing....
I wonder if the resistance I encounter frequently to the idea of mind maps is not a question of cognitive styles, but rather that many, whatever their "style" have their way of "mapping" the terrain. Each to their own, like handwriting. Early childhood curricula should perhaps teach us different ways of organising and relating concepts. And as long as we find a way that is comfortable to us, and more comprehensible than the average doctor's scribbled prescription, then vive la difference?
Mind you, my doctor has taken to typing....
I always thought the whole point of mind maps is that they allow you to view (through a glass darkly) the alien planet inside someone else 's head. They are an instrument for dialogue, part of the process, never the product.
Interesting. I can't say anything about "Tools" unless I reply to your posting. Pretty constricting.
Yes Sandy. I felt constricted. so the first thing I did was to go out into the garden and answer you. Beautiful moonlit night.I felt so free. But I don't think you heard.
Forgive the tone, but the comment seems to me part of a backlash I have been hearing recently that criticises anything social and raises up the individual at the expense of other group voices. Worrying in my view, I view it as a political issue, and profoundly anti-democratic, and from your other posts I think you may agree. Or not.
Having to reply is not constricting, it is a basic element of human dialogue to reply TO someone, and that is why so many of the tools we use are linear. Linear helps.
However I don't think many of these people who collaborate here would have difficulties dealing with multiple mutable threads. We have myriad ways of moving across boundaries, playing with limits, but we will always endlessly be replying.
Best to you
Nick
Yes Sandy. I felt constricted. so the first thing I did was to go out into the garden and answer you. Beautiful moonlit night.I felt so free. But I don't think you heard.
Forgive the tone, but the comment seems to me part of a backlash I have been hearing recently that criticises anything social and raises up the individual at the expense of other group voices. Worrying in my view, I view it as a political issue, and profoundly anti-democratic, and from your other posts I think you may agree. Or not.
Having to reply is not constricting, it is a basic element of human dialogue to reply TO someone, and that is why so many of the tools we use are linear. Linear helps.
However I don't think many of these people who collaborate here would have difficulties dealing with multiple mutable threads. We have myriad ways of moving across boundaries, playing with limits, but we will always endlessly be replying.
Best to you
Nick