Nicholas Bowskill

One thing about joining in with a community like this is that you sometimes forget that it is global and that it means there will be non-english speakers. I was suddenly struck when hearing the point raised by Carlos that we have an intercultural community here.

In this moment of realisation I thought that here is something that needs to be addressed by SCOPE (and any other similar networked community). We need to find ways of facilitating the voice of those non-western voices to be heard. No point being in a connected world and then only hearing white western middle class people, as valid and useful as they may also be.

Nick

Hi Sylvia,

I absolutely love SCOPE. Its one of those places where I feel some substantive issues are discussed from a critical perspective. On top of that we are all offered access to perspectives from around the world.

I used to be a member of TappedIn which I also valued but a bit like Second Life etc I find there's a lot more 'noise' in such environments that is interesting but can be a barrier to meaningful dialogue.

I also love the way it drops into my inbox despite me often forgetting to subscribe to some of them. This means that I can follow the conversation without the need to log in to a web site. I can also reply if and when I have something to say. I have enjoyed several topics without having contributed to them (although I recognise the issues raised in being an audience rather than a participant).

It's an effort to think of ways it might be improved because it is so good. I like the openness of the space and the way that its not an assessed form of professional development.

Perhaps if there was a newsletter or digest or a report on each topic afterwards that could be helpful. Such a report might marry themes from the literature with the conversations that came out of the topic.

Or even just to have a report on the conversation once it was over. That would be a potentially interesting resource. For that particular purpose one of the hosts might act as a news reporter summarising what went on and the issues raised etc.

It would even be possible to invite participants from the community to write a short report from their perspective on the topic. That would be a kind of inside view akin to a post-match report created by one of the learners/participants/players.

I'm not sure where it would be going in the next few years. One way it could go is to develop a wider picture of practice from specific countries or continents. That might be a focus on Africa for example. Or a view from China etc. Each quarter or even for one quarter SCOPE could host an intercultural focus not just by having intercultural input but by having that interculturality instantiated by a travelling focus on difference and different specific cultures.

There's a lot could be done but you've also done a lot too. I'd like to say well done! Lots to celebrate there.

Nick

Scotland 

Dear Cindy,

This is a huge topic isn't it? And an interesting one too. It's difficult to know where to start but thanks for making some marks in the sand to get us placed.

There are a number of terms that we're using here any one of which could be the subject of a forum/seminar. I mention them to try and help me think some of them through as much as anything.

Communities is becoming a word used in many different ways. I've worked on online courses as a learning community. It was a defined knowable group of people who were mutually supportive of each other's learning. But this is also a term used for evolving groups that are more distributed in terms of time and places. Scope for example and more recently the idea of MOOCs etc.

What comes out of that particular term is a sense of the facilitation of a certain 'disposition' towards learning and towards each other. That is sometimes invoked by tutors and course designers as a way of signalling a kind of culture that is being anticipated. That might be distinct from the kind of culture that may be suggested by a more 'instructional' approach, for example whilst still being a learning design tool. 

In that sense the popularity of the term 'openness' may be functioning as the same kind of thing in more distributed settings. Perhaps again it is really indicating a cultural format for thinking together globally and indicating an intended disposition towards each other (as much as towards any particular content).

I don't feel communication, however important, is really telling the whole story here. And I have a sense of 'openness' as the new 'community' with all those questions still unresolved about power relationships, expectations of each other, boundaries, different knowledges, ownership etc all still unresolved.

I guess I'm just questioning the concepts of community and openness regardless of the communication that happens within such frameworks. Does social media point us to other 'dispositional' and 'design' alternatives? Are they just as questionable in other more fractured ways of communicating?

Best wishes,

Nick,

Glasgow 

David, you are really welcome and I'm glad if it helped. Let me know how it went if you do adopt that approach. I think its really interesting looking at this kind of setup where an organisation like Scope hosts public/open seminars. You are welcome to use my comments as data but there is, in some contexts, a whole raft of issues to do with ethics here.

For instance, I would be thinking about how you would understand the data from different sources in such settings. By this I mean, who owns it or does not own it and for what purposes might it be used? You might also ask about my rights to regard this as usable data versus yours or anyone elses. These are potentially big issues because they raise different perspectives on the notion of giving and obtaining consent for such data to be used. Are we opening up new ethical issues if we regard this as 'open' data? I am working on a project and co-writing materials that would argue that we are already creating new ethical issues in these new formats and environments. It's really interesting actually (well it is to someone as sad as me anyway).

Anyway, these are all interesting issues but for now you may have enough stuff to deal with ;-) Good luck with it all and have fun. Let me know how it goes if you use it as well.

Nick

You're really welcome Ila and good luck with it. I should also have mentioned that before any of that is done it should go past your equivalent of an ethics committee for approval. If it involves other organisations or universities then they should be invited to approve it as well before continuing. A lot depends upon the context in which you carry out your research. 

Also when you've briefed the interviewee you should let them know that they are welcome to withdraw from the research interview at any time during the interview with no consequences for them or their work.

Coincidentally, I am involved in writing some guidelines for ethics in social media and other technologies. That would include student-generated materials, immersive environments like Second Life etc. Those environments can add substantially to the ethical issues raised for researchers. That could constitute a whole seminar or course on their own so I won't drag on about it here. 

It would be interesting to me if you would like to share something more about your context and your planned research. Who are your audience/sample, for instance?

Either way, the very best of luck and enjoy it too. I think the fieldwork is often the most fun initially.

Nick