When it comes to participation at events, why do people think more is better?
Should we hold the idea that "further" is better, instead? I think the things that are worth doing (within the realm of leading communities that are committed to inquiry) are guided by passion and insight. Sometimes you have to trust your own felt passion and assumed insight and push an inquiry regardless of the numbers. It turns out that online inquiries will hang around and the record will be used by "lurkers" WAY after that first point of pushing through the doubts.
Still it has to be said that the number of participants in more or less synchronous time DOES matter -- it DOES tell us something. Just not everything.
John Smith
Posts made by John Smith
Toward the end of the conversation we tried to articulate some of the questions that were emerging. Here is my reconstruction / elaboration from the chat room notes.
* Learning from Helen's example: the strategy to support Stafforshire University faculty and staff, people from a global population were recruited and served. Should every institution replicate that strategy or is it OK if some "ride the coat-tails" of Stafforshire?
* What can new technologies, such as ELGG, which make it easy for people to set up their own little groups, bring to a community or system of communities? What's the effect on the "mother community" of a proliferation of such small groups, or of expanding the community network with ELGG?
* As we seek to support learning at a large scale, is it more important to support "networks" or "communities"? Are people seeking one more than the other? Does one lead to the other?
* As we expand the ways that people can connect, do we reach a saturation point, where the community feeling that we seek is lost?
* Learning from Helen's example: the strategy to support Stafforshire University faculty and staff, people from a global population were recruited and served. Should every institution replicate that strategy or is it OK if some "ride the coat-tails" of Stafforshire?
* What can new technologies, such as ELGG, which make it easy for people to set up their own little groups, bring to a community or system of communities? What's the effect on the "mother community" of a proliferation of such small groups, or of expanding the community network with ELGG?
* As we seek to support learning at a large scale, is it more important to support "networks" or "communities"? Are people seeking one more than the other? Does one lead to the other?
* As we expand the ways that people can connect, do we reach a saturation point, where the community feeling that we seek is lost?
Le estava comentando a Paul Stacey que me parece que hay un riesgo enfatizar la parte que juega la teconologia en todo esto (aunque estamos hablando de comunidades que viven en un medio tecnologico).
Como vamos a enterarnos de las destrezas que tienen los docentes que esperamos en estas mismas comunidades? Anoche estuve an una charla por una antropologa que trabaja en Microsoft que habia estado estudiando la actividad de leer por muchos anyos. Ella estaba diciendo que en los EEUU en las generaciones hasta las recientes solo se les ensenyaba a escribir "en maquinilla" a las mujeres. Me imagino que hay muchas destrezas como esas (how to use a keyboard) que son muy importantes y que deben ser parte de un vistazo de los elementos humanos que van a determinar la contribucion de las comunidades o los sistemas de comundades.
Como vamos a enterarnos de las destrezas que tienen los docentes que esperamos en estas mismas comunidades? Anoche estuve an una charla por una antropologa que trabaja en Microsoft que habia estado estudiando la actividad de leer por muchos anyos. Ella estaba diciendo que en los EEUU en las generaciones hasta las recientes solo se les ensenyaba a escribir "en maquinilla" a las mujeres. Me imagino que hay muchas destrezas como esas (how to use a keyboard) que son muy importantes y que deben ser parte de un vistazo de los elementos humanos que van a determinar la contribucion de las comunidades o los sistemas de comundades.
I have a nagging feeling that we're too focused on the technology side... on finding one or more tools that will bring it all together.
It seems to me that we need to develop a language for describing and supporting all the communities in such a system with policies, attention, and even support for community leaders / facilitators.
Just a gut feeling.
It seems to me that we need to develop a language for describing and supporting all the communities in such a system with policies, attention, and even support for community leaders / facilitators.
Just a gut feeling.
Paul,
I thought the slides you used this morning were a great way of putting a lot of the issues on the table. Are you planning on sharing them with us?
I thought the slides you used this morning were a great way of putting a lot of the issues on the table. Are you planning on sharing them with us?