Jeffrey Keefer

Christine, I just finished teaching a business communication 2-week intensive course, where the communication model I used included a significant element of WIIFM (What's In It For Me) as well, and I think that clearly stating it here within the context of an open learning environment is quite refreshing.

Take that, you educational objectives written by other people!!

Nellie Deutsch wrote,

I must confess that I was amazed by the participants' openness and positive approach to the interview.

Nellie, as I am developing my own abilities, skills, understanding, and identity as a researcher, I am also amazed at how generous people who I interview are with sharing their stories and learnings. I am not sure to what extent I would be able to do this, though since all of my interviews have been via Skype (or DimDim or my cell phone when Skype does not work), the auditory rather than visual cues may indeed help in the forthcoming experiences that are shared.

Janet, I have been reading these posts (I love Moodle email alerts!), and am finally getting an opportunity to post a response here and begin contributing back.

My name is Jeffrey Keefer, and I live and work in New York City while am studying toward my PhD in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning at Lancaster University in the UK (hello, Justin!).

I am interested in the stories and experiences we tell and share about how we develop our identities, and tend to look at things through an educational lens of transformative learning, threshold concepts, and communities of practice. I find that my E-Research work takes most expression through my blog Silence and Voice and Twitter.

With so many rich questions to engage us here at the beginning of this workshop, I will end this intro with some thoughts about my goals for what I hope to learn or gain from this. I hope to explore the current landscape of this area with a group of really interesting people as I am beginning to more seriously consider my thesis (dissertation in the US) area. Additionally, I have read Janet's work over the years, and am interested in seeing how it, too, has developed.

Janet-

This looks like an interesting discussion, and I just ordered your book. I recall speaking with you in the past when you discussed your work for this, and am glad it is now in print. It seems this may be a very useful discussion here.

Question about this, which may in turn help other people who are considering some of these issues. It seems your work may be about online synchronous interviews using chat, virtual worlds, message boards and the like -- does it also include synchronous online calls, such as via Skype or DimDim, where there is real-time phone-based discussion?

Looking forward to next week.

Jeffrey

Norm, this is very helpful. I had not thought of the little (individual) narratives from this perspective before. Continuing this further, I wonder also what this may mean for issues of developing one's identity (as this is something that we are literally this week discussing in my doctoral cohort; I am studying at Lancaster University), especially as the issues of a "right" or "wrong" way of learning (content or self-concept) are dismissed with Lyotard's work.

I agree, there are tremendous repercussions with this perspective.

Where do you see this idea developing further?

Jeffrey