[DG: Teaching & Learning] T&L virtual meeting - themes, functional constellations

[Noah Botimer]

Hello,

I am writing to share some thoughts after the first day's virtual  
meeting exercise. I submit this simply as fodder; thinking and  
writing about this is the intensive time on task I needed to clarify  
my thoughts. I recognize that this probably represents a different  
perspective than the outputs of day two.

I think the overlap and blurriness in the themes conversation is a  
natural effect of the richness we're describing. Accepting this has  
put my strict-sorting mind at ease. My feeling yesterday that we  
needed clearer lines has subsided.

I've come up with a set of constellations or functional categories  
that has helped me grapple with these boundaries between the themes  
(note some direct reuse).


Author (Creation)
Create a piece of information or participatory structure

Communicate (Communication)
Deliver or offer information to people or indicate interest in  
information

Organize (Organization)
Identify content or people according to logical or physical constructs

Annotate (Annotation)
Provide substantive addenda to or commentary on existing information

Participate (Participation)
Engage in expectations or opportunities

Collaborate (Collaboration)
Undertake a creative or participatory process with others

Observe (Observation)
Capture information about content, participation, or community


This set is intentionally (maybe artificially) simple but this is  
partly why I think it works. Each item offers something qualitatively  
distinct and all have familiar, non-digital modes.

Surely, you may be collaborating while you are authoring, or  
communicating as part of your participation, but I don't think any of  
these combine without losing something essential or making the  
description quite complex.

I see these as building blocks. A teaching or learning journey might  
walk through any number of steps from any category.

Perhaps this is too abstract, naive, or too far along functional  
analysis lines. Or maybe it could help others with a framework for  
considering the essence of some of the user goals. In any case, I'm  
quite pleased to feel more prepared for today's discussion.

Note that this level of abstraction makes for some combinations that  
may not be obvious immediately. I have elaborated on how some T&L  
goals/activities might fall under these categories in Confluence:

http://confluence.sakaiproject.org//x/PRAQB

Happy to discuss.

Thanks,
-Noah