socialreporters

=Social Reporters=

Click here for photos and video clips
impressions from this week


 * **Interviews** //(tag as 'Interview' to be listed here)// || **Photos** //(tag as 'sr pics')// ||
 * include component="pageList" hideInternal="true" tag="Interview" limit="10" || include component="pageList" hideInternal="true" tag="sr pics" limit="10"  ||

Well the week of eLCC workshops has begun and here are some of the highlights from the end of day 1:



The Powhiri was great. Etienne was 'moved'. The Marae is a great place. Anyone who did not take a 'peep' to see what the Hathaway? - the guy from the mental instituion drew should do so the next time.

We had a good day? //Yes we did!//

The room is too warm. //Yes indeed - Linda is working on it!//


 * Day 2:

A social discipline of learning**


 * Key dimensions of communities of practice (CoP)**


 * Domain** - what is our domain? What is this CoP about? What is the central focus?


 * Community** - relationships, trust between people.Whose voices are to be included and heard.


 * Practice** - concept of knowledge that is based within practice. even developing theory is based within practice. Is no real separation between knowledge and practice. Dichotomous views of knowledge: dispotitional & instrumental: theory & practice can lead to a misinterpretation of knowledge and miss the understanding that knowledge is always based within some form of practice.

Trusting the value of varied forms of practice relates to the formation of boundaries which help to define the CoP.

These dimenions are affected and affect :


 * Participation**: What is the learning value of what is happening within the CoP. The CoP is not a task force.


 * Sponsorship**: Who in the organisation pays attention and makes a connection with the outside community? Legitimising the activity. Not about a reporting function and for management structures within this the sponsorship role involves a shift in power relationships.


 * Nurturing**:Internal management systems can help sustain the life of the CoP. Can be formal /informal; voluntary or elective. Support can at time sbe mistaken for nurturing. this role has to be played by someone from within the organisation.


 * Support**: A support person or team are central to the continuation of the CoP.

What is our domain?

Structure - explicit about who does what? How nmuch is too much? A matter of tuning in to what is needed - 'social artists'. Not just elearning - teaching methods; learning technologies practice groups within a CoP domain Railroading: how to manage the single issues that may dominate. These single issues may be important motivator but can also act as a distraction. Side gorup scan be developed to specifically examine specific issues that arise.

Vertical tensions - different exoectations of what is needed, required, expected. Talk of structure should not come before the 'practice of being' a CoP, otherwise how do you know what you need!


 * Bring in practice:** examples of practice can be brougght in various ways to the table. Trust is essential here. The practice is as much be about what we do in developing our specific CoP within our dept, as out CoP of eLCC's. Cop within a CoP.


 * Create self representation:** Whose stories? How to represent the CoP. How to write the narrative. Whjat stories of the CoP do we want to portray and share and where, with whom.ultiple ways of self representation.


 * Push practice forward:** keeping the learning moving. A CoP is more than just an advise group. It is about following through.


 * Reflect and self-design:**

Ways of learning within the CoP: learning from others; learning with others. Formal or informal learning activities - intentional learning. Reaching out for sources of knowledge is different to those learning intentions being pushed onto the CoP. A pull from the CoP to gather information into the CoP rather than an external force pushing into the CoP from outside.

**Day 3:**
Technologies as tools to add to a reportoire and not instead of.

Not all of us always work and learn in the same ways for all of our tasks. we need to allow this for students too.

Multiple platforms - a configuration - to facilitate multipls forms of interacting.

Cross geographical and cross temporal ways of connecting and brining voices into the conversation.

Need to also remember the various levels of participation and shifts from one level to another within the life of the CoP.

Intergration of tools together: Use of wiki but within a face to face context: blended. Finding a place of participation.

Practice may form a place of integration also.

Technology steward - who thinks about the role of the community and the technologies and tools that can be integrated.

Mindset as much as a tool capability.

'One more tool' - one more way of conveining a conversation. Planning for the use of a tool as the developing anew conversation. How will the tool shape the conversation.

Technology stewardship as convening - what are you convening not what tools do you want to use!

Reflection on teaching at Unitec: Can then relate this more clearly to the bigger picture of the 'living curriculum'.

Boundaries across the different practices within the landscape of the wider context.

[I don't pretend to have captured all of this discussion, here are some highlights from the case study] -Case studies are central in CoPs -Embody knowledge sharing -Success stories
 * Observations on the Case Clinic, Weds AM**

Rob (civil engineering) debriefs a thing or 2 in his experience, and discusses the challenges in his environment.

"The Scoop" -History (ATI --> carrington tech --> Unitec) -Some great expertise (eg; neural networks in GIS) -People are competent with technology, but have a 'we did this last year' feeling about new tools -No-one wants management roles, more interesting in the workface... -Some lecturers have been there from the very beginning, so challenge is to introduce the new tools

Some of the discussion included: -Exemplars in actual show-off of the e-learning technology, problem with time allocation -Could try getting some industry perspective on the task, build assignments around the concepts of professional practise -Some problems have arisen from IT issues, eg; software support failures such as programmes not installed -Challenge finding a hook; could do projects that link to employers and the industry. Eg- LSC architecture, create nings around real projects such as project design portfolios in Ning -Do any lecturing staff mentor students after they leave? variable experience. Try IPENZ online tools,eg; fiming a canal issue at Tekapo that are shared with a mentor (old lecturers). -How do I deal with part timers? Currently little sharing of data and experience, maybe something like a lever arch file of resources... -How much to these staff use the internet? IPENZ/professional development is obligatory. Do they get online? No mainly FtF. -Industry standards? Online at the library. -Are the students not pushing for access? Sure they are... -Have they been shown that resources are available on the internet? One lecturer is very advenced in video. Hoes he share itwith other lecturers? No... -Can you get part timers to adopt tools that they can use in their normal jobs? That is a way to transfer tech into their teaching. -Sometime local authorities still want a piece of paper (engineering context). Ie- old tech is preferre by many clients. -Civ eng is very buoyant so they don't need to look for work, or upskill to be desirable. -Would it be better to find out what tools the industry does want? Do grads need to be able to work online? What would they do? End product as a starting point. -Approach suggested was to emebed tech requirements in the Graduate Profile, select the best tools, reverse engineer the availability of tools. -ID'd that is boils down to a need based drive for tools, try to move that from needs to future anticipation of need... -How do students showcase their work? R; not a requirement for getting a job in CE (which is a shame as they do good work). It would be good for our students to start doing that, especially those on OE. Idea of using e-portfolio as a sort of CV online. -eg; adopting clickers, big task, find a champion in the department... -Resourcing is an issue, in particular time. A tech champion is very likely to say 'I might get onto it in a month, I'm so busy'... So time allocation needs to be top driven, but there is no 'top' at the moment.

The community ...group then broke us into groups to discuss three questions about our experiences of the workshop so far: "What has been helpful so far?" "What has detracted from the experience?" "What would enhance your experience?"

The combined feedback on this will be very interesting!

Our group (social reporters) agreed that personal stories would form the main content of our contribution to a record of the week. > Helen and Ganeshan will interview someone from the Institutional Brokers In addition, Penny and David will interview Linda about to what extent her expectations for the workshop are being met.
 * Leadership group work**.
 * Steve and Chris will interview Bettina from our group, the Social Reporters
 * Zane and Denisa will interview someone from the Community Keepers group.
 * Nic will interview someone from the Social Activists.

Zanes Mind Map (WIP)

Campbell A couple of videos about reporting on change

= = [|Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media]

= = [|Adam Curtis - A Film about how all of us have become Richard Nixon.]

An interview with an agenda activist: