Helen's EDC blog

Is the Instagram video working for you?

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This request for feedback received no response; in terms of community involvement and engagement, it’s interesting to consider the notion of our ‘audience’; who is – and isn’t – reading what we produce. And even if it is read, does that necessarily prompt engagement and a response? And am I, ultimately, just writing for myself? I was interested in Dirk’s observation about my netnography that I appeared to produce work for myself. Maybe my sense of having a small/non-existent audience feeds into what I produce? 

Hi Cathy,

Am pleased that you have roamed into my site! And thank you for being so kind!

I agree: it’s fascinating to see just how different everyone’s lifestreams are and what others are focusing on.

That’s a really interesting interpretation of the video; I was interested in it as a marketing tool and hadn’t considered what else it suggested about our online experiences.

I’m off to have a look around your lifestream now. Hope your ethnography is going well.

Helen

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Hello James,

Many thanks for your very constructive and thoughtful feedback.

‘thanks for including hyperlinks within the summary’: I’m finding that hyperlinking is helping me too: my lifestream has burgeoned to such an extent that even I, its supposed author, can become a little disoriented within my ‘own’ content.

‘the problems that might arise when a large number of learners, displaying a range of interests, come together’: the impact of delivery at scale and via a rigid, repetitive course structure is what I want to focus on in my (auto)ethnography. As someone who has been guided through a mindfulness programme 1:1 in the past, I am struck by how the form of a MOOC is in conflict with many of the founding tenets of mindfulness practice. The tutors (and many of the participants) also overtly criticise technology as a medium which can cause distractedness and a lack of mindfulness. And yet, they are delivering via this medium. When we studied IDGBL, I explored the concept of ‘ludonarrative dissonance‘; I would argue that there is a dissonance between form and content when it comes to using a MOOC to deliver a course on mindfulness, especially as one of the stated outcomes of the course is to encourage and inculcate mindful behaviours from its participants.

‘I think and hope that she would conclude there was great variety, but as you suggest, not ‘roaming’ conversation What do you think?’ I agree: our conversations, via all of the streams, are focused tightly on the themes and the readings. I acknowledge Dirk’s point of view as expressed in the Hub, but disagree with his views on the respective roles of the teacher and student in developing an effective community of inquiry and in maintaining a vibrant, learning discussion.

‘I wonder whether there’s sometimes a temptation to designate someone’s place in a community in an overly simplistic way? …perhaps it is possible to be an assemblage of several different roles or suggested identities?’ I would, of course, respond with, ‘of course’. I think we seek taxonomies, classifications, particularly when engaged in ethnographic research. However, perhaps we should focus on behaviours – which flex, change and transition depending on context – rather than individuals. So we could, instead, talk of lurking and mingling rather than lurkers and minglers.

‘I know that other members of the group miss the sense of a single gathering space where we all get together’ Even within ‘one space’ such as Moodle, there are so many microspaces and conversation streams going on that it’s still difficult – I feel – to achieve a sense of ‘togetherness’. What I really appreciate about this course is that I’m countering my completer-finisher tendencies. I can’t participate in every conversation, comment on every blog and read every text. There are many information streams and, as you and Jeremy have both pointed out, we must take what we can from these and engage where we can, rather than feel anxiety about what we may be ‘missing’.

‘Is there something about searching for the right space online or offline space to engender a sense of community? Or is it simply a mixture of habit and circumstance.’ I haven’t really thought about space and place explicitly. It’s interesting to consider, I guess, how some of us are happy to migrate, to flit, from space to space whereas others, such as Eli and Dirk, need something more fixed and centred. I like fragments and the challenge of finding coherence in disparate parts; it feels creative.

‘P.S. I notice that you’ve changed the background on your blog: purely out of interest, is there any significance in replacing the image of a painted face with something that evokes a network of connecting lines and points?’ There were a few reasons for changing the blog theme. I did, yes, want to represent our shift towards think about communities and networks but I also wanted a design which seemed ‘cleaner’. Having looked at others’, I decided to change mine to ‘Nisarg’. In terms of thinking about spaces and places, it would, at some point, be interesting to explore the impact of the expression of the same ideas within differently designed spaces.

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Dear Helen
This is a really interesting artefact which I strayed upon on your blog, I hope you don’t mind.

I saw your post on the EDC main page which mentioned feeling a little intimidated by the thought of us looking at each other’s blogs. I feel the same way and try to put it to the back of my mind so it doesn’t freeze me up completely! On balance, I think it is a good thing because it is fascinating to see how we each have different spaces and interpretations of the course.

This clip was interesting because of the clichéd depiction of disembodied faces online and the embodied person offline as if we are only part of ourselves when we interact on the web.

Your site is great by the way!

Cathy

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Hello Helen, thanks for your weekly summary, nicely written as usual.

First, thanks for including hyperlinks within the summary: in light of how much content there is across the different lifestream blogs these explicit links to fragments of content are extremely useful.

‘My assigned study group for the FutureLearn course is comprised of a smaller group of 80 people, but even there, communications are frequently one way and not discursive and roaming in the way that our engagement with the EDC course has been so far.’

I’m taken with your description of ‘roaming’ conversation here – I think it nicely captures the problems that might arise when a large number of learners, displaying a range of interests, come together (and where there doesn’t seem to be a mechanism for pulling these interests into a coherent shape, as you imply). Out of interest, if an outsider to EDC was to briefly survey the different spaces where we interact, I wonder how she might describe what takes place? I think and hope that she would conclude there was great variety, but as you suggest, not ‘roaming’ conversation (quite the contrary I would suggest from my position following the #mscedc channel). I hope so, anyway! What do you think?

‘As a ‘traditional’ learner, I’m much more diligent and focused on task completion, but the arena of the MOOC has altered my ‘agency over the terms of (my) experiences’ (Stewart, 2013, 235). In terms of my community presence, I am behaving like both a lurker and a mingler (Kozinets, 1999) in different parts of the space.’

I really like this interweaving of ideas from the literature with your own experiences around the MOOC. Something I’m struck by here is your recognition that in the role of ethnographer you are simultaneously ‘performing’ two identities: lurker and mingler (in fact you could go even further, I suspect). What I find really interesting about this is that when we talk about identities online, I wonder whether there’s sometimes a temptation to designate someone’s place in a community in an overly simplistic way? On the contrary, and as you’ve suggested, perhaps it is possible to be an assemblage of several different roles or suggested identities?

‘I use the different mediums on offer for different purposes: I use Twitter to broadcast/ask for help and advice; I use the Hub, currently, for necessarily private communication about the MOOCs; and I visit others’ blogs to inform my deeper learning goals and also to continue to build my sense of being part of a Community of Inquiry.’

Although you’ve touched on this idea of ongoing interaction previously in your blog, I was still interested to read what you had to say here. It seems that you have a quite clear sense of the purpose of each of the different spaces and how they might ‘work’ for you. In contrast I know that other members of the group miss the sense of a single gathering space where we all get together. I wonder whether these different personal preferences will be reflected when it comes to sharing our ethnographic findings next week? I’ll certainly be looking out for this, now.

Actually adding to this, there’s also the Facebook group and of course you and Chenee and Hamish other got together at the ed-Tech conference in Manchester. Is there something about searching for the right space online or offline space to engender a sense of community? Or is it simply a mixture of habit and circumstance. As I write this, I’ve just realised that there’s an Edinburgh contingent to the EDC group although we’ve never met or talked about doing so. As you suggest in relation to Dirk’s comment on the discussion forum, perhaps we need and look for different things as we search for community?

Again, thanks for your summary here – lots for me to go away and think about, Helen.

P.S. I notice that you’ve changed the background on your blog: purely out of interest, is there any significance in replacing the image of a painted face with something that evokes a network of connecting lines and points? Following our conversation around visual representations of text I’m not going to jump to any conclusions here!

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My Digital Launderette?

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Hi Helen,

I was interested to read this post and to read of your experience with FutureLearn. I can relate to the feeling of being a needle in a haystack when it comes to making comments and contributions to discussion threads within the MOOC.

I wonder if other learners within the course notice this feeling. I also wonder what influence this feeling has on the overall participation and experience of learning within a MOOC.

I liked your idea of updating your profile to notify others of your micro-ethnography. I hope you don’t mind but I followed your lead on that.

Good read.

Stuart

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Thank you for sending the image. It appears that it’s computer-generated ‘art’ as I didn’t include it. Prezi must auto-create it. What an interesting digital artefact!

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Hello James, yes, the intention is, absolutely, to try to engage with at least some of the activities. As I mentioned, I’m keen to reinvigorate my own mindfulness practice, so see this as an ideal opportunity to achieve that. I studied Anthropology for just a year as an outside course for my first degree many moons ago; it’ll be interesting to scratch through my memories of this as I undertake the study too! I do remember we explored much around researchers’ roles and involvement and their impact upon the community they were studying.

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I tried to get this image to embed in the comment above, but no joy. Here’s the link instead: http://ift.tt/2lHUOAf

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