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Multimodal Approaches to IT Projects, with Blogosphere as the Starting Point
Trish MarbackLeigh Graves WolfPreetha Kannan
EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference March 22, 2005
Oakland Community College
largest community college in the state of Michigan
14th largest community college in the nation
annual enrollment of 74,000 degree seeking and non-degree seeking students
2002 – 2007 Strategic Master Plan
Increase the use of technologies with a specific focus on the instructional program
Faculty will be increasingly competent in the use of various technologies to advance the rate and depth of student learning; student learning outcomes will be improved as students become increasingly competent in the use of technology to gain access to information and advance their own knowledge development
Academic Technology @ OCC
New department as of June 2004 Director of Academic Technologies Manager of Online Learning
Technologies 5 Instructional Technologists Database Analyst and Snapshot
Specialist
Blogging 101
Theoretical Framework
Complexity and Ill-structured domainsErving GoffmanNon-linearity and hypertext
Multimodal project based collaboration
An ill-structured knowledge domain is one in which each case or example of knowledge application typically involves the simultaneous interactive involvement of multiple, wide-application conceptual structures, each of which is individually complex
Spiro, R.J. & Jehng, J. (1990). Cognitive flexibility and hypertext: Theory and technology for the non-linear and multidimensional traversal of complex
subject matter. D. Nix & R. Spiro (eds.), Cognition, Education, and Multimedia. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life – Erving Goffman
3 main players… the actor the audience outsiders
Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, N.Y.,: Doubleday.
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life – Erving Goffman
Three regions in which actions take place front region (front stage) back region (backstage) ‘the outside’ (not front or backstage)
Non-linearity
Although narrologists have almost always emphasized the essential linearity of narrative, critics have recently begun to find it non-linear
Landow, George P. Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.
Analysis of the blog
just the facts…
Distribution of Post Content
Distribution of Post Content
2%
68%
25%
5%
Pedagogy
Teamwork
URL
Mixed
Teamwork
Pedagogy
URL
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Pedagogy Teamwork URL Mixed
Posts
Comments
Posts and Comments by Category
Blog posts per month
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
aug sep oct nov dec jan
Total # of Posts
Comment and Post Totals
0
50
100
150
200
250
Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan
Posts
Comments
0
5
10
15
20
25
aug sept oct nov dec jan
Month
Po
sts
dennis
kayla
leigh
preetha
rex
trish
wendy
A few definitions
Multimodal: having multiple or many modes or instances
Mode: a manner, way, or method of doing or acting; a given condition of functioning; a status.
Collaboration: has at its heart a desire to solve a problem, create, or discover something within a set of constraints. (Schrage)
Need: create a group interaction structure that supports persistent productive intensity and creativityConstraint: typical life-cycle of decision-making groups Challenge: transcend both the definition and life-cycle the literature suggests might be common to our type of work
Affordances/constraints in practice from the management P.O.V.
Bales and Strodtbeck, “Phases in Group Problem-Solving.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 46 (1951): 485-95.
Our five team emphases
CMS implementation, support, research
Campus-based faculty support for teaching and learning with technology
College-wide projects
Training (partnership with PDTC)
Retaining an IT and team identity
Our projects: type range
Programming-partnership
Vision/orientation/focus
Publishing
Usable objects for faculty and students
Information design, information artifact development
Technology management
Our projects: structure, hierarchy
No solo projects
Each team has a leader and at least two helpers
Cross-team communication essential (to address defined project gaps and overlaps, avoid duplication of effort)
Team reports published to blog
Director acts as de facto member on request
All work lateral, all deliverables team deliverables
Accountability at the peer/social level
Our projects: a listPortfolio templates
Web design
Emphasis on teaching
Desktop image for ADA and TLTC’s
Blog/wiki/emerging tech/open source dev lab
Marketing
CMS skins
Our projects: a list
TLTC inventory
Institute book project
Online student start-up packet
Assistive technology expertise/training
Bb 6.2 migration
Project-based course redesign
Six lessons learned (or, how to do it better than we did)
Successful creative, flexible exploration and use of a single mode/medium depends absolutely on strong adoption of that mode/medium as your group’s primary, preferred mode.
Multimodal Precept #1
Multimodal Precept #2
Engage without dominating.
Some on your team will resist your choice/adoption.
Multimodal Precept #3
Multimodal Precept #4
Resistance to your mode/tool of choice will make long-term commitment stronger, not weaker.
Multimodal Precept #5
Remain flexible in the way you as leader think about and employ the dominant mode/tool.
Multimodal Precept #6
Stroke your engaged internal team leaders. Privately.
The blog from the team member P.O.V
Adoption curveAffordances and ConstraintsData AnalysisSuccess & FailureSummary
Blog experience, factor of adaptability?
Informal survey suggests that prior blog experience was a factor of adaptability
Early adopters in the team were experienced bloggers
Experience translated into higher number of posts and faster response times.
SurveyRanking Communication Tools
Preference of Communication Tools – Team Rankings
IMTelephone
Blogs
Face-To-Face
Constraints in practice(in no specific order)
Blogger technical glitches Time Stamps on comments Inability to share documents Inability to receive notifications
Direction of flow Misunderstanding messages
Constraints in practice
Sense of disconnect Archival nature Non-threaded nature of discussion No acknowledgement of posts
Non-linearity
Communication points arise at different levels and on different topics
Non-linear in terms of its structure, content and design
Spontaneous conversations Postings were not ‘closed’ or locked
after a certain point in time Chronological display – too linear?
Non-linearity
Not moderated, not based on hierarchy A direct ‘reporting to’ relationship is not
required in this form of communication Interruptions from unintended
audience
Concept of blog linearity
Blogs are closely connected to the rhythm of daily lives. The postings are structured not by importance, topic or sensationalism, but by time. This way we get a journal which - while it's submitting to the strict linearity of time, it also submits to the non-linearity of how things happen.
Mortensen, Torill, 2002 http://blogonblog.blogspot.com/2002_11_01_blogonblog_archive.html#84914978
Factors for Acceptance
Formalize thoughts Brainstorming tool Documenting ideas/online
reporting/status tool Easy access Push button publishing Asynchronous mode Egalitarian Ethic
Unsuccessful ventures...
Creation of ‘sub-blogs’ for smaller teams or project groups Marketing and Web team blogs Was actively in use for 2 months, with
posts mainly from the project leader End result – Preferred to meet f-2-f and
did not pursue sub-blog
User P.O.V. Summing up
Constraints were mostly software limitations
Dominant communication tool in practice was not majority tool of choice
Team adapted over time Success and failure Formal and informal communication
styles
Questions?