Virtual Learning Environments

Before I dive into some last minute thoughts on Twitter regarding the reading from a few weeks ago, I want to say that both presentations were incredibly informative.  The work done for my group’s project (group one) and learning about the Ethnography project have both been very helpful to expanding my media studies knowledge base.

The subject of Twitter has been popping up for me a lot lately in my personal, professional, and academic spheres.  Before starting this course, I can honestly say that I had very limited interest in Twitter.  I was aware of its popularity and marketing uses, but I was not interested in signing up for another social medial platform.  Keeping up with Facebook and blogging was enough for me, and I didn’t find it necessary to add to my overall internet presence with creating a Twitter account.  I begrudgingly signed up for Twitter because it was necessary for this course.  However, I quickly was cured of my anti-Twitter stance once I was using it more frequently.

The reading assigned about Twitter seemed to validate many of my thoughts regarding the mark Twitter has made on the media world.  I use Twitter everyday now for my job because it is a great platform to get news delivered to me in a timely manner.  I write for a news website that is in the process of being launched, and we rely heavily on Twitter each day.  We use Twitter to aggregate information for potential stories as well as spread the stories are covering.  Of course, it is also an integral part of the site’s overall marketing plan.  I can say that I was quickly proven wrong this summer on my aversion to Twitter considering the way it allows me to easily and quickly locate news.

In the reading, the importance of listening and giving feedback is discussed.  I think this is the only place where Twitter currently falls short.  People still think of it as more of a “one-way” platform of communication.  However, this is quickly progressing.  Even in the short amount of time I have been using Twitter, I have noticed how people are using it more conversationally.  I think the point made in the reading about the importance of listening and giving feedback is an interesting aspect of social media to consider.  Twitter can be an outstanding platform for any person’s needs if they use it to its full advantage, and sometimes that means responding to others just as much as putting your own thoughts out there.

I’m interested to see how Twitter evolves in the future.  I know that I am not the only one surprised by a sudden interest in Twitter after signing up for it to meet the needs of this course.  Twitter is a much more user-friendly and less involved platform than many other social media sites, and we are still just beginning to see the power to Twitter in the media world.

Here’s an interesting article about the importance of Twitter to American Business.

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to say that last night was so interesting and fun. I really enjoyed the presentations, and I just feel that Global Potential is such an awesome concept and program. It makes me want to do more as far as educating myself on global issues and being more involved in volunteerism. I definitely have taken away a lot from this course, and I can’t thank Josephine and the rest of the class enough for helping me grow as a Media Studies student but also as a person.

Group 2 – Thank you for being such a pleasure to work with and for taking so much initiative. Everyone was so organized and on top of everything. It really made bringing all of the elements together much easier than some of the group projects I’ve done in the past.

Anyway, I just wanted to express my feelings and to say thanks again! I also love that our information is on the wiki’s, so that we can access it when class is over. I would like to share our projects with family and friends and spread the word about Global Potential as much as possible.

Erin

Ethnography and Mapping the Batey:

Group 2 worked on a project to devise and implement lesson plans to help Global Potential students understand ethnography and mapping.  The focus would be on data collections, analysis and human geography in order for the Global Potential students to see the batey in a new way.

We started off first trying to figure out the best means of communication as a group and Jenn sent out an email welcoming everyone to Group 2.  We talked about a google group but ended up starting off with just emails and blog posts.  After hearing more about the program from Frank and some video question/answer sessions, Venessa posted an overview of the project info drawn from Franks introduction and suggested some possible ideas to get us going.  Everyone was still a little unclear on our objective and Venessa posed questions about what types of “tools” or online applications we should think about.  Her overview covered all the main topics and helped get the ball rolling:

Josephine helped us out by explaining that as far as “tools” went, Frank was more talking about a process or methodology.  She clarified Global Potential’s overwhelming platform base and mentioned utilizing Facbook and the Blog since they were already used the most.  She suggested possible other platforms to incorporate such as Ushahidi and Textmarks but made clear that reverse mentoring would be a concern.  The students and Global Potential staff would need to understand how the platforms we used functioned.  She spoke about the blog being unstructured and maybe the possibility of collaborating with Group 1 working with blog posts.

Venessa pointed out that we needed to know which platforms were already in use and Jenn posted a list of these all (Facebook, Twitter, Ning, SL, Blog…)

Carolyn posted an idea relating to the Global Potential brochure and curriculum sent by Josephine about incorporating video documentaries into the lesson plans.  Students all over the U.S. could post video questions and the Global Potential students could use their experiences in the village to record footage and form video responses.  This could then tie into the collection of ethnographic data but in a video format.

Sofia pointed out that this question and answer format may not be effective for getting the point across, but liked the idea of incorporating video with Facebook and the Blog.  This way these videos could reach out further to kids and parents and other groups.  Jenn also liked the idea but was concerned that Global Potential students didn’t have access to video equipment.  She also pointed out that the group needed to focus in on a topic.  She spoke about looking into specific aspects of the culture and how it compared to the Global Potential students cultures.  This way the teens would be more engaged and interested since it related to their own lives.  She presented an example of National Teen Pregnancy awareness to give the group an idea of what she meant.

Erin agreed on the need for a focused topic and wondered if a lighter topic like fashion or dress would be better.  Joe responded that he wasn’t’ so sure about the lighter topics, but was certain we needed to decided on a topic to get the lesson plan’s started.

Venessa wrote a clearer description of what Group 2 should focus on with our lesson plans, zeroing in on a methodology:

“meaning: helping the students understand how to ask the right questions, how to connect dots, how to write compelling and exciting posts, how to then spread those posts around the web to generate excitement, and how to build a larger community and engagement around the culture and issues of these people.”

Josephine agreed we needed to focus in on a topic and mentioned some that Frank had spoke of that were really pressing issues in the batey – then we could get going on the methodology.  She confirmed that the students had no access to video equipment but suggested the incorporation of Flipcams or disposable cameras.  So even though the group liked the video idea, it was not possible in the long run.

Carolyn suggested we use the Clean Water topic Josephine had mentioned and provided some websites with info to get the idea rolling.  Everyone agreed it was a good topic and Erin mentioned an MTV special she found about it as well.  At this point the group was beginning to familiarize themselves with the topic and gather resources.  Joe also was experimenting with Survey Monkey and Zoomerang and reported he liked Survey Monkey better.

Jenn made sure everyone was on board with the Clean Water topic and then took the initiative to create a wiki page for our group.  We realized our emails were piling up and hard to sort through, so she created the page.  On it she placed basic info and outlines for possible lesson plans and we moved forward.

Venessa found a great resource of Working with Stories which helped the group understand more about collecting ethnographic data through collected stories.  Erin also posted another great resource The Water Project, suggesting the students could participate with donations or at a more basic level using the site for research and understanding.

Sofia mentioned our need to start formulating our lesson plans wondering how many plans we actually needed and she provided two possible ideas:

“An example of one lesson plan: someway finding a way to have the students work with the Water Project in some way…..
Another idea: having students interview members of the community about their experiences with water throughout the years….reflecting on improvements that have been made or that need to be made, asking what the community members ideal clean water situation and what their basic needs are.”

Carolyn elaborated on Sofia’s second idea for a lesson plan suggesting the student’s interview community members and use info from the Working with Stories website to help them analyze them.  Then with the conclusions the students could create blog posts and then follow up with thoughts on possible solutions.

Erin liked the interviewing idea as well and elaborated further suggesting each interview be accompanied by a picture (fro the flipcam or disposable camera Josephine had mentioned) as a way to humanize the issues.  She also suggested incorporating a lesson plan of teaching the Global Potential students to speak at the batey schools and asking the young children what their knowledge of the issue was.  She also mentioned having the kids draw pictures of their thoughts and scanning these onto Facebook.  This would add some fun and creativity to our lesson plans.

Josephine was able to ask Frank our group questions making it clear that we had time for 2-4 lessons at 2 hours per plan.  Once we heard these guidelines, Joe presented two lesson plan suggestions.  The first related to what we had been discussing about interviews and ethnographic surveys and the second was about Survey Monkey.  Josephine responded with some lesson plan examples from previous Global Potential participants.

Carolyn created a rough outline of lesson plan 1 and 2 using all the info collected thus far.  Jenn ironed our some of the messy parts and posted six detailed parts that needed to be completed to create two lesson plans.  We decided each member of the group would write one part and then we’d edit collectively on the wiki.

Joe wasn’t sure if our last lesson part about how to post to Facebook and the Blog was necessary, but Josephine reassured us that most people do not know how to optimize these programs with compelling posts and tags so a lesson in this would probably benefit the students.  Joe also suggested some questions for the Global Potential student’s ethnographic interviews that we could incorporate into that part of the lesson plan.

Venessa emailed everyone some more great resources she found about conducting interviews and doing ethnographic research.  She mentioned how she was very informed about online communities and networking and wanted to work on the facebook and blogging portion of the assignment.

Everyone began posting their work on the Group 2 wiki and the lesson plans started to take shape.  We began getting everything organized and getting ready for our final presentation for the class.  Jenn created the final presentation wiki where we all would post our finished work and lesson plans.

Here is a simple chart of some of the major problems we encountered and our solutions:

Final Question…

How does your project leverage and create a richer learning experience for your specific target population?

There is an adage in Education these days that the teacher is no longer the sage on the stage but rather the guide on the side. It simply means that teachers no longer lecture to quiet note taking students. Rather, the students are active learners that spend class time researching and developing meaning with the guidance of the teacher. Students are no longer passive sponges that are expected to only soak up and squeeze out knowledge. Rather they are to be active researchers, guided by teachers, which participate in the creation of knowledge and meaning.

Group 2’s project consists of lesson plans that can leverage this adage by incorporating web based research in addition to lecture and discussion. Global Potential students research global clean water issues through such websites as … SUMMIT website: http://www.summitonthesummit.com PUR: http://www.PURwater.com United Nations Foundation: http://www.unfoundation.org Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program: http://www.csdw.org Water for People, Non-Profit: http://www.waterforpeople.org Working with Stories: http://www.workingwithstories.org/

In addition students research clean water issues in the Dominican Republic. Wikipedia description of water situation in Dominican Republic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_the_Dominican_Republic http://www.charitywater.org/ http://wateraid.org/drop/

Students can use this research as the basis for learning about ethnographic research on the topic of clean water issues in the DR Bateys. In this lesson, students learn not only what ethnography is but also how to do ethnographic research. They learn how to create questions that generate data that leads to deeper meaning, understanding, and possibly solutions to these issues. As part of or in addition to the lesson, students can research such sites as… Working with Stories: http://www.workingwithstories.org General Guidelines for Conducting Interviews: http://www.managementhelp.org/evaluatn/intrview.htm Basics of Conducting Focus Groups: http://www.managementhelp.org/evaluatn/focusgrp.htm How to Do Ethnographic Research: A Simplified Guide: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/anthro/anthro/cpiamethods The Witness Blog – how to effectively use video in human rights campaigns: http://blog.witness.org/

In addition, Lesson Plan 2.2 directs the Global Potential students to teach the Batey children some of the lessons they have learned. The GP students will direct the Batey students “to draw or paint a picture of their ideas about the clean water issue or even just of their feelings about water in general. For instance, they could draw a picture of themselves drinking a clean glass of water or taking a nice, clean bath. The Global Potential students may want to take a few minutes to draw their own pictures to bring down to the Batey with them. They could show their own artwork to the children, so they have an example of what’s being asked of them. Explain to the students that they will be collecting this artwork and bringing it back home with them to scan and upload onto the Facebook page for people to see. This artwork could be inspiration for people to help with the clean water crisis via donations or volunteerism. If the students choose, they could even figure out a way for this artwork to be auctioned off to raise money for the Batey children that they visited.” Thus actively developed meaning is leveraged on Facebook to both target population and the world at large.

The lesson plans will also include guidelines for optimization practices for blogging and tagging, as well as how to use Twitter effectively. This is important for the accessibility and persistence of this leverage knowledge content. Best practice sites include… http://www.chrisbrogan.com/40-ways-to-deliver-killer-blog-content/ http://www.thematrixfiles.net/blog/blogging-best-practices-part-two/ http://www.capturetheconversation.com/read/blogging-best-practices-checklist

In conclusion, the project’s lesson plans not only teach GP students existing knowledge that can be used to improve the lives of people who live in the DR Bateys, it also encourage GP students to research and create new knowledge. This new knowledge can be leveraged within internet based rich learning environments that are accessible, persistent, and perhaps potentially improve the lives of people around the globe.

All the lesson plans and final work for our project can be found on our Presentation Wiki

Global Potential Alumni Experience and Mentoring Program

Past:

When our group first looked at the existing platforms that Global Potential (GP) created, we couldn’t help but notice the lack of usage by GP’s target audience of the platforms: Alumni of GP’s program and current and future GP community mentors. The lacking factors we noticed on the different platforms used (website, Facebook page, and personal blog) were as follows:

1) Numerous spaces to communicate with instead of central surface to communicate which led to a decomposed and a non-flowing discussion.

2) Lack of interaction between Alumni as a result of non-engaging, misdirected platforms for them which equated to staleness like feel.

3) Generic looking platforms that did not speak to their target audience but rather seemed to speak to potential donors and/or outsiders (i.e. us before we took on this project).

GP's Website

GP's Old Alumni Facebook Wall Page

GP's Alumni Blog

However, the positive aspects we noticed regarding the tools put in place for the Alumni were:

1) The usage of Facebook, a trendy social networking website that appeals to everyone, especially our target population for that fact that they are familiar and comfortable using it and that probably most of them already consume on a regular basis.

2) The utilization of Twitter, another platform which the youth is accustomed to. It is as well very easily accessible to our target audience.

3) The customized touch given on the GP blog with the incorporation of the use of biographies.

4) The addition of picture and videos of the Alumni on GP’s blog and Facebook page.

Present:

Our goal for this project was to create an ongoing, rich alumni experience through online platforms that keeps the goals of the program running, continues engaging the students in global issues and social entrepreneurship, and facilitates and augments the mentoring program. Our main objective was mostly focused on making sure that the Alumni would be involved in every step of the way to assure that they would be actors in their own platforms and not passive spectators looking at a platform that we thought would suit them best.

You will find below thoughts and ideas we came up with as well as the key components we needed to implement so that Alumni can have their own virtual personal space to share and gather:

1) Building a space that the Alumni can call their own hence we decided to create a fan page within the walls of Facebook.

2) To ensure frequency of use by the Alumni on their own fan page, we thought that it would be beneficial to have GP seek for Alumni that are somewhat tech savvy and willing to take responsibility to maintain the upkeep and constant communication between the Alums. The six roles we came up with of Alumni volunteers that would make sure that their Facebook page would continue to flourish are:
- Youth Alumni and Mentor Coordinator for Text Blogs
- Youth Alumni and Mentor Coordinator for Photo Tagging
- Youth Alumni and Mentor Coordinator for Video Blogging
- Assistant Youth Alumni and Mentor Coordinator for Text Blogs
- Assistant Youth Alumni and Mentor Coordinator for Photo Tagging
- Assistant Youth Alumni and Mentor Coordinator for Video Blogging

3) To give a certain dynamic to the life of the fan page, we decided to incorporate.
- Text Messaging (SMS): this option will allow the Alumni to post on their other peers’ walls on Facebook.
- Direct Link to LinkedIn: by starting to build their profile on LinkedIn, it will allow the Alumni to take their first steps towards professional networking in conjunction with social networking.
- Twitter: application already used in the past and we believe that maintaining it would be proficient to an active participation.

4) Micro-donations: starting a fund-raising campaign by getting micro-donations ($1.00 to $10.00 cash or credit) from friends and family which will be tallied up either daily or weekly by GP’s fund collectors. The micro-donations raised will then be placed next to their names on the Facebook Page which would be represented by a small fundraiser meter graphic. Giving a little something to GP will give the Alumni a sense of responsibility for raising money for a cause that was once their own as it will at the same time increase their stake in the organization.

Note: Since the Alumni are not using their new Facebook page yet we can’t add the micro-donation meter next to their name yet however, when they start using their new Facebook page the instructions on how to create a micro-donation meter for individual Alumni are here.

5) Logo: Since the alumni will have a specific virtual space (Alumni Fan Page), they should have a visual identity of their own. We then thought that the Alumni should have a logo that would speak to them. To assure that they will be part of its creation, we thought that launching a contest among them would be successful. The Alumni participants would have to draw a logo on paper that could then be uploaded by scanning it. Global Potential would decide who would be the judges in this competition. Once the winner will be selected, the logo will be uploaded on their Facebook Fan Page.

6) Keeping in mind that our main goal is to encourage discussion, sharing photos, videos, thoughts (…etc), our group would like to see new comers (that will become alumni shortly after) ask questions on the Fan Page about the whole experience or simply have technical questions about what they should bring on the trip and so on. In this direction, the Alumni will feel that their advice and experiences are valuable and helpful to the “freshmen”. Secondly, the new members will be happy to connect with members of their own age that have lived these experiences.

GP's New Alumni Facebook Wall Page

GP's New Alumni Facebook Info. Page

GP's New Alumni Facebook Discussion Page

Future:

We had a couple of suggestions that Global Potential can review and might use in the coming years. Due to time constraint, we could not put in place these ideas but our group thinks that by implementing the following, the GP Alumni group would take a step further:
- Run a survey among the youngsters including four basic questions: Do you have access to the Internet from your home?/Do you have an X-Box?/Do you have a Wii/Do you have a Play Station?
Depending on their answers, Global Potential could organize meetings on multiplayer games through one of these consoles but also, the alumni could meet online in Netflix for instance and share the experience of watching a movie together.
- Get Feedback from the youth on their new virtual space. Through a very short questionnaire, we could find out how they feel about their new space and what they would like to add or get rid of.
- Contest of Micro-Donations: The one that gives the most could earn something.
- Photo tagging: Since we have no pictures of the members nor or we familiar with their names, we want to mention that photo tagging will commence amongst the alumni after the platform we created for them will be in use for a little while.

A few final words on the overall project…

During these nine weeks, we used various platforms to communicate with each other. Given the time frame we had to work on this and the fact that this is an online class we got the process started by communicating with one another through emails, Google Groups, Google Wave, Google Chat, Tokbox, and a project wiki page. After multiple exchanges, we realized that Google wave and TokBox were the most suitable for us.
While working in a group in real life is never easy and working in a group virtually has its challenges as well, we still managed to clearly state what we all desired and had in mind for our final product. The asynchronous and synchronous multiple platforms that we used were the tools that helped us collaborate, coordinate and put together this new platform for the truly deserving youth. We must say that doing this project for such a wonderful purpose really helped us stay focus and motivated throughout the entire process. We felt privileged to create a virtual communication tool for these deserving teenagers.
Finally, building a project for not only a real cause but a great one, helped us give some reality to our virtual reality!

This is a post I put together based on a reading a few weeks back. Thought I’d cross-post here.

I’m in the middle of taking a course on Virtual Learning Environments (syllabus here), and reading a few chapters from Adaptive Software Development by Highsmith. It approaches the team-building and collaboration process from the perspective of complex adaptive systems theory, and contains some interesting insights in evolutionary development and creating environments where emergence can occur. I’ve created a summary of a chapter that I’d like to share, as I think it can be valuable for many of us, and specifically for the community of practitioners around the junto concept.

Collaboration is an act of shared creation or discovery. (schrage89)

As a distributed group of individuals (agents) within a network, we form a complex adaptive system.  The key to our success is in creating the environment where emergent, innovative results can occur.

Barriers to Collaboration

1. A top down Command+Control management style

This style works well for organizations that operate effectively by regarding their people as interchangeable cogs in a machine – following specific rules in a predictable environment which is structured hierarchically. An emergent, adaptive group does not exude these characteristics.

2. An over-reliance on the culture of individualism & attitude of “every man for himself”

It is a challenge to collaborate effectively, when many of our current organizational models still reward individual rather than group performance. BUT, collaboration is about mutual creation.

As we design new systems, it will be important to frame the experience in a way that values and rewards productive participation and contribution.

(This relates well to the component mentioned in yesterday’s junto post on creating an opportunity for rating/evaluating each other’s participation in dialogues…. and structured in a way that is generative and encouraging of paths to improvement, not putting people down for lack of experience or technique.)

The Essence of Great Groups

A team consists of…

… a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and [a common] approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. (J. Katzenbach & D.Smith)

Successful, innovative teams are all about the relationships and the right blend of skills – technical, business, problem-solving, decision-making, and interpersonal. They all work towards a common goal, but are alo committed to a deeper purpose. Through the process of building trust, each individual assumes a level of risk that is associated with assuming personal responsibility and mutual accountability.

Four types of teams and the environment in which they work best:

Traditional hierarchical: territory is familiar & predictable, requirements well-known

Breakthrough: project must develop major new innovation. environment chaotic & random, project structures become very unstable as they grow larger

Synchronized: project success dependent on shared vision and common values. effectiveness requires full commitment by all members to a sufficiently complex vision of mission and methods of group

Open: territory is turbulent & fluid, success requires an open-ended, flexible apporach. “Adaptive collaboration is tailored for technical problem-solving… What is important in this view of projects and progress is the adaptive fit between how the team is working and what it is they are working on” (op.cit. p.72)

“While a breakthrough team structure would work for a small adaptive project, my view is that open teams are the most appropriate for adaptive projects in general – for two reasons. First, adaptive development requires the ability to scale up to larger, more complex projects – and open teams can do this. Breakthrough organizations work bet with a small, collocated team. Second, a breakthrough organization is an excellent choice for creative inventions (in science, for example), but less suitable for the work of turning a creation into a complete product, such as in engineering. So, while there are exceptions to every rule, an open organization seems best for adaptive projects. Collegiality flourishes in open environments.”

Using Complexity Concepts to Improve Collaboration

In complex adaptive systems theory, the focus is on the concept of emergence. Ralph Stacy has identified five control parameters characteristic of networks that determine whether the group/organization is on the edge of chaos:

1. Rate of Information Flow

Restriction of the speed of information flow can be detrimental to a team in a rapidly changing environment. There are two fundamental kinds of interactions the team must differentiate between – shared creation and information transfer.

Shared Creation – These are meetings focused on brainstorming, problem-solving, decision-making, or reacting & evaluating (feedback). This type of process creates value through active collaboration.

Information Transfer – The purpose of these meetings is to inform. The format is reporting and presentation, and the information is not intended to be modified or updated.

2. Degree of Diversity

A diversity of technical skills and experience, cultural and racial backgrounds, personality types and temperaments, business skills and experience, all contribute to a healthy mix in the creative process. Too much diversity can create issues in creating collaborative environments and facilitating convergence in order to produce results.

3. Richness of Connectivity

This refers to both the number of connections between people in a group (“network weaving”) as well as the type of data flow (text, imagery, sound). Increasing the number of interconnected groups increases diversity of information exchanged in problem solving.

4. Level of Contained Anxiety

“Complexity theory supports the view that anxiety is a cauldron for creativity.” Innovative groups are able to strike the balance and ride the edge of chaos, existing between high tension/anxiety and stagnantion/inertia.

5. Degree of Power Differentials

While open collaboration encourages participation and empowerment, it also must find a balance between a Command-Control management style and no leadership at all.

Building Collaborative Groups

Cooperation in networked environments isn’t about learning how to use “collaboration tools,” it’s about learning how to communicate effectively and resolve interpersonal issues.

The beginnings of a conversation may start with everyone wanting to express their own opinions and be heard. As the conversation progresses, individuals make an effort to understand each others’ perspectives, reasons, assumptions, and mental models. Adaptive cycles require teams to make this transition from divergent to convergent thinking in order to form “sustainable agreement” and move forward with deliverables.

Core Values

Successful collaboration in a self-organizing team is facilitated when core values are embraced and demonstrated in daily encounters. The core values are mutual trust, mutual respect, and mutual participation, and mutual commitment.

Mutual Trust

There are three components of trust:

• Honesty: telling the truth
• Safety: an ability to voice ideas an opinions without fear of ridicule or rejection
• Dependability: knowing others will accomplish the tasks assigned to them

Trust levels are always in flux, but are built up by “showing respect to others, doing what we commit ourselves to do, being honest and forthright in our dealing, and by not playing politics.” Trust is not a replacement for accountability – others must still be held accountable in order to protect against miscommunication or flawed expectations.

Mututal Respect

It’s easy to full tuned to the people in our group that think like us. The challenge is to value others for their unique contributions, despite our understanding of their area of expertise.

Mutual Participation

Every team member should have the freedom to express themselves, and the commitment of the team to understand that particular perspective. Though every member will not contribute equally, each must have the ability to contribute in key ways.

Mutual Commitment

Everyone in the group is committed to achieving the purpose and goals of the project, shares responsibility for making it happen, and owns the result.

Joint Application Development (JAD) Sessions

JADs are:

“a facilitated workshop that brings together cross-functional groups to build collaborative relationships capable of producing high-quality deliverables during the life of a project.”

These sessions are feed-forward rather than feedback, meaning they are intended to solve problems, plan later work, and make decisions. There are four key roles in a JAD session: project manager, participants, facilitator, and scribe. Project managers are responsible for group administration. Facilitators plan the session with the project manager, orchestrate interactions during the meeting, assist in preparing documentation, and expedite follow-up after the session. Participants are responsible for the contents of the agreed-upon deliverable. The scribe documents the session – gathering, organizing, and distributing the results.

Assuming roles also enhances collaboration, helps team members evaluate mission components, and allows them to experiment with different identity constructs. Role-playing is both fun and sparks creativity. Three sample roles are visionary, realist, and critic. A visionary can switch between many roles and see the big picture, a realist can break things down to their components and form plans of action, and a critic anticipates problems and risks.

Techniques for Successful JADs

Prepare

Each session must have a solid objective and an agenda following that objective, so that participants come prepared to meet the expectations. An example of a contructive JAD session is to explore and define the project’s mission. Another necessary objective is relationship-building, which is crucial for forming emergent environments. More important than any single deliverable is understanding everyone’s mental models. For instance, if the topic is about a product’s “quality,” sufficient time must be spent uncovering and analyzing each person’s view of what that word means.

Conducting the Session

This is a matter of deciding who talks when, and keeping the discussion focused.

Produce the Documents

There must be a “product” at the end of the session that can be archived and available for future reference.

Stable Change

“Collaboration is the best tool for dealing with high-change environments.”

The characteristics that enable individuals and organizations to embrace change can be defined as “resilience.” Three keys are:

1. Establish respect and trust for leaders

Unlike the emphasis positional power common in hierarchical organizations, trust and respect are the glue of an adaptive system.

2. Build strong relationships

In a self-organizing environment, strong relationships are essential for collaboration.

3. Instill confidence in technical skills

Though the tools may change, confidence in one’s capabilities will carry them through rough spots and challenges.

Summary

I really enjoyed this overview, and found that we have already come to many of these conclusions through our experimentation and intuition. I’ve been writing for months about the trust-building and relationship-building process in networked environments, and the need to dissolve illusions of the ego and become more open-hearted and open-minded. Much of the information from this chapter affirmed those ideas. I found the section about the 5 “levers” that push teams to the creative edge fascinating, and those control parameters definitely personally resonated with my experience. As we’ve discussed the two tracks for junto discussions – freeform and structured – I saw a lot of parallels between what they called feed-forward and feedback JAD sessions. The suggestion for role-playing in discussions was also aligned with our thoughts on creating roles for discussions, what we defined as host/facilitator, participants, and mapper. I’m really interested now to explore self-definition and roles in this process, and experiment with different combinations of personalities and strengths to see what kind of creativity emerges.

The three games I decided to play with were Ayiti: the Cost of Life, Hurricane Katrina and Oiligrachy. Also, I watched the Second Life (SL) video on child sex trafficking on Global Kids’s (GK) website http://www.olpglobalkids.org/virtual_worlds/. I found all of the games to be socially relevant in one way or another for the child or adult that decided to play them. I also found the games gave the gamer a nice spinet of the social, economic, and political implications of poverty, natural disasters, greed, etc. through play.

For example, I found the Ayiti: Cost of Life game to be extremely difficult to win as so many factors were stacked up against the Haitian family such as health, work, proper schooling, money, and last but not least, happiness, which the player truly had to learn how to ration so that the family could survive from one season to another. I feel that this type of social game teaches gamers, (child and adult alike) just how hard it is to live in a developing country and how hard one has to balance the health, work, school, money, and happiness factors in their life as well as their family’s life to sustain a somewhat decent quality of life.

Another social game that teaches (children and adults alike) social and political lessons through play is the Hurricane Katrina game. In this game the player steps up in the face of natural disaster to help their fellow man through an avatar called Vivica, a young girl who is a resident of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Through Vivica, the gamer gets a snippet of what life was like before and after Hurricane Katrina, (i.e. friends and family members separated from one another, debris flying everywhere, people stuck in their homes without electricity, running water or food). Instead of lying still while all of this is happening, Vivica goes from neighborhood to neighborhood helping out the citizens of New Orleans by delivering food and water, all the while she is looking for her mother. In a sense, a game like Hurricane Katrina empowers the child playing it by showing them that in the face of disaster, human beings can and should take care of one another.

The game Hurricane Katrina also had a not so subtle political message that unfortunately, a lot of times politics gets in the way of the right thing to do as a human being. An example of this was the newspaper headline that Vivica saw about how Cuba offered to send thousands of Doctors to New Orleans after Katrina but that the state department refused their offer because of the U.S.’s cold relations with Cuba ever since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Also later on in the game a citizen of New Orleans refers to the same headline (when he talks to Vivica) and says that he can’t believe that the State Department refused free Doctors to come and help citizens that so richly needed them.

Oiligrachy was a social game that gave the player the tools to essentially become an oil tycoon. More specifically, in the game’s description the caption says, “Now you can be the protagonist of the petroleum era: explore and drill around the world, corrupt politicians, stop alternative energies and increase the oil addiction. Be sure to have fun before the resources begin to deplete.” I found this game to be dark yet comical in nature as the gamer is put in the shoes of an oil tycoon which has their oil company survey and drill land for oil, (beginning just after WWII) while learning how to create an oil addicted nation, (i.e. lining the pockets of pro oil company congress people and congress people that are on the fence about being pro oil while at the same time lobbying Congress to support pro oil addition bills).

I feel that these social games truly allow gamers to be able to identify with (or in the case of Oligarchy, unidentify with) the social, economic, and political message they try to convey, whether it be positive in a social game like Hurricane Katrina or negative in a social game like Oiligrachy. Thus, I happen to agree with the comment that Josephine made in the SL post, “…playfulness is key in  questioning and exploring cultural identity… (and that) this sort of virtual exploration transfers to real-world affect.”

Lastly, I felt that the SL video on child sex trafficking on GK’s website was really well done as it gave the viewer a moral and political overview of how that horrific crime happens to children and how law enforcement has to fight these atrocious crimes with one hand tied behind their backs. That video was especially near and dear to me as my cousin is the Superintendent of the Tel Aviv Police Department and operates a unit that attempts to put these awful people in jail and he told me that unfortunately, just like in the video, charges brought out against  sex traffickers don’t always stick.

“Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It has become very popular among educators around the world as a tool for creating online dynamic web sites for their students.”

Moodle is used for both completely online courses and blended courses (partially online, partially face-to-face). There are over 50,000 active sites on Moodle from 214 different countries. Moodle is free to download and registration is voluntary. At first, the Moodle demonstration page appears similar to a Wiki : we see basic text, links, and navigation buttons but no graphics or video. However, video and photographs can be added to the Moodle interface relatively easily. The instructor can use the Moodle ‘classroom’ to upload links, files, media content, even quizzes. The quizzes will be graded and students will receive an immediate grade after finishing, then see how this grade affects their overall grade for the course without consulting the teacher. The classroom sites in Moodle are very secure, requiring a password and, at times, teacher confirmation before allowing the student to enter and begin working.

I have taken blended and completely online courses in Moodle over the past six years or so. Currently, my continuing education classes use Moodle for my job requirements. Because all the classes are on one company’s page, I can track which courses I have completed and see/record my quiz and final grades for each class. However, there does seem to be a lack of organization when it comes to the Moodle interface. BlackBoard is in no way the ideal course management system, however if used properly, Blackboard can be very effective in organizing class contact information, grades, assignments, discussions, lecture notes, etc. in an easy to access left hand panel. This also makes the courses taken in Blackboard relatively consistent – you know where to look for the information you need. In Moodle, how the course looks is designed by each individual educator (or group of educators). This means that the course syllabus link may be in one location for one class and in a completely different location for another.

This also means that the usability of the online Moodle class is directly dependent upon the creator’s abilities. For example, I have taken a few classes where multiple elements of the page or assignments would not show or play because I was accessing the page from a Mac. In one of these cases my teacher said I needed to access the Moodle class from a PC, because it was designed by and for one. I have also been in classes where the online Quizzes were inaccurate due to an Instructor’s error when entering answers. Of course, a grading error can occur at any time by mistake. But if it happens in Moodle, an Instructor will need to review and regrade an entire class instead of one student. Overall, I have experienced Moodle classes that have been designed well, and also those that have been designed poorly. If the information is too cluttered, a student can miss assignments or other needed information. It seems you never know what you’re going to get with a Moodle course until the first time you log in.

(source: Moodle.org)

Hi Group 2! I hope all is well!

Sofia & Carolyn – I really like the idea of the students interviewing the members of the community and feel that our students would learn a lot from that interaction. The residents of the Batey know the issues and experience them firsthand, so I’m assuming they’re the best people to ask about the issue. They probably have a lot of strong opinions, and it may feel good for them to share them. I also think if our students could take a photo with each person they interview, it would be great. They could use a disposable camera or a flip cam as Josephine suggested. Whatever works will do fine, and it would be nice for people to put a face to a name. I think it humanizes the issue. It says this is real, and these are the real people that it affects. It may inspire people to volunteer and be a part of social change.

I was thinking about something that I also think would be a great part of our lesson plan. I thought it might be good if our students went into the Batey schools and spoke with the students there. Whether they’re elementary or middle school age, it would be interesting to hear what their knowledge of the issue is. They may not know much, especially if they’re very young, but then again, they could know more than we think. They have probably been affected by the issue, and may not even have running water in their homes.  

I know that education is also an issue in the Batey, and their schools are quite different from our schools here. They are lacking the supplies and space that we so easily take advantage of. But they are young, impressionable kids, and I think they could learn a lot from our students and vice versa. Our students could interview them and then could also give them a little lesson based on their research. They could teach them about saving water. An example would be teaching the children about turning off the faucet when they’re brushing their teeth, etc. The children may be inspired to do some fundraising for their community or to volunteer.

I also thought it might be nice if our students asked the Batey children to draw a picture or do a painting of their take on the issue. If they don’t know what to do with that, they could just draw a picture of what they love about water. For example, they can draw a picture of kids swimming or even of a child just drinking a glass of water. Then, our students could bring their artwork home with them, scan them and put them up on Facebook with pictures of them with the students and their accounts of the experiences they had there.

I think this would be a really positive experience for our students and the students of the Batey. It would be educational and fun for all involved!

Talk soon!

Erin

Hi!
I just wanted to say thanks to Josephine for the Second Life session last night. The Prison and the Holocaust Museum were really cool. I had no idea that you could do so much in Second Life, and especially something so important and profound. It really is like a whole other world. I look forward to honing my Second Life skills, so that I can get around more easily and be able to observe those kinds of things more.

Anyway, I found it really interesting and had a great time learning about Global Kids. So, thanks again!

Erin

I really enjoyed Siemens reading as it explained why LMSs fail in some way. I strongly believe that giving a dynamic to your class whether online or not is essential to a successful learning experience. LMSs cannot allow students to be passive in front of an array of information. An LMS is not meant to be a bible of countless information but more so a tool to engage students on one topic. The same rules apply in a regular classroom.

Like Fran, I also find interesting that we are using other platforms than Blackboard for this class. These previous semesters, after talking to students, I realized that students thought of Blackboard as an archaic and obsolete tool as far as conversation was concerned. Indeed, in most of my classes, the conversation aspect required by the different professors on Blackboard was not followed due to its unappealing side.

Therefore I believe that the focus of e-learning should not be focused on the different technological tools that could be used but more on the human aspect and the various needs that learners require. The tools given to the students have to be means of transportation taking them to a learning experience but not systems that they will try to figure out for the rest of the semester. LMSs need to keep in mind that they need to have a pedagogical approach.