Silvana's E-learning and Digital Cultures Blog

Part of the MSc in E-learning at the University of Edinburgh

Archive for December 6th, 2009

Week 11 Lifestream Summary

Dec 6

Posted by silvanad in Lifestream | No Comments

This week I have been thinking about my assignment topic. I had a Skype Chat on Monday with Sian which was helpful in clarifying my ideas about a topic area. (see blog)

I have been using my lifestream to collect information, links etc which I may use in my assignment. Tumblr has been useful as a way to add links to my lifestream (as well as Delicious).  I have been collecting information about Twitter and lifestreaming as well – as I am interested in both.  May find a way to weave them into my assignment topic.

I have only been able to work intermittently this week as I had three days when I was running all day workshops – can't really explore the internet when I am doing these 9-5 workshops as I am 'on' all the time – either demonstrating or helping course participants.  I have four days of the same next week but one is an 'away' gig which means I can work on the train and in the evenings as I'll  have no family obligations. 

Tags:

Mulling over assignment topic

Dec 6

Posted by silvanad in Assignment | No Comments

I had a chat session with Sian on Monday on my assignment topic  – my ideas were fuzzy at the beginning of the chat but started to take shape during our chat.

One thing I was clear about. I want to take a non-linear (non-assembly line) approach to how I would present my essay – similar to the approach I used for Davidsfarm. As for a topic, I thought about doing something related to virtual communities. By the end of my chat with Sian my topic area took shape as – Learning from informal educational online communities.  My definition of 'educational' would be broad – to capture those online communities whose intent may not formally be educational but whose members share information, tips and learning.  I thought that Sarah P.'s quilting community and John's online music community were good examples of that as well as the 'How-to' videos in Davidsfarm.

What struck me about the virtual ethnographies that we did about virtual communities was the wide-range of types of communites – from those which are simply a network of individuals who share some utilitarian need and are not really a community – to those which illustrate a range of support and intimacies among members.  It is the latter type of virtual community I hope to focus on and see what virtual features members use that encourage the sharing of knowledge. And what formal online educational communities can learn from them.

I hope to get Sarah and John's permission to use their ethnographies as exemplars but I also hope to find other exemplars.  Ideas from anyone are welcome.

Tags: , ,