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Masterclass Social Software
Last Wednesday I was present at a Master class social software organised by the Digitale Universiteit. I've written a larger post about the event at my Dutch blog. I will write something about this master class in English soon, but for now I only have the energy to point to the Dutch piece. So if you're able to read Dutch, please head over to Skallagrigg. If your Dutch is not that good I can only ask you to be patient until my eye infection has gone and I can look at the screen for a longer period of time.
P.S.: Never mentioned in the literature, but having healthy eyes is definitely a prerequisite for blogging ;-)
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Preliminary research results - Interview with Anne Bartlett-Bragg
Blog in the classroom
So my little experiment is running for one month now. I'll recall what it's all about: I set up a blog for my father to use in one of his classes. The group exists of nine students. The age of the students is approximately 16 and they're educated in five years to go to colleges of higher education (for the Dutch: HAVO). The group that uses the weblog is in it's fourth year, the pre-exam year. The subject for the blog is mathematics.
The way the blog is used: the teacher has published an algebra problem that needs to be solved in a number of steps. It is the task of the students to collectively come up with a solution for the problem. Their participation on the blog will be taken into account for grading, as well as the quality of their solutions.
Before the students started to use the blog I asked them to fill out a questionnaire about the way the normally to their homework and their expectations of this experiment. Here's a quick summary of the students' answers:
So far the results from the questionnaire. In a few conversations with my father I asked him about his observations on the experiment. I'll sum them up:
I'm interested whether the last two observations will change during the year. It is obvious that the students are not used to collaborative working. They do their homework alone and there is one-sided communication during the classes. The teacher tells them what the solutions should have been. There is not much of a dialogue between students about the things they learn. It would be interesting to see whether it is the case for all subjects in school, but on the questionnaire they all say that they do all their homework alone.
At the end of December I will have a group discussion with the students in order to get more input from the students. The outcomes of that discussion will be published here. Let me know if you have any questions or remarks regarding this experiment!
BlogTalk paper on line
Finally, after a few days of camping and spending more days at my parents' place since the rain wouldn't stop falling, I'm back on line and able to publish my BT-paper: Understanding Weblogs: a communicative perspective.
Abstract This research investigates what form of communication is made possible through the weblog and what its uses are for the future. Taking Habermas’ theory, it will be investigated whether blogs offer a platform for what he calls the ‘ideal speech situation’. Conditions for the ideal speech situation are that everyone has equal access to the communication, that there are no power differences between the participants and that the participants act truthfully towards each other. To answer the question whether weblogs can satisfy these conditions, the framework of communication capacities of Van Dijk (1999) will be used and extended with two concepts. Based on these communication capacities it can be concluded that weblogs do offer a platform for the ideal speech situation. Future use of weblogs lie in the three formal world perspectives Habermas distinguishes: self-expression (subjective), sharing knowledge (objective) and social criticism (inter-subjective). From these three domains networks will emerge from people with shared interests, who will reinforce social interaction by using the weblog as a communication hub, a fixed marker on the internet where multiple communication channels for dialogue will be offered. (N.B.: this paper is a summarized translation of my Masters Thesis for the University of Twente, The Netherlands, with the title: Een goed gesprek onder miljoenen ogen: het weblog als knooppunt voor on line interactie.)
All I can say is enjoy reading it and let's start a discourse!
Blogs in the classroom
A few weeks ago I spoke to my father about blogging. Explaining what my conclusions are from my research I told him that blogs could be used for educational settings. As a maths teacher he was interested. The upcoming year will probably be the last one before his retirement, he only has half the hours than usual and therefore time on his hands, so I thought that running a little blogging experiment would be a nice way to end his carreer as a teacher.
The idea is that he will run a classblog, in which he posts maths exercises on a regular basis. The students will have to post their solution in the comments. I think it would be interesting to see what happens when students get clear insight in what their peers come up whith. When I look back at my own highschool period I never discussed the things I learned with my peers. Maybe this easy way of using a blog to share solutions publicly inspires students to discuss things more.
I suggested to my father that he ends this experiment writing a paper that could be published in a specialist journal for (math) teachers. But maybe I'll make it my experiment too, since I'm the social scientist and an expert on interviewing and blogs, and write a paper myself. Would this be a good idea?
Finishing up
I've nearly finished editing my thesis. What a relieve! I haven't been blogging much lately, but since most of the hard work is done now I've got more time on my hands and space in my head for blogging probably. However, the time has come to focus on writing the english paper for BlogTalks. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that and wheather I'm going to publish it piece by piece or only when it's completely finished. You'll see how it goes.
Weblog serves as a communication hub
I've been thinking about whether weblogs can be a medium for discourse. Just last night it came to me: Habermas makes a distinction within communicative action, between conversation and discourse. I figured that no single medium can offer a platform for discourse, so weblogs as a sole medium can't be seen as discourse. Rather, weblogs are a very good startingpoint for discourse. The weblog can serve as a filter for getting to know people who are interested in the same things. Through weblogs one can have conversations with 'self' and (preferably) others. These conversations can transcend into discourse when people start using multiple communication tools simultaneously (VoIP, chat, forum, e-mail, wiki, webcam etc.), and ultimately start meeting eachother face-to-face. BlogWalk is a very good example of these f-t-f meetings.
What I'm actually saying is that no medium solely can bring communication to the level of discourse. Combining different media is the strength and the weblog serves as a communication hub (see also my previous post about weblogs as a communication hub).
I've added a reference-page
For all those who are interested in blogrelated articles: I've created a page with references to articles I came across so far for my research. If there are articles missing which you think shouldn't be missed, please let me know (my e-mail address is on the left). In the left bar I've also created a permanent link to the reference-page.
The strength of blogging
According to Habermas, language forms the basis of communicating. He uses the so called 'speech act theory' from Austin and Saerle to explain what happens whilst communicating (I'm not going to exlain what it all means, it's simply too much :). With every speech act (e.g. command, ask, declare) we make certain claims:
- the aspect of the rightness that the speaker claims for his action in relation to a normative context (or, indirectly, for these norms themselves);
- the truthfulness that the speaker claims for the expression of subjective experiences to which he has priviliged access;
- the truth that the speaker, with his utterance, claims for a statement. (Habermas, The Theory of communicative action, Volume 1: 307)
This means that while you are communicating to an other person you may reject the things that are said under each of these aspects. If you know that a person makes claims about the truth that you know are not true at all, you move on in the conversation by stating that the other person is not speaking according to the truth. This does not mean that a person also is untruthful at the same time, because the claims that person made about the truth can be based on a lack of the proper information. If the other person deliberately makes claims about the truth that are not factual true, this person is not acting communicatively but strategically. Then this persons intentions are to manipulate the other and also is not acting truthfully.
To be able to judge whether a person acts right, truthful and refers to the truth you need context about a person. Now in face-to-face meetings this can be judged best I think. People are able to pick up the smallest of signals indicating whether a person is being sincere. The way a person smiles, the way s/he shakes your hand, the way the person talks all give signals that add up to our judgement of a person.
But what happens if you're deprived of all those small clues? How are we able to judge a person in mediated communication? Especially through internetcommunication we have problems with this issue. Talking through the phone to eachother still gives some clues through intonation of the voice, it is a direct conversation which means that you get immediate and spontaneous reaction, you can hear someone laugh. Through e-mail, chatchannels and fora you have less clues. People have been aware of that and even used this lack of personal information to create 'unreal' identities.
To have real conversation through the internet, in terms of Habermas, we need context of a person to be able to judge whether we can trust someone. Weblogs are a good startingpoint to be able to get more clues. One can 'follow' a blog over time and judge whether the blogger is consistent over time, knowledgeable, sincere, truthful. You get clues about a certain style of someone just by looking at the interface of the blog. Often there is an 'about-page'. In this way the weblog is a far richer medium than chatting and discussionfora and that makes it a very strong medium for communication on the internet.
It becomes more interesting when people use a blog as a 'communicationhub'. You write in your blog about things you want to write about and allow readers to comment on that. It is interesting to see that other ways of communicating with the blogger are often being offered. Most bloggers offer an e-mail address for instance. Far more interesting is the use of VoIP (e.g. Skype) among bloggers, or adding each other to chatlists and sharing images of webcams. Combining different types of communication makes the possibilities for communicative action stronger.
So the weblog serves as a filter for reaching out to people with shared interests. While initiating contact through a weblog, you can intensify contact through VoIP, webcams and chatting etc. which adds up to a better judgement of the blogger behind the text.
Proposal BT2.0 accepted
I'm getting a bit nervous. Last night Thomas Burg announced the names of the people who's proposals are accepted for BlogTalk 2.0. And my name's in the list too! So that means that I'll have to work very hard in the next months to make a really great article out of it (not that I had other plans ;).
Froomkin about the internet
In Habermas@discourse.net: Toward a critical theory of cyberspace, Michael Froomkin explains how the internet could be a place for public discourse. Here's an interesting passage:
- "Habermasian new spaces begin with individuals in "pluralistic, differentiated civil societies" who gradually unite in communities of shared interests and understanding. Using democratized access to a new form of mass media - the Internet - these individuals engage first in self-expression, then engage each other in debate. In so doing, they begin to form new communities of discourse." (p. 857)
Blogwalk seems to be the ultimate result of new communities of discourse, made possible by the medium weblog.
Observations on BlogWalk1.0
Being the last guest in Enschede, Martin has left this morning and that means that finally our BlogWalk meeting is over.
There are a couple of things that I've noticed during the last four days. First of all it is interesting to see that people who (mostly) know each other only through their weblogs are very capable of having really interesting discussions in real life. Through reading eachothers weblogs there seems to be a certain shared set of values and common use of terminology which makes it relatively easy to discuss certain topics in depth within minutes.
Secondly, to reach such in-depth discussions you need to have face-to-face contacts. The interaction through weblogs is relatively slow, because of the time and space distance you have to bridge. Therefore meeting with webloggers face-to-face really strengthens the bonding between people (which is not very surprising) . Meeting f-t-f with people means that you have a clearer understanding of the context of a person (also read Lilia's reflection on this). Not only the physical aspects of someone such as the way someone walks and talks, but also the things about one's personal life and interests are very important to be able to understand the things people write on the internet (and shows that you can have clear misconceptions about a person, e.g. when age is considered :-). That means that it would be highly adviseable to all people involved in the blogospere to try and organize meetings every now and then (in a relatively small setting), just to be able to understand more about eachother and have real intens discussions.
Personally, I'm motivated to get more involved with KM. The things that were being discussed last friday really appealed to me. Thinking about how organizations could (and maybe should) use the opportunities that e.g. weblogging offer for knowledgesharing. Another thing I'm highly interested in is personal webpublishing and the initiative for all kinds of action starting with the individual: I write about my own interests. Making those interests publicly means that I create opportunities for myself. I can be reflective on my own work and other people can connect to me through those interests. That means that any contact with other people evolving around my weblog is initiated by myself and therefore I've got the feeling that those contacts are more truthfull. Being truthfull is something that is missing on all kind of places in our society, especially within organizational settings, and maybe the use of weblogs as a tool for personal webpublishing can bring back a little bit more truthfullness in our lives, regardless of the opportunities the internet creates of being untruthfull in every aspect. However, regular meetings between bloggers can easily overcome problems whith 'virtual identities'.
Conclusion of all this? We really need another BlogWalk meeting!
Observations on BlogWalk1.0
Being the last guest in Enschede, Martin has left this morning and that means that finally our BlogWalk meeting is over.
There are a couple of things that I've noticed during the last four days. First of all it is interesting to see that people who (mostly) know each other only through their weblogs are very capable of having really interesting discussions in real life. Through reading eachothers weblogs there seems to be a certain shared set of values and common use of terminology which makes it relatively easy to discuss certain topics in depth within minutes.
Secondly, to reach such in-depth discussions you need to have face-to-face contacts. The interaction through weblogs is relatively slow, because of the time and space distance you have to bridge. Therefore meeting with webloggers face-to-face really strengthens the bonding between people (which is not very surprising) . Meeting f-t-f with people means that you have a clearer understanding of the context of a person (also read Lilia's reflection on this). Not only the physical aspects of someone such as the way someone walks and talks, but also the things about one's personal life and interests are very important to be able to understand the things people write on the internet (and shows that you can have clear misconceptions about a person, e.g. when age is considered :-). That means that it would be highly adviseable to all people involved in the blogospere to try and organize meetings every now and then (in a relatively small setting), just to be able to understand more about eachother and have real intens discussions.
Personally, I'm motivated to get more involved with KM. The things that were being discussed last friday really appealed to me. Thinking about how organizations could (and maybe should) use the opportunities that e.g. weblogging offer for knowledgesharing. Another thing I'm highly interested in is personal webpublishing and the initiative for all kinds of action starting with the individual: I write about my own interests. Making those interests publicly means that I create opportunities for myself. I can be reflective on my own work and other people can connect to me through those interests. That means that any contact with other people evolving around my weblog is initiated by myself and therefore I've got the feeling that those contacts are more truthfull. Being truthfull is something that is missing on all kind of places in our society, especially within organizational settings, and maybe the use of weblogs as a tool for personal webpublishing can bring back a little bit more truthfullness in our lives, regardless of the opportunities the internet creates of being untruthfull in every aspect. However, regular meetings between bloggers can easily overcome problems whith 'virtual identities'.
Conclusion of all this? We really need another BlogWalk meeting!
Proposal BlogTalk 2.0
As promised I've now put my proposal for BlogTalk 2.0 online. While dropping Thomas Burg (the man behind BlogTalk) of at the railway station last friday after BlogWalk, he promised me that he will personally let me know whether my proposal will be accepted or not. I can't wait for his reaction ;-)
Update
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I've been feeling a bit under the weather the last few days. Being cold all the time, feeling tired, not able to do much accept for watching TV and sleeping. But today I woke up at 7 AM feeling OK. The cats pointed out that the sun is shining and warm (behind glass) and that it was time for them to make a tour on the balcony (it's still a bit chilly outside, so they've only walked outside for a minute or so :).
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The last few weeks I've done a lot of surfing on the net and other resources in search of articles about weblogging and Habermas. I've noticed that it is very hard to get relevant articles. Most articles that look interesting to me by title are not available to me because my university has no subscription to the journals they've appeared in. That means that my lecturer may have to order them for me and that takes precious time. So much for the idea of unlimited resources I always thought university libraries had. But then again, it would be impossible to collect everything that's been written.
Next week I will finally have an answer whether my masterthesis is OK. The professor that had to look at it was busy making his new book ready for the publisher. I have translated my current thesis into English since I'm going to submit my masterthesis as a propasol for BlogTalk 2.0. I'll publish it next week after I'm sure that my professor approves it. That's one reason to look forward to next week, the other thing to look forward to is meeting people at BlogWalk 1.0. For me it will be the first blogmeeting and I'm curious what it will be like. I'm sure it will be lots of fun.
Searching for research articles
I've been browsing the web and especially weblogs in search for (research)articles about weblogs. Untill now I've only found a few usefull articles, but there must be written more than that. Is there anyone that can help my search? Is there a source where weblogarticles are being gathered?
I'm going to make a special referencepage in this blog with a collection of all the articles I've come across with an explanation what the articles are about. I hope you can help me make it a really long list (maybe it's time for you to write something (new) about weblogs;).
How can we understand weblogs as a form of communication?
That will be the main question for my thesis-proposal. It's a very broad question and to me it's also a very challenging one. How am I going to get an answer to the question? Therefore I will discuss two major subjects. First of all I need to make clear what communication is or when we can speak of communication. I will take Habermas' theory of communicative action to explain that, since he is one of the few thinkers of our time who has written a theory about communication. His theory will be the conceptual framework of what communication is.
To fully understand communication through weblogging, one must look at the way it is mediated by technology. Using technology can have major impact on the way one communicates. Therefore the second subject is an investigation of the effects the technology of weblogs has on communicationprocesses. Questions within this subject are how we experience the world through weblogs, in what way do we experience the other through weblogs.
These two subjects combined will give an answer to the question in the title. It will be a purely theoretical analysis and therefore a great challenge for me, since my entire education has been about empirical investigation. No statistics involved this time. Hopefully my faculty will approve my proposal.
