Appendix1
(A page from my private learning journal)
From Gibbs
Description of incident - the usenet group
E-mail exchange with usenet group about the classroom displays archive. I posted an explanation of the group and a link to a usenet on-line education group. Several people looked at the group pool and commented in the discussion.
Feelings and thoughts
What was i thinking and feeling?
1.At first:
thinking- that if this went well it might be possible to get more people to add displays to the group, that any e-mail discussion would add to my data, that it was important to try to build relationships with the people in this group so that they might contribute in the longer term.
feeling: nervous, unsure of the conventions of the group.
2. During:
thinking - it was going well, a frequent contributor to the group responded positively about the archive, other people joined in, talking not only about the group but about displays in general.
Feeling - positive, relieved, pleased to have found not only a good source of data but also a friendly community.
3. After:
thinking- still positive but less sure that the usenet group will continue to be useful
feeling - a little disappointed that although people viewed the archive no one joined the group.
Analysis of results
What sense can I make of it?
The usenet group is a very different on-line environment to the ones I'm used to. If I want to continue to promote the archive I need to continue to cultivate relationships in the group. People lost interest very quickly. It did make me think about the different ways displays are viewed in other schools. Some people were quite happy to leave displays up for 6 months to a year. This would never happen in my school.
Conclusion
What else could I have done?
I could have looked for a TA based discussion group. TAs are going to be far more responsible for displays in many schools because of the Workplace Agreement. So they might have had more interest in the archive than the teachers in the usenet group.
Action plan
What am I going to do next?
How can I transfer this insight to other occasions?
I will look for other TA based on-line groups that might be interested.
I will use what I've learned from these discussions about what users want to make the archive more useful.
index
(A page from my private learning journal)
From Gibbs
Description of incident - the usenet group
E-mail exchange with usenet group about the classroom displays archive. I posted an explanation of the group and a link to a usenet on-line education group. Several people looked at the group pool and commented in the discussion.
Feelings and thoughts
What was i thinking and feeling?
1.At first:
thinking- that if this went well it might be possible to get more people to add displays to the group, that any e-mail discussion would add to my data, that it was important to try to build relationships with the people in this group so that they might contribute in the longer term.
feeling: nervous, unsure of the conventions of the group.
2. During:
thinking - it was going well, a frequent contributor to the group responded positively about the archive, other people joined in, talking not only about the group but about displays in general.
Feeling - positive, relieved, pleased to have found not only a good source of data but also a friendly community.
3. After:
thinking- still positive but less sure that the usenet group will continue to be useful
feeling - a little disappointed that although people viewed the archive no one joined the group.
Analysis of results
What sense can I make of it?
The usenet group is a very different on-line environment to the ones I'm used to. If I want to continue to promote the archive I need to continue to cultivate relationships in the group. People lost interest very quickly. It did make me think about the different ways displays are viewed in other schools. Some people were quite happy to leave displays up for 6 months to a year. This would never happen in my school.
Conclusion
What else could I have done?
I could have looked for a TA based discussion group. TAs are going to be far more responsible for displays in many schools because of the Workplace Agreement. So they might have had more interest in the archive than the teachers in the usenet group.
Action plan
What am I going to do next?
How can I transfer this insight to other occasions?
I will look for other TA based on-line groups that might be interested.
I will use what I've learned from these discussions about what users want to make the archive more useful.
index