You can bring a boy to the pot,
but you can't make him pee.
With my knowledgable colleague, Yao Zhongrui, we created a Blackboard organization for our research group of 21 PhD students in ISLT. The vision is that we can share our research and papers for peer feedback, comment on interesting articles in our field, and develop our voice with the greater Instructional Systems world. We integrated Web 2.0 technologies such as Diigo, Twitter, Facebook, ResearchGate and many more. Sounds great, right?
I have no faith in "If you build it, they will come."
How, then, will this marvelous online community, (if I do say so myself), get off the ground?
I have a plan!
1. Specifically tell people to post on the appropriate tool. Yes, tell them! "What a great idea. You should post it on the discussion board." "Interesting tweet, I'm going to retweet with our group hashtag."
2. Model. This part scares me because I am new to the field. But as I come across cool sites, I'm going to tag, annotate, post. I'm going to respond to other people's posts. I'm going to recklessly give-it-a-go.
3. Highlight, praise, affirm group member's contributions. "Wow, look at the conversation you started on the LinkedIn page. Fifteen ISLT people commented on your insights. Apparently your ideas strike a chord with others."
Repeat... and don't lost faith.
I have no idea how long it will take for this community to be fully realized. But I know it can work! I know it will benefit us all! I think I can, I think I can.
If you are interested, here is an overview of our Research Group Blackboard organization.
I think you've put a lot of thought into planning this community! I think the biggest hurdle will getting the word out. But once that's done, I think people will recognize the benefits - from getting feedback from papers to simply making connections. I think this is especially great for those who are distance learners.
ReplyDeleteThank you, GermanGirl, for taking a look. Yes, planning the community took longer than you would imagine. Everything always does. We are fortunate in that we have a defined group of students as Dr. Dennen's advisees so group members will know, (we have face-to-face meetings), but you're right, the challenge will be to courage use, to help people see the benefits.
DeleteGreat idea! Thank you for creating the spaces for us! Many times, it was really hard to ask friends for feedback on my paper because I know most of us are always busy. But thanks to the BB site you and Zhongrui created, I think we can simply post our paper and get feedback from any group member who have some time! :) And the video! You guys are awesome!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you see the potential, Jiyae. You are already very active in the Research Group and with the larger community through the ISTL blog, you will probably be a leader here, too. I will make a point, with my limited knowledge, to provide any feedback I can. The community will be a huge benefit of us noobs.
DeleteI think you're more likely to get some traction as the school year starts. Everyone's tired and trailing off right now (or out of the country). When the new term starts, there tends to be a resurgence of energy.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt. I'm excited at the prospect. Thank you for the reassurance.
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