Rebecca's Research Blog

Reading: Identity and deception in the virtual community
Judith S Donath
in ‘Communities in Cyberspace’, eds Marc A Smith and Peter Kollock pp 29-59

I’m interested in the part on how environment influences what you know and what is knowable of others identities. It affects how you create that identity, and what sort of first impression you can make. Maybe I need to look at how identities can be established in First Class.

I’m interested in the ideas that first impressions are lasting impressions – that you tend to hang on to your first impression even in the face of other evidence. I need to get Aronson’s book ‘The Social Animal’ out of the library.

We’ve got a new group blog up and running. It should be able to import all our old group blog from Blogger, but that’s proving complicated and it keeps timing out with its connection.

Of course, the minute I can’t post to it I think of all sorts of things to post in it. I’ve just been reading a PhD thesis about writing a PhD thesis and I’m full of thoughts about being a student that should go in the group blog.

Although this is entry number 50, the previous ones have all just been transferred from my previous blog.

Why transfer them? Well, this is an Open University research blog, so it won’t close down if I leave AOL (though presumably it will close down if I leave the OU. However, as it’s now in a more transferable format, I should be able to move it over to another site with fewer problems than making the move from AOL). Also, it should be easier to sign up new readers, including my supervisors. And I like the new category utility, though when you have a lot of categories it becomes a little fiddly to use.

It has been laborious moving all the posts and comments over, but it has given me a chance to read through my research blog carefully and remind myself about the things that were intersting me a few months ago.

http://journals.aol.co.uk/rebeccadan/PhDBlog/

These are the main positions that Rasmussen identifies in her observations. They mainly refer to the 2 teachers and 5 pupils.

She wasn’t focusing on positioning and identity, so this is presumably only a few of the more obvious positions. I can see that some of them would actively support learning, while others would act to block learning.

Girl. Boy.
Explorer [of knowledge]. Presenter [of knowledge]. Evaluator. User.
Participant. Leader. Member. Active member.
Authority figure. Teacher. Facilitator. Supervisor. Shepherd.
Group leader. Someone in charge. Mouse controller. Spokesman. Main director.
Peripheral participant. Active participant. Participant.
Constructor. Interpreter.
Student. Pupil. Learner. Main agent of their learning. Peer.
Insider. Outsider. Observer. Monitor. Audience.
Teaching team. Focus group. Friend. Girl unit.
Quiet pupil. Strong character. Patient. Responsible pupil. Low achiever.
Person who has read. Person who has just copied. Person who can’t answer. Lazy.
Local authorities [role play]. Immigration officer [role play] Traveller [role play]
Soldier [role play]. Civilian [role play]. Central actor.
Black person [role play]. White person[role play]. Norwegian.
Family member. Group member. Partner.
Media consumer.
Advanced ICT user.
Grown up.

Rasmussen notes: ‘individual pupils’ positionality within the groups revealed that although there are close connections between teachers’ and pupils’ interactions, there is no such thing as a direct relationship. Rather interdependency was constructed in different ways.’ (p224)

Social loafing seems to me to be definitely a position you can take within an online learning environment. However, as it’s not a term in common use, you couldn’t really have it as your identity. Even if it were in common use, would you identify yourself as a social loafer? Probably not. So here’s an example of a distinction between position and identity.

‘If we take someone’s words and make them our own, we position ourselves in relation to the other.’ (p38)

This is very relevant in online correspondence – particularly in email

Won’t say too much about this, as I’ve recalled Holland’s book to the library and I guess I’ll get round to reading it one day.

‘”Perhaps an AA member can/will tell the story of her life as an alcoholic only sith support of other AA members. The story lies within her zone of proximal development, if not within her sole capacity.'”

Holland and co point out that Vygotsky de-emphasises power, ownership and control in considering the ZPD. Participants are not equal – the ZPD is a place for struggle. They propose the concept of positionality to visualise individual stances in sociocultural worlds [it looks as if Rasmussen is saying that Holland et al came up with this in 1998. That can’t be the case? Can it? No, not according to Google].

Holland refers to the positional aspects of identity. Wonder whether everyone agrees with position and identity being separate? Or, would I be more correct in wondering whether positionality and identity are separate?

Rasmussen (p13) ‘Piaget explained that when a child experiences something new she will constantly try to fit this experience into existing known structures’. I think this depends on how she has been positioned, and how she has positioned herself. She may lump it in with existing UNknown structures – considering it something not knowable, or not worth knowing, or irrelevant or somebody else’s problem.

There are plenty of children in classrooms being exposed to new experiences who have positioned themselves/been positioned as stupid, or daydreamers, or footballers who are replaying a match in their heads. They do not process or, in some cases, even notice the new experience because of their positioning.

Thought I’d posted this before, but can’t find it. It’s is my list against which I judge learning theories. If they don’t apply to everything on this list, they’re incomplete.

* Early Years – learning through play
* ACE (accelerated Christian education): children are assessed on entry and progress at their own speed, working through booklets and doing the tests at the end of each one before they can move on to the next. They work mainly alone, but if they get stuck they put a little flag up in their cubicle and a supervisor helps out.
* Learning through observation – Gerald Durrell in My family and other animals. Gerald spends all day alone in the wilds of Corfu and amasses an enormous amount of zoological knowledge. He rarely meets anyone who encourages this or is prepared to show any interest. The people he encounters mostly speak another language and are from a very different culture.
* Gaining self knowledge through retreat and/or contemplation
* Learning skills through apprenticeship
* Traditional sushi chef training. ‘All you do the first couple of years is observe. You watch how the master filets fish, and you learn how to cook rice.’
* Learning through reading
* Learning through searching the Internet
* Learning to play a tune on the piano
* Learning languages through immersion
* Education in Saudi Arabia until the 1950s: kuttab schools specialising in memorising the Qu’ran
* Tai chi – learning wordlessly through physical moves.

Is there something deeper here about identities and position (must sort out what the difference is)? Is learning a continual repositioning of yourself, and a changing of the positions open to you? Is teaching a focused way of helping people to position themselves in more knowledgeable/educated/informed ways?

This may be too generic, because as time passes, whatever you do, you will lose some positions and move to others. You go to bed positioned as someone exhausted and wake up positioned as someone refreshed. You wait for a bus for half an hour and end up positioned as someone cold, wet and bored. Umm, it would refer to inanimate objects as well. One minute it’s positioned as a rock, the next minute it’s positioned as a seat, or a leaning post, or a back scratcher.

And animals (and even plants, in some ways) can learn things, but I’m not sure to what extent they can position themselves.

Hmm. Needs more thought.