I spent time with the AA's yesterday and boy, we got to cover a lot of things in our exchanges: student council, student org, MMS photography class, Biomodd field trip 1, field trip part 2, sportsfest, photo exhibit, suggestions for the upou lms/website, UPOU FB1, UPOU FB2. And so, out comes a bunch of ideas for the UPOU virtual learning community. And out comes a new set of glasses to see VC's from others' points of view besides mine.
A major wake up call! So now that I'm awake, there's a part I have yet to see in this research: online behavior. Hah--and my co writer has seen that before.
Anyways, movin' on....I need to review the questions, collect/ review current lit I've collected, go back to the abstract. There!
Perhaps it is time to FB, in order to:
-connect more with students through an online presence in the social network they themselves created
-get out of the box and see students from a different light
-observe online behavior and search for meanings
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
New Questions: Layer 2 ...testing
Set B:
This is like you sort of observing and analyzing the users (active and new)--from the standpoint of a faculty and member of the UPOU community in general.
Do you see that students have gotten more connected through the site?
In what ways?
What exchanges do you think were meaningful to students? Why so?
To what extent is the site achieving its goals?
Set A:
-What are your initial perceptions of UPOU students based on your observation of their online behavior?
-Have your perceptions changed? What else have you discovered about their online behavior as students/members of the virtual community?
-What have you learned from these online/ offline experiences with site members, in terms of making students feel that they're part of a larger community?
This is like you sort of observing and analyzing the users (active and new)--from the standpoint of a faculty and member of the UPOU community in general.
Do you see that students have gotten more connected through the site?
In what ways?
What exchanges do you think were meaningful to students? Why so?
To what extent is the site achieving its goals?
Set A:
-What are your initial perceptions of UPOU students based on your observation of their online behavior?
-Have your perceptions changed? What else have you discovered about their online behavior as students/members of the virtual community?
-What have you learned from these online/ offline experiences with site members, in terms of making students feel that they're part of a larger community?
Sample Questions: First Layer...testing
What pushed you to create the community site for UPOU? Did it like just dawn upon you like the way you make your music?
-Tell me about how you put the contents/things together at the site...what factors did you consider with your choice of webhost, the design/theme contents/folders, the gallery. Or did these things come to you naturally having had previous experience with managing or moderating forums?
-Is there a difference with the work and interaction YOU do (and experience) via the UPOU community site versus previous sites/forums you've been with?
-Did you expect it to be discovered (by anyone from UPOU)? What were your initial plans for it to be noticed...or launched?
-Have your expectations been met in terms of initial response, site usage, current users?
Or maybe, any frustrations or unmet expectations?
-Any surprises...in terms of interaction/ experience you did not foresee nor expect (but happened) from users (old and new), you included?
-Would you consider this site as one to put in your list of creative work or accomplishment? Why so or...why not if ever?
-Tell me about how you put the contents/things together at the site...what factors did you consider with your choice of webhost, the design/theme contents/folders, the gallery. Or did these things come to you naturally having had previous experience with managing or moderating forums?
-Is there a difference with the work and interaction YOU do (and experience) via the UPOU community site versus previous sites/forums you've been with?
-Did you expect it to be discovered (by anyone from UPOU)? What were your initial plans for it to be noticed...or launched?
-Have your expectations been met in terms of initial response, site usage, current users?
Or maybe, any frustrations or unmet expectations?
-Any surprises...in terms of interaction/ experience you did not foresee nor expect (but happened) from users (old and new), you included?
-Would you consider this site as one to put in your list of creative work or accomplishment? Why so or...why not if ever?
Questions for Site Users
These questions were given to active users to elicit their narratives:
* What is the UPOU community site to you?
* How did you learn about it?
* What's with this virtual community which sustained your interaction with
fellow community members?
* What have you learned from these experiences in terms of making fellow students
feel that they're part of a larger community?
These questions I crafted from the ff, Primo's initial questions for Chancy's mag-type publication:
* What is the UPOU community.net?
* How has the UPOU community platform helped you and the students in program coordination?
* What have you learned from these experiences in terms of making students feel that they're part of a larger community?
Of course, I'd have to craft a different set of questions to the site moderator-co writer. That would be difficult.
I mean how do we communicate our narratives and at the same time reflect on these as researchers--there must be a way to do this though--do we distance ourselves when we are both the story bearers and readers and seers?
* What is the UPOU community site to you?
* How did you learn about it?
* What's with this virtual community which sustained your interaction with
fellow community members?
* What have you learned from these experiences in terms of making fellow students
feel that they're part of a larger community?
These questions I crafted from the ff, Primo's initial questions for Chancy's mag-type publication:
* What is the UPOU community.net?
* How has the UPOU community platform helped you and the students in program coordination?
* What have you learned from these experiences in terms of making students feel that they're part of a larger community?
Of course, I'd have to craft a different set of questions to the site moderator-co writer. That would be difficult.
I mean how do we communicate our narratives and at the same time reflect on these as researchers--there must be a way to do this though--do we distance ourselves when we are both the story bearers and readers and seers?
What's Brewing....
Cutting and pasting an email exchange:
Re Site stats: What good will it do?
(I'm thinking aloud + figuring out something here to get to a certain point)
That article from where I got those site stats actually say that such stats didn't provide enough basis to evaluate site interaction in the VC. And so the article went on to use other means to describe the nature of interaction among members of the VC qualitatively.
I'm thinking along these lines...
to include some kind of data in your narrative in terms of:
-threads which garnered most number of hits/ responses
-threads which YOU as moderator see as indicatives of quality interaction
-threads which provide evidence that there is a growing sense of community
Okie. Now I have Part 2 questions brewing ...
In the end, I guess, to examine the interaction and sense of community at the site, we need to use the ff:
-narratives from a set of guide questions
-contents from specific threads at the site
-questionnaire/ checklist (there's a sense of classroom community survey I got somewhere which I can tweak to use at the site for active users and new users)
Is there any other data you think we should include?
But there's a WOW here cuz finally I stepped out of that OC-ness of looking at review of lit.I am now getting into concerns re data gathering and analysis...yehey.
Re Site stats: What good will it do?
(I'm thinking aloud + figuring out something here to get to a certain point)
That article from where I got those site stats actually say that such stats didn't provide enough basis to evaluate site interaction in the VC. And so the article went on to use other means to describe the nature of interaction among members of the VC qualitatively.
I'm thinking along these lines...
to include some kind of data in your narrative in terms of:
-threads which garnered most number of hits/ responses
-threads which YOU as moderator see as indicatives of quality interaction
-threads which provide evidence that there is a growing sense of community
Okie. Now I have Part 2 questions brewing ...
In the end, I guess, to examine the interaction and sense of community at the site, we need to use the ff:
-narratives from a set of guide questions
-contents from specific threads at the site
-questionnaire/ checklist (there's a sense of classroom community survey I got somewhere which I can tweak to use at the site for active users and new users)
Is there any other data you think we should include?
But there's a WOW here cuz finally I stepped out of that OC-ness of looking at review of lit.I am now getting into concerns re data gathering and analysis...yehey.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Light Bulb: On Quali Research
I've reviewed past EDDE 206 readings and browsed through these 2 valuable books: The Foundations of Research by Jonathan Grix and Conceptualizing and Proposing Qualitative Research by Schram. Funny how I'm now seeing and making sense out of these cuz obviously, I have a clearer sense of purpose for this change of topic which is now on virtual communities.
I also think that perhaps with the rise of QUALI research as a viable methodology, it has influenced the way research is being taught and written about. The old books I've read during the earlier part of my Phd classes have a very linear, clear cut step by step manner of presenting the research process. My experience however did not match that at all. All these new readings and perhaps classic ones in the field of QUALI research shows the cyclical and dynamic process-- all because of the word we know to be as RESEARCH Paradigms. It indeed places your research at a certain perspective of looking at data, examining realities and their meanings and what these are for. It situates the research. Trala!
But I still need to get out of this pit: clarifying design, methodology and approach. Different books and readings are interchanging the use of methodology and approach. And so maybe...there is a method of gathering data and approach at looking at your data....a method of analysis and an approach of looking at your analysis of findings.
Case study, ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology are all part of research approaches which can either be under a quali or quanti type of research.
Data gathering techniques are interviews, document analysis, FGD's, questionnaires, surveys. Where does narrative inquiry fall and what's the diff among these approaches?
Hmmm...
I also think that perhaps with the rise of QUALI research as a viable methodology, it has influenced the way research is being taught and written about. The old books I've read during the earlier part of my Phd classes have a very linear, clear cut step by step manner of presenting the research process. My experience however did not match that at all. All these new readings and perhaps classic ones in the field of QUALI research shows the cyclical and dynamic process-- all because of the word we know to be as RESEARCH Paradigms. It indeed places your research at a certain perspective of looking at data, examining realities and their meanings and what these are for. It situates the research. Trala!
But I still need to get out of this pit: clarifying design, methodology and approach. Different books and readings are interchanging the use of methodology and approach. And so maybe...there is a method of gathering data and approach at looking at your data....a method of analysis and an approach of looking at your analysis of findings.
Case study, ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology are all part of research approaches which can either be under a quali or quanti type of research.
Data gathering techniques are interviews, document analysis, FGD's, questionnaires, surveys. Where does narrative inquiry fall and what's the diff among these approaches?
Hmmm...
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Tasking, Of Course!
Wk 1
Villanueva
-start work on review of lit notes
-organize references
-bug Dave, Iyen and Blaise for their narratives
-create working paper format:
-start working outline of review of lit
-write paper parts: aim of the study, theoretical frame, methodology, research
questions
Librero
-answer interview questions as part of narrative inquiry data gathering
-provide data re: site stats
-start reading stuff re VC's, sense of community and community of practice to get an idea re: theoretical frame
Wk 2-3
Villanueva
-chat-discuss with Al
-Write review of lit
-work on TM A's related to paper—expound on methods of data gathering and analysis
Librero
Scheduled chat with aleta- start discussing re significance of the study: “Why is this paper worth
writing? What does it attempt to contribute in the body of research?”
-write 1 paragraph re significance of the study
-refine review of lit
Wk 4
Villanueva
-Conduct FGD's
-redo the sense of community questionnaire
-distribute to site users
Librero
-start work on paper intro
-review existing data gathered—narratives to look at recurring themes
and what these mean
WK 5
pause to consult with Primo
Villanueva
-start work on review of lit notes
-organize references
-bug Dave, Iyen and Blaise for their narratives
-create working paper format:
-start working outline of review of lit
-write paper parts: aim of the study, theoretical frame, methodology, research
questions
Librero
-answer interview questions as part of narrative inquiry data gathering
-provide data re: site stats
-start reading stuff re VC's, sense of community and community of practice to get an idea re: theoretical frame
Wk 2-3
Villanueva
-chat-discuss with Al
-Write review of lit
-work on TM A's related to paper—expound on methods of data gathering and analysis
Librero
Scheduled chat with aleta- start discussing re significance of the study: “Why is this paper worth
writing? What does it attempt to contribute in the body of research?”
-write 1 paragraph re significance of the study
-refine review of lit
Wk 4
Villanueva
-Conduct FGD's
-redo the sense of community questionnaire
-distribute to site users
Librero
-start work on paper intro
-review existing data gathered—narratives to look at recurring themes
and what these mean
WK 5
pause to consult with Primo
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Of Significance
I remember responding to Al in one community site thread re Beyond the Lantern Parade. I also remember asking him about types or forms of social networking sites.
I just had this idea that maybe there is way to support the UPOU community site depending on what stage of development it is in.
It was a concern because for obvious reasons, I was an active user of the comm site and I was wondering how the site's usage can be sustained and maximized by both faculty members and students. So, let's say it is in an exploratory stage, what can a few users do to make it work.
For example, in community organizing or even when one looks at child development, one is aware that there are such things a stages or phases of development. A child is at a certain developmental stage and given that, a child would need this kind of support or intervention. A community would have a core group and at what depending at what stage the group is in, the organizer would provide some kind of consciousness raising or group mobilization depending on the group's level of participation. So maybe I was thinking perhaps, if we know at what stage the community site is in, we know that this is the level of facilitation it needs for it to thrive.
At least now I know, it isn't social networking sites perse which I was concerned about. The correct label would be 'virtual communities', 'online communities', 'communities in cyberspace' or 'computer mediated communities'.
And so, at a curiosity level, this paper is of significance to me. So far, my readings point to the fact that there are levels of community in virtual communities. There are indicators of a 'sense of community'. These concepts are mostly applied to 'virtual learning communities' not particularly to a community site outside the domain of a specified virtual learning community.
At a program chair level, this paper is of significance as I would like to find out in what ways have I communicated or connected effectively with students through this site and maybe in what ways have I excluded/ limited myself from connecting with other students because of this site. I think though, it has benefited me in a way but has it benefited my students?
At the level of my own research pursuits, this paper is of significance because it is a step away from my comfort zone. My previous research has always been within the practice of basic education using a case study design. It will be the first time for me to explore other methodologoies--such as the use of narrative inquiry. First time for me to do research with knowledge of a research paradigm, a knowledge of a theoretical frame to analyze data.
At the level of faculty relations, this paper is of significance because it will be the first time for me to co write with a UPOU colleague. I have yet to figure out if we are working on this from the same level, though I am aware that I've set minimum expectations or bare essentials as indicators that this co writing is indeed working.
Now, as to what this paper can contribute to existing theory...hmmm, I have no idea!
I just had this idea that maybe there is way to support the UPOU community site depending on what stage of development it is in.
It was a concern because for obvious reasons, I was an active user of the comm site and I was wondering how the site's usage can be sustained and maximized by both faculty members and students. So, let's say it is in an exploratory stage, what can a few users do to make it work.
For example, in community organizing or even when one looks at child development, one is aware that there are such things a stages or phases of development. A child is at a certain developmental stage and given that, a child would need this kind of support or intervention. A community would have a core group and at what depending at what stage the group is in, the organizer would provide some kind of consciousness raising or group mobilization depending on the group's level of participation. So maybe I was thinking perhaps, if we know at what stage the community site is in, we know that this is the level of facilitation it needs for it to thrive.
At least now I know, it isn't social networking sites perse which I was concerned about. The correct label would be 'virtual communities', 'online communities', 'communities in cyberspace' or 'computer mediated communities'.
And so, at a curiosity level, this paper is of significance to me. So far, my readings point to the fact that there are levels of community in virtual communities. There are indicators of a 'sense of community'. These concepts are mostly applied to 'virtual learning communities' not particularly to a community site outside the domain of a specified virtual learning community.
At a program chair level, this paper is of significance as I would like to find out in what ways have I communicated or connected effectively with students through this site and maybe in what ways have I excluded/ limited myself from connecting with other students because of this site. I think though, it has benefited me in a way but has it benefited my students?
At the level of my own research pursuits, this paper is of significance because it is a step away from my comfort zone. My previous research has always been within the practice of basic education using a case study design. It will be the first time for me to explore other methodologoies--such as the use of narrative inquiry. First time for me to do research with knowledge of a research paradigm, a knowledge of a theoretical frame to analyze data.
At the level of faculty relations, this paper is of significance because it will be the first time for me to co write with a UPOU colleague. I have yet to figure out if we are working on this from the same level, though I am aware that I've set minimum expectations or bare essentials as indicators that this co writing is indeed working.
Now, as to what this paper can contribute to existing theory...hmmm, I have no idea!
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