Numerous small actions aimed at improving my practice as a provider of online resources to this audience and also improving my practice in my job role. As the research is emergent there may be actions that stem from reflection in action here as well as planned actions
The guiding quote:

“Communities are not for harvesting they are for joining ”
(A Roberts 2006)

Action
Joined the forum and posted message about Classroom Displays Blog with general request for help with my research.
Took on Andy’s point about the need to become involved in groups not just use them for my own purposes.
Looked for threads and things to get involved with. Joined the quiz group and have played regularly.
Reflection
I’m finding I get a good return from being a member of the group. The group is expanding fast. I can use this expansion to grow the audience for both the blog and my exhibition. Beyond this I’m getting helpful insights into my job role from threads in the group.
Joining this community goes beyond notions of participant observation as the group is closely related to my praxis. My role as actor and observer within the group is not that of dispassionate researcher but rather a reflective community member.

Plan
To continue to expand my involvement in the group by contributing to threads, to explore the group to see if it is potentially a CoP.
Action
Decided to be very transparent in group- chose to use photo rather than pixie style avatar common in group.

Provided link to Acting to Improve as web site link. Made a post explaining my research and inviting people to visit the CD Blog
Reflection
My choice of a photo of myself (although actually more my hat than me!) is important to me. It would have been easy to follow the group convention to take an animated avatar. I was concerned that it might mark me out as being different but it was important to me.
I use this image as an icon in most of my online posting. It has become a very personalised avatar. Its use reflects my desire to make my research work as transparent as possible and connects to my ethics policy.
Plan
to continue to connect my online presences together to make an integrated, transparent whole.
Reflection in Action
The group chose to have a competition based on displays in January. - not sure if this was pre-planned or in some way related to my posting.
The rules are very clear, displays to be your own design and people should ask permission before copying them in their school.
Plan
Continue to follow any threads related to classroom displays
Action
Noticed discussion on subject of things to do for Chinese New Year.
Added Classroom Dragon image with link back to original and T’s description of how to make it.
The group responded to the photo and some members made their own versions.
I asked them to take photos of these.
Reflection
I had to think carefully whether I was drawing people’s involvement away from the forum and onto the blog. It seems to me that Nancy is right when she encourages communities to give stuff away. Putting what’s on the inside outside doesn’t harm the group so long as links back are made clear.
Plan
To continue to make connections across from the forum to the blog and the flickr group and vice versa. To use each to promote the other.
To be clear about my intentions with forum members and to seek informed consent.
Action
Showed P the TA forum after telling her about it at work. Showed her how to access it at work and encouraged her to join it.
Reflection
This was quite a hard thing to do. Transparency online is one thing but having a work colleague in the forum felt as if it could inhibit my posting freely. I had to think carefully about why I was feeling this way. My online identity is something I’ve never hidden and yet it felt odd. Anyone from my work place could easily google and find my blog, some of my reports, etc. So why did this make me uneasy? There is a part of me that values privacy and lindiop/lmhartley/lindah is becoming quite a public personna. This is something I need to work through. It may be that I even need to invent a more anonymous personna for my personal posts in that space. Saying that makes me realise how uncomfortable that feels. I don’t like deception in any form so it is better to stand by my transparent personna and make sure I only make posts I would be happy for my colleagues to read. This is probably good advice anyway!
Plan
To continue to promote the forum at work and show any other TAs who might be interested.
To be continued……

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edublogs: Making presentations for the web - Web 2.0 in Education
Making presentations for the web - Web 2.0 in Education

It can almost certainly do with many changes but it will give an impression for those who were there that day and want to remember the key points. Oh, and does this make my first vodcast?

Ewan’s vodcast is well worth a look as it gives an excellent introduction to blogging in education. Not to mention being a very 2.0 ish way of doing it!

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I used grounded theory again, coding raw data into emergent categories but this time linking to theory where possible as well. The main categories soon became clear this time with a number of sub-categories under each one.
Andy offered some critisism of the method, suggesting that it was overly time-consuming. I defended this on the grounds that I was learning and making connections whilst doing this. Paying such close attention to what has actually been said draws out meaning and makes it clearer.
Now to draw some conclusions from my analysis, have the actions of the first cycle moved me nearer to the values I began to identify in the assumptions stated in the research proposal?
What should I be questioning in my double loop?
Then on to make plans for actions for the second cycle.

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James has got the structure of nonscholae up today.
nonscholae.org

nonscholae.org is a site devoted to the responsible use of blogs, instant messaging and other social software in schools.

Non scholae sed vitae discimus
We learn, not for school, but for life - Seneca, Epistulae

We believe that these tools and resources should not be blocked or banned from schools. As educators, we should be familiarising learners with these technologies, supporting and facilitating their responsible use and equipping our students with the skills to keep them safe and savvy in the online world.

However, at the moment, many schools are simply closing their eyes, banning these technologies and doing their learners a disservice in the process.

I’ve asked my head to get the LEA to unblock the Classroom Displays Blog at school in time for my exhibtion. I discovered today that the smart filter even blocks it on the staffroom computer, which wasn’t even supposed to be filtered at all So much for showing someone the blog at school or teachers accessing it during PPA time. Grrr!
Quite how I’m going to do a workshop in the IT suite as part of my exhibtion week if I can’t get into the blog is another issue.

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OK, I decided in conversation with Andy that I would analyse the data I have so far for my first cycle. I’m going to do this tomorrow. Any more data that comes in after this will reflect further actions so belongs to the second cycle.
SO today is for deciding how to analyse the first data set. Do I stick with grounded theory? It worked well for the pilot producing useful insights from a fairly small sample. Or do I use something like Gibbs? Or even a reflective splurge?
First thing is to marshal the data and take a first look at it. Then I think a reflective walk to mull over the options.

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Wil got this via Stephen Downes.Weblogg-ed - The Read/Write Web in the Classroom :
He says:
Maybe we should start a club, and this might be our manifesto. I especially like:

1. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
5. Go deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.
10. Everyone is a leader. Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense. Let anyone lead.
16. Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.
29. Think with your mind. Forget technology. Creativity is not device-dependent.
40. Avoid fields. Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.

I like all of those but I’d add

39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces — what Dr. Seuss calls “the waiting place.” Hans Ulrich Obrist once organized a science and art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference — the parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

I really love the idea of having a conference without a conference!
Perfect A bit like going on an LEA course when the course leader doesn’t show for 2 hours.

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Brilliant post from Creating Passionate Users via Will Richardson.

Crash course in learning theory

One formula (of many) for a successful blog is to create a “learning blog”. A blog that shares what you know, to help others.

This is a great reminder for me at the moment. What she has to say about brain-based learning applies not only to this blog, and the Classroom Displays Blog but also to my plans for my final exhibition. It resonates with my conclusions in my Meta-Learning Journal about what went wrong with the f2f pilot exhibition as well.

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I did a comparison between Blogger and Edublogs.Despite a few technical issues Edublogs was a clear winner for my purposes. My blog there is aimed at education practitioners and being part of that community makes sense. I also like the fact that James so obviously cares about what he’s doing . He tries hard to resolve issues, unlike the impersonal blogger interface. Also I like using wordpress, I use it here for my research blog. It’s a bit of a pain not having access to edit the style sheets like I can here and I miss being able to have a flickr badge, but other than that it’s pretty good.
So when problems with using Firefox 1.5 happened I shouldn’t have been surprised at James’ swift response:
Problems with Firefox 1.5
Hmmmm, seems like users who have upgraded to FF 1.5 are having some problems posting to their blogs. Am on holidays at the moment but will do my best to sort this out asap, in the meantime IE will work (never thought I’d say that!)
Nice man
Actually Safari works ok too - so I’m using two browsers again, sigh!

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