Assessment assessment - part 6 May 6, 2005
Posted by Andy Roberts in : learning , trackback( This series is getting a bit lengthy, up to part 6 already, so for the readers’ convenience, here again are the links to the Action Enquiry Report and the Assessment cover sheet )
Quoting
This is the first question which is asked in the Assessment cover sheet:
Sometimes I found it difficult to know when you were talking about someone else’s ideas and when you were talking about your own ideas- eg on your blog when talking about Wenger’s ideas on CoP you merely supply a link to his website then list some paragraphs outlining what CoPs could be – some ideas seem to be his, some yours. But it’s hard for me to tell. Could you keep this in mind?
This sounds valid, I wouldn’t want to be quoting something to illustate an idea with which I disagree only for the reader to mistake it for my own views. But let’s examine the only example given, the review of Wenger on COPs which appears in my blog entry COP part 1. The quote from Wenger’s website is introduced in the following way…
Etienne Wenger defines COPS thus
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better. etc etc
So we have the word “thus” followed by an indented paragraph which contains text from the very website linked to. That’s a very common way to quote from other sites, almost a standard. It’s pretty obvious those are Wenger’s words and not mine, how much clearer does it have to be? Subsequently in that blog series, I describe various communities with which I am familar and how they relate to Wenger’s definition, discuss possible problems with Wenger’s criteria, and pose the idea of ‘communities of identity’ which are not COPs. Those are my ideas, it’s me, writing on my blog, not quoting anybody. If somebody is still confused by that, I don’t think there’s much more I can do for them.
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
It is usual to put the indented quote in quotes and then put the (Wenger 2009:3) after it, or if it’s a website obviously no page number. Just a thought, does say that in the rules and regs. It may be obvious to you and to me too, but it is the usual way. Also I’d just like to ask if you are enjoying this rant? It certainly seems like it, but personally I find it a little childish and to be frank pointless! Are you really that petty, bored or with nothing to do? What are you hoping to gain out of this? Personal self gratification? Don’t bother to reply to this, I won’t be coming back or reading any more. Which is a shame as I have found some of your stuff interesting and worth while!
Anna,
Wanting to write a remark without wishing to read any reply would appear to be characteristic of the organisation which matches your IP address.
Incidentally, the number of people reading the blog has gone through a huge spike recently, although many of them are accessing through the same few subdomains
birdseye.ultralab.anglia.ac.uk
flexo.ultralab.anglia.ac.uk
enigma.ultralab.anglia.ac.uk
dhcp41.ultralab.anglia.ac.uk (etc)
rudolph.ultralab.anglia.ac.uk