Talk:Barn raising
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Ted Ernst questions
I'm not clear on what Barn you're attempting to raise. When I went to a real-life barn-raising, a small group of workers had been at if for a week preparing the posts and beams and everything was ready for the large mass of people that arrived on Saturday morning. There were clear instructions and all day long we were continually invited to take part in what was needed next. Is this like that? I've seen your announcement at meatball and wikiindex, fyi -- TedErnst (drop me a line at wikiindex when I should look back here, please)
- Ted, thanks for being an early presence. I like the metaphor of barn-raising and like all metaphors they can't be taken literally or pushed too far. I'll try and get some more preparation in between 8th and 10th, then let you know again on your user page, but there won't be any prefab posts and beams, not even metaphorical ones. This is a wiki not a barn, so there won't be much heavy shifting to do. Rather, I expect the barn raisers to engage with the ideas, communicate, and maybe get some collective design ideas and tasks which can then quickly be fleshed out in the structure and content. My priority in the pre-barn-raising period has to be to work on the exhibition next door, and rousing the crowd for next week, but there's nothing to stop anybody from helping out with the planning and preparation in advance on the article page or elsewhere. See you later --Andy Roberts 15:01, 4 March 2006 (GMT)
Okay, I'm cool with using the metaphor the way you're suggesting. And I still am not sure what the purpose of the barnraising is here. What do you hope will be accomplished? Is this a question to be answered between now and the end of the prebarnraising? --TedErnst reply thread at wikiindex
Alright. I'm in. :-) TedErnst 16:05, 7 March 2006 (GMT)
suggested idea - Versioning
My experience in BarnRaising over at WikiIndex leads me to believe that having people work on their own versions of a pages such as MainPage is important. I think it can help them understand what they are trying to communicate. example: Barn raising:Version2
I agree. The process of developing a demonstration version, tinkering with it, and then rolling it out live makes sense where major refactoring is being considered. I've never experienced two contenders being developed at the same time though. Hopefully aspects of both might be able to be combined to avoid wasted effort on whichever version doesn't get adopted. --Andy Roberts 11:41, 10 March 2006 (GMT)
DARNet as an Action Research Coffee Shop
As I said at the Home page comments, I would like to propose this DAR wiki to be a Action Research Coffee Shop, an encounter place for Jean McNiff’s “Critical Friends and Validation Group for Professional Learning”, for colleages working or teaching Action Research to present them, exposing the projects to others critiques and suggestion.
From Jean McNiff:
Critical friends
Your critical friend (also called a ‘critical colleague’ or ‘learning partner’) is someone whose opinion you value and who is able to critique your work and help you see it in a new light. Critique is essential for helping us to evaluate the quality of the research. You would ask one or two people to be critical friends from the start of the project.
Your validation group
You would also convene a validation group of 4–10 people. Your critical friend might or might not be a member of the group. They would be drawn from your professional circle, and would agree to meet with you periodically to listen to your progress reports and to scrutinise your data. Although they might not be entirely familiar with your research, they would be able to make professional judgements about the validity of your report, and would offer critical feedback. You should listen carefully to their advice, though you are not compelled to act on it.
Who sets the criteria?
The issue of who sets the criteria is contested. In most professional contexts, criteria are set by ‘experts’, and practitioners are expected to perform appropriately. In action research, practitioners take responsibility for their own work and negotiate their own criteria.
Action research and professional development
Improving the work you do is about learning to do things in new ways. It is a process of professional learning. Many professional learning programmes work from the point of view of the person who is conducting them (‘delivering’ them in much contemporary language). The emphasis is often on teaching or training, not so much on learning. When action research informs professional development programmes, they work from the point of view of the person who is learning. It is assumed that you already know a great deal. Perhaps your knowledge is intuitive or only roughly worked out, but you still have the answers in yourself, ready for the right stimulus to set them off. You don’t need a trainer so much as a supporter, or critical friend, who will listen to your ideas, challenge them, and help you to find alternatives. This kind of facilitative model means that the supporter is also learning… Doing action research helps you to grow professionally, to show how you are extending your own professional knowledge.
More at: http://www.jeanmcniff.com/booklet1.html#11
So, I think that DARNet could become a Coffee Shop where we encounter for friendly dialogues and critiques of our own practice on action research projects and action research teaching. Sites on Action Research are already many, growing the number by month, Wiki Action Research Coffee Shops, not many. - Giorgio Bertini
Building the Coffee Shop
I'm fully in agreement. Let's make the Coffee Shop a major part of the site. --Andy Roberts 09:23, 11 March 2006 (GMT)
