Multimodal Approaches to IT Projects, with Blogosphere as the Starting Point

Trish MarbackLeigh Graves WolfPreetha Kannan

EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference March 22, 2005

Oakland Community College

largest community college in the state of Michigan

14th largest community college in the nation

annual enrollment of 74,000 degree seeking and non-degree seeking students

2002 – 2007 Strategic Master Plan

Increase the use of technologies with a specific focus on the instructional program

Faculty will be increasingly competent in the use of various technologies to advance the rate and depth of student learning; student learning outcomes will be improved as students become increasingly competent in the use of technology to gain access to information and advance their own knowledge development

Academic Technology @ OCC

New department as of June 2004 Director of Academic Technologies Manager of Online Learning

Technologies 5 Instructional Technologists Database Analyst and Snapshot

Specialist

Blogging 101

Theoretical Framework

Complexity and Ill-structured domainsErving GoffmanNon-linearity and hypertext

Multimodal project based collaboration

An ill-structured knowledge domain is one in which each case or example of knowledge application typically involves the simultaneous interactive involvement of multiple, wide-application conceptual structures, each of which is individually complex

Spiro, R.J. & Jehng, J. (1990). Cognitive flexibility and hypertext: Theory and technology for the non-linear and multidimensional traversal of complex

subject matter. D. Nix & R. Spiro (eds.), Cognition, Education, and Multimedia. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life – Erving Goffman

3 main players… the actor the audience outsiders

Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Garden City, N.Y.,: Doubleday.

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life – Erving Goffman

Three regions in which actions take place front region (front stage) back region (backstage) ‘the outside’ (not front or backstage)

Non-linearity

Although narrologists have almost always emphasized the essential linearity of narrative, critics have recently begun to find it non-linear

Landow, George P. Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.  

Analysis of the blogjust the facts…

Distribution of Post Content

Distribution of Post Content

2%

68%

25%

5%

Pedagogy

Teamwork

URL

Mixed

Teamwork

Pedagogy

URL

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50

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350

400

450

Pedagogy Teamwork URL Mixed

PostsComments

Posts and Comments by Category

Blog posts per month

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

aug sep oct nov dec jan

Total # of Posts

Comment and Post Totals

0

50

100

150

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250

Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan

Posts

Comments

0

5

10

15

20

25

aug sept oct nov dec jan

Month

Post

s

dennis

kayla

leigh

preetha

rex

trish

wendy

A few definitions

Multimodal: having multiple or many modes or instances

Mode: a manner, way, or method of doing or acting; a given condition of functioning; a status.

Collaboration: has at its heart a desire to solve a problem, create, or discover something within a set of constraints. (Schrage)

Need: create a group interaction structure that supports persistent productive intensity and creativityConstraint: typical life-cycle of decision-making groups Challenge: transcend both the definition and life-cycle the literature suggests might be common to our type of work

Affordances/constraints in practice from the management P.O.V.

Bales and Strodtbeck, “Phases in Group Problem-Solving.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 46 (1951): 485-95.

Our five team emphases

CMS implementation, support, researchCampus-based faculty support for teaching and learning with technologyCollege-wide projectsTraining (partnership with PDTC)Retaining an IT and team identity

Our projects: type rangeProgramming-partnershipVision/orientation/focusPublishingUsable objects for faculty and studentsInformation design, information artifact developmentTechnology management

Our projects: structure, hierarchyNo solo projects Each team has a leader and at least two helpersCross-team communication essential (to address defined project gaps and overlaps, avoid duplication of effort)Team reports published to blogDirector acts as de facto member on requestAll work lateral, all deliverables team deliverablesAccountability at the peer/social level

Our projects: a listPortfolio templatesWeb designEmphasis on teachingDesktop image for ADA and TLTC’sBlog/wiki/emerging tech/open source dev labMarketingCMS skins

Our projects: a list

TLTC inventoryInstitute book projectOnline student start-up packetAssistive technology expertise/training

Bb 6.2 migration

Project-based course redesign

Six lessons learned (or, how to do it better than we did)

Successful creative, flexible exploration and use of a single mode/medium depends absolutely on strong adoption of that mode/medium as your group’s primary, preferred mode.

Multimodal Precept #1

Multimodal Precept #2

Engage without dominating.

Some on your team will resist your choice/adoption.

Multimodal Precept #3

Multimodal Precept #4

Resistance to your mode/tool of choice will make long-term commitment stronger, not weaker.

Multimodal Precept #5

Remain flexible in the way you as leader think about and employ the dominant mode/tool.

Multimodal Precept #6

Stroke your engaged internal team leaders. Privately.

The blog from the team member P.O.V

Adoption curveAffordances and ConstraintsData AnalysisSuccess & FailureSummary

Blog experience, factor of adaptability?

Informal survey suggests that prior blog experience was a factor of adaptability

Early adopters in the team were experienced bloggers

Experience translated into higher number of posts and faster response times.

SurveyRanking Communication Tools

Preference of Communication Tools – Team Rankings

IMTelephone

Blogs

E-mail

Face-To-Face

Constraints in practice(in no specific order)

Blogger technical glitches Time Stamps on comments Inability to share documents Inability to receive notifications

Direction of flow Misunderstanding messages

Constraints in practice

Sense of disconnect Archival nature Non-threaded nature of discussion No acknowledgement of posts

Non-linearity

Communication points arise at different levels and on different topics

Non-linear in terms of its structure, content and design

Spontaneous conversations Postings were not ‘closed’ or locked

after a certain point in time Chronological display – too linear?

Non-linearity

Not moderated, not based on hierarchy A direct ‘reporting to’ relationship is not

required in this form of communication Interruptions from unintended

audience

Concept of blog linearity

Blogs are closely connected to the rhythm of daily lives. The postings are structured not by importance, topic or sensationalism, but by time. This way we get a journal which - while it's submitting to the strict linearity of time, it also submits to the non-linearity of how things happen.

Mortensen, Torill, 2002 http://blogonblog.blogspot.com/2002_11_01_blogonblog_archive.html#84914978

Factors for Acceptance

Formalize thoughts Brainstorming tool Documenting ideas/online

reporting/status tool Easy access Push button publishing Asynchronous mode Egalitarian Ethic

Unsuccessful ventures...

Creation of ‘sub-blogs’ for smaller teams or project groups Marketing and Web team blogs Was actively in use for 2 months, with

posts mainly from the project leader End result – Preferred to meet f-2-f and

did not pursue sub-blog

User P.O.V. Summing up

Constraints were mostly software limitations

Dominant communication tool in practice was not majority tool of choice

Team adapted over time Success and failure Formal and informal communication

styles

Questions?

Email us …

pamarbac@oaklandcc.edu

lgwolf@oaklandcc.edu

pxkannan@oaklandcc.edu