| Fall 2007 |
EDLI 7220 Leadership and Power
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Group Paper: A Study of Leadership, Power, and Inclusion
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Semester Reflections: When this semester started, I had received noticed that 1) My divorce was final, and 2) My job was being eliminated. Either of those events would have caused enough stress to question why I might remain in EDLI but in retrospect, my academic program was the only consistently successful aspect of my existence, and I was determined not to leave the program. As difficult as the semester was, my instructor (Rod Muth) and my fellow classmates were ever-encouraging and I am sure their support was instrumental in my completing the course.
As someone who comes from a corporate rather than an education background, I am always reminded of the different perspectives those disciplines bring to any discussion. In the corporate world, leadership and power are explicit. In contrast, the educational system had a far more implicit power structure. In either case, the way to affect change is to understand the structure, then work within it to find change champions. In other words, transformational change comes from within. |
| Spring 2008 |
EDLI 7840 Independent Study: CHAT - Socio Cultural Activity Theory
IT 6740 Learning Processes Applied to Instructional Technology
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ISCAR Virtual Identity Presentation
Group Paper: The Case for Instructional Technology
Second Life as a Learning Application |
Semester Reflections: In my first semester attending EDLI full-time, I was able to finally focus on the quality of work I had hoped to achieve as a Ph.D. student. My instructional technology course was wonderful; playing with tech toys is my speciality. I was able to use some of the computer tools I already had to create podcasts and re-use some virtual curriculum materials I had designed for the classes I taught. The experience of the class was all over the map where Instructional Technology was concerned but overall knew very little about virtual worlds. As a result, I was more convinced than ever that I had something to offer not only the school, but the body of emerging research in this area.
At the same time, I was learning about Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), which seemed to be a very useful framework in describing how social activity in a group setting could influence identity. The idea of a simple framework that describes an object, subject, mediating tools, division of labor, and an outcome seemed to be almost too simplistic in describing how people behave in synthetic worlds. I set out to prove that CHAT can be used to describe the formation of identity in virtual spaces, even submitting a paper for presentation at the International Society for Cultural and Activity Research (ISCAR) in San Diego, to be held in September. What I found that CHAT is somewhat like the tagline for the game Othello: “A minute to learn, a lifetime to master.” The more I tried to understand CHAT and its application to my work, the more difficult it became as a framework.
The ISCAR conference was my first opportunity to present a paper with a discussant. It was a wonderful first experience and while the paper was generally well-received, the discussant suggested that CHAT may not be the best framework for my research. |
| Summer 2008 |
EDLI 7840 Independent Study: Identity Theory
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Identity Theory Literature Review |
Semester Reflections: If I can say anything about this semester, it is that the finished product in no way reflects the amount of work I did. The literature review was only fifteen pages long but for the first time, I KNEW what I was talking about and how what I was reading applied to my work. Looking at my research questions and how I would answer them, this semester had the biggest breakthrough in how I saw identity as it applied to virtual spaces and the notion that the role-based identities we all have as part of our daily existence may play some part in who we become when we go virtual. It isn’t a matter of the roles we all juggle; it is a matter of which roles are more highly valued than others and if those identities actually have the primary positions in our daily life. Only through going back and looking at the seminal researchers in identity, was I able to be satisfied I might be on the right track. |
| Fall 2008 |
EDLI 7840 Independent Study: Identity Theory
EDLI 7712 Learning Theory and Learners
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Sample Synthesis: Foucault
Critical Theory - James Clifford
Book Review - Castronova: Synthetic Worlds
Syllabus - Virtual World Entrepreneurship |
Semester Reflections: This class was one of the most emotionally difficult classes I have ever taken. It caused me to look at myself, my past, how I think, and in the end the voice that has emerged is that of an intellectual who wants to use her voice to help others find theirs. Having been raised economically poor and in a mixed race urban setting (the oldest child of a single mother in the 1960’s), I took umbrage to the strong suggestion that only people who were Black or Latino could possibly understand oppression. As the semester progressed, I needed to understand WHY I felt as I did, and realized it was because the situation I had as a youth didn’t have a VOICE. There was a “face” on Black oppression - no one put a face on being poor, being white, and being the abused offspring of a battered wife who chose to ostracize herself in a culture where divorced women were stigmatized. That problem didn’t have someone who embodied the cause.
The positive result of the class was that I realized I was a living example of a subaltern class that felt powerless, just as the study of culture is the study of power relationships, class structures and revolution. It caused another epiphany about how culture relates to identity, particular in light of my own interest in virtual spaces. Building on what I now know about identity, it seems obvious if someone has an identity that cannot have a voice in real life (because of power or class structures, for example), they look to alternative outlets such as virtual worlds for that voice to emerge.
Semester Reflections: Interestingly, this class and my class on Critical Theory seemed to work in tandem this semester. What I read in one seemed to apply to the other, and together they seemed to make an integrated whole. Having Honorine for this class, as an extension of the independent study semester I did with CHAT, seemed to make more sense of everything I have learned with regard to identity and now I was able to put this to practical use by creating two products that actually had application for my own career: A book review and a class syllabus. The book review has been submitted to the journal of Learning, Media & Technology (awaiting confirmation of the submission) and the syllabus represents a class I would actually like to teach. In all, it was a very productive semester. |
