225,979 research outputs found

    Uncovering everyday learning and teaching within the quilting community of Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Arts at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

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    This thesis explores the social and cultural phenomenon of everyday learning and teaching within the communal activity of quiltmaking. Home-sewn quilts are rarely associated with the needleworkers’ high level of knowledge and skill; yet, the quilters’ act of knowing is practical, inherently social, and intentional. This research study examines the collaborative processes of “quilting together” to understand cultural patterns of participation; and investigates the participants’ meaning-making experiences to facilitate an analysis of collective knowledge practices. Using an ethnographic methodology, this research investigated the lived experiences of quilters within the situated context of two quilting groups, located in Aotearoa New Zealand. Observations were made of participants’ engagement in quilting activities as they interacted with each other, material artefacts and quilting tools. These observations took place during regular quilting sessions and special events. Interviews were conducted with founding members to gain an understanding of cultural-historical processes, as well as a purposively selected sample of ten participants who shared their personal quilting experiences. Observation notes, conversation commentaries and interview transcripts were analysed in relation to the research question and two guiding questions. Key findings are related to a variety of contextual issues surrounding the process of informal learning and teaching as it materialised through the quilters’ engagement in idiosyncratic community practices: the practices of which are generative of quilting knowledge and vice-versa. Firstly, through social integration quilters developed a sense of belonging and responsibility. Secondly, cultural patterns of social interaction consisted of multi-directional learning with quilters having complementary roles. Thirdly, due to the tacit nature of quilting knowledge, embodied experiences and material mediations were essential for thinking and communicating with others. Fourthly, a constellation of knowledge practices co-existed in the quilting community. Finally, the quilters’ informal learning was organised and supported within the community. The study contributes to a body of locally-based and international research concerned with informal learning and teaching theory, situated in a quilting community-based setting. The emerging conceptual framework, “Apprenticeship Model of Craft Community Learning”, develops and extends participation-based approaches to learning. In addition, the quilters’ collaborative designing process of inquiry advances understanding of knowledge creation within craft maker cultures

    A quartet in E : investigating collaborative learning and tutoring as knowledge creation processes

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    This paper is a short report of a continuing international study that is investigating networked collaborative learning among an advanced community of learners engaged in a master’s programme in e-learning. The study is undertaking empirical work using content analysis (CA), critical event recall (CER) and social network analysis (SNA). The first two methods are employed in the work reported in this paper. We are particularly interested in knowledge creation among the participants as they engage in action research for their master’s work. At the same time, another underlying aim of the main study is to develop methodology, enrich theory and explore the ways in which praxis (theory informed tutoring and learning on the programme) and theory interact as we try to understand the complex processes of tutoring and learning. The paper reports some of the current findings of this work and discusses future prospects

    An integrated approach for analysing and assessing the performance of virtual learning groups

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    Collaborative distance learning involves a variety of elements and factors that have to be considered and measured in order to analyse and assess group and individual performance more effectively and objectively. This paper presents an approach that integrates qualitative, social network analysis (SNA) and quantitative techniques for evaluating online collaborative learning interactions. Integration of various different data sources, tools and techniques provides a more complete and robust framework for group modelling and guarantees a more efficient evaluation of group effectiveness and individual competence. Our research relies on the analysis of a real, long-term, complex collaborative experience, which is initially evaluated in terms of principled criteria and a basic qualitative process. At the end of the experience, the coded student interactions are further analysed through the SNA technique to assess participatory aspects, identify the most effective groups and the most prominent actors. Finally, the approach is contrasted and completed through a statistical technique which sheds more light on the results obtained that far. The proposal draws a well-founded line toward the development of a principled framework for the monitoring and analysis of group interaction and group scaffolding which can be considered a major issue towards the actual application of the CSCL proposals to real classrooms.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

    Power and multistakeholderism in internet global governance. Towards a synergetic theoretical framework

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    With the advancement of multistakeholder collaboration as a governance principle in theglobal Internet Governance, how to investigate the political process in a ‘shared power’environment emerges as a challenging methodological issue. In this paper, a synergetic theoretical approach is proposed to the study of Internet governance political process, which focuses on the concept of power, and crosses the boundaries of three academic fields, namely, Political Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, and Organization Studies. This approach aggregates, in a descending analytical manner, concepts intrinsically linked to the contemporary shifting governance paradigm (i.e. governmentality, global governance, global public-policy networks, shared power, multistakeholder collaboration). In addition, such an approach brings the collaborative process into focus (rather than the decisions it leads to) by accentuating the productive potential of a collaboration based on the ‘shared power’ formula. Each of those theoretical reflections on shifting power relations provides building elements for a synergetic theoretical framework that can be, and has been, applied to the investigation of the emergent Internet governance regime. As a result, stakeholder alliances can be mapped, instances of power dynamics can be discerned, and some longitudinal tangible and intangible outcomes of the multistakeholder collaboration can be envisioned

    Communities, Knowledge Creation, and Information Diffusion

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    In this paper, we examine how patterns of scientific collaboration contribute to knowledge creation. Recent studies have shown that scientists can benefit from their position within collaborative networks by being able to receive more information of better quality in a timely fashion, and by presiding over communication between collaborators. Here we focus on the tendency of scientists to cluster into tightly-knit communities, and discuss the implications of this tendency for scientific performance. We begin by reviewing a new method for finding communities, and we then assess its benefits in terms of computation time and accuracy. While communities often serve as a taxonomic scheme to map knowledge domains, they also affect how successfully scientists engage in the creation of new knowledge. By drawing on the longstanding debate on the relative benefits of social cohesion and brokerage, we discuss the conditions that facilitate collaborations among scientists within or across communities. We show that successful scientific production occurs within communities when scientists have cohesive collaborations with others from the same knowledge domain, and across communities when scientists intermediate among otherwise disconnected collaborators from different knowledge domains. We also discuss the implications of communities for information diffusion, and show how traditional epidemiological approaches need to be refined to take knowledge heterogeneity into account and preserve the system's ability to promote creative processes of novel recombinations of idea

    Collaborative design : managing task interdependencies and multiple perspectives

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    This paper focuses on two characteristics of collaborative design with respect to cooperative work: the importance of work interdependencies linked to the nature of design problems; and the fundamental function of design cooperative work arrangement which is the confrontation and combination of perspectives. These two intrinsic characteristics of the design work stress specific cooperative processes: coordination processes in order to manage task interdependencies, establishment of common ground and negotiation mechanisms in order to manage the integration of multiple perspectives in design
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