My agenda for the future of this Research Development Portfolio centers around methodologies for analyzing online interactions. From my reading, it seems that there is some coalescing around what might work best, but I am still unclear about underlying theories in this work. It seems, from this brief reading I have done, that there is still a great deal of diversity in terms of explanations about what is going on and how best to analyze whatever it is that is happening. One of the most promising, however, is the idea of Interaction Analysis, a theory of analyzing learning within the social ecology of human interaction. The progenitor of Interaction Analysis was our very own Michigan State University, and in my readings I came across Jordan and Henderson’s 1995 work on Interaction Analysis cited repeatedly.
First of all, in thinking about how writing is an expression of thought and knowledge, I’m curious as to different and better methodologies for the analysis of tracking knowledge as it moves through a social network. For instance, how might a person’s tweet or facebook status demonstrate an acquisition of knowledge?
I’m also recognizing that I have a great deal of curiosity about how voices are privileged in social networks: what are the common characteristics of those who have more control over the conversations in these spaces, such as twitter, where norms are still developing? I recently became aware of a service called klout.com, which has partnered with HootSuite, in which each member of twitter is given a klout score to identify influential users within the network. This is data-mining for particular purposes, often commercial, but I wonder what aspects of social networks can be better understood by what is playing out online. How might this be applicable to the social network of the school? How does this facilitate or hinder knowledge transfer among users, particularly teachers within a network like Twitter?
Finally, I find myself continually thinking about how assessment intersects with these questions. For example, in Penuel, Krause, Riel, and Frank’s (2009) look at the social networks of schools implementing reform movements, they indicated that previous studies “…tend to focus more on learning that takes place as part of formal meetings rather than on discussions that take place in hallways, lunchrooms, or staff workrooms (p. 128).” When a great deal of the assessment conversation is focused on standardized tests, I have deep concerns about the learning that is going on that we are missing. Might there be a quantifiable measure that might illuminate this learning? Could teachers and students point to their contributions online? As literacy evolves in light of these social media spaces, how does that impact standards and accountability? These are larger questions that I may not tackle in the immediate future, but still rumble about in my brain as I consider the question of knowledge transfer in social media spaces.
I am hoping that my continued work with Red Cedar Writing Project and the National Writing Project will provide fruitful ground in which I can cultivate some of these ideas. The National Writing Project is on the verge of launching new web spaces to help the different sites across the nation converge in one place. I’m interested in the ways this organization, which prizes the fierce individuality of the independent sites, utilizes social media practices to unite around what we hold in common: our beliefs about valuing teachers and impacting literacy. Our director at the Red Cedar Writing Project, Janet Swenson, would often say to me when I was discussing this or that online service, “But where is the commons?” I am wondering about that myself–where is the place we come together as educators to share and push our thinking? Taking this back to my research interests: can an organization facilitate knowledge transfer in a particular web space? Does it work better when it arises from the masses as seems to be the case with Twitter?
In terms of conceptualizing a potential research study based on my RDP work, I have envisioned looking at the hashtag #edchat on Twitter. The #edchat conversations have proved immensely popular on Twitter and is often the first foray for most educators into the world of conversational Twitter (which I am differentiating from the one-way, broadcast use of Twitter). The #edchat conversations are organized through a blog, with people on Twitter voting each week on the particular topic. The #edchat is a weekly, synchronous conversation, but people also tag their relevant tweets at other points in time. Recognizing that the conversations are now being archived by the Library of Congress, and that these are public utterances, it would be relatively easy to do an analysis of the conversations without having to gain permission of the individual participants. While I have not identified the right coding methodology I would use to examine the conversations, I would like to examine, at minimum, an early #edchat, and more recent #edchats to try to see if they have changed over time. I would like to look at who is participating, who is getting @replies and who is getting Re-tweets(RT). Both @replies and RTs occur because the original tweet is worthy of extra attention, thus indicating some measure of social capital. I would like to see what linguistic feature those tweets share that gain @replies and RTs and also try to discern whether or not it is related to the linguistic features of the tweet or the social capital of the tweeter that leads to the particular tweet/utterances garnering the attention of the @reply and RT within the #edchat conversation. I believe that this type of analysis would start to articulate the type of networks being created on social media spaces.
And so I leave this experience of my first semester in EPET with a great many questions. While some of these questions circle in orbits that vary in distance from my core research question, the gravitational pull of that central question will keep me from spinning into space. There is certainly work to be done.
Jordan, B., & Henderson, A. (1995). Interaction analysis: Foundations and practice. Journal of the Learning Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.informaworld.com/index/785041073.pdf.
Penuel, K., Riel, M., Krause, A., & Frank, K. (2009). Analyzing Teachers ’ Professional Interactions in a School as Social Capital : A Social Network Approach. Teachers College Record. 111(1), 124-163.
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