Re: KP/Context

Judy Diamondstone (diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu)
Wed, 13 Mar 1996 19:47:11 -0500

Much thanks to all contributers for sharpening the issues
on collab. research. I agree that designing activities for
collaborative engagements requires more than adjustments in
the task structure. But talk of change at the institutional
level makes me shudder - reminds me that we're all in the
belly of the beast.... It's also a bit depressing to remember
that the "alignment of life histories" that Paul referred to
is accomplished as David said at the institutional level.
Shuffling the sociocultural cards in a classroom won't change
the deck.

David suggests that analysis at the micro level

> may have
>implications for teasing out the intersections of the macro and micro
>levels, of institutional and interaction orders--such as sites of
>assessment/sorting--that seem to me to have a lot of potential for
>understanding institutional design options and more equitable/fruitful
>means of aligning life histories.

I take it that it's the sites of assessment and sorting which invite
analysis for "understanding institutional design options." I would
like to hear David's ideas for setting up a project to conduct a
genre analysis of such sites.

However, I'm also interested in learning about the conditions in
interactionally messy settings that make more likely an exchange
of resources across differences in expertise & sociocultural
orientation. Classrooms or lab sites are more amenable to our
deliberate designs. But given the macro-micro linkages, the
only way I can imagine to promote good collaboration is to
teach somehow a language that focuses attention on key features
of what this OTHER way of interacting is about.

I wonder if the wizard does any of that in the fifth dimension?

- Judy

hich leads back to the earlier question in this thread of
>>how, given the diverse ways that multiple histories come to fuse in an
>>interaction, to intentionally design joint or collaborative work so that it
>>facilitates particular processes and outcomes. Addressing that challenge
>>seems to involve aligning life histories and designing institutions as well
>>as setting task parameters.
>
>Is it possible/useful to carry this analysis on past small groups to larger
>collectives? In the institutional order (as opposed to the interaction
>level, to borrow Goffman's terms for the macro-micro dichotomy), there
>exist many ways of "aligning life histories," which institutions have been
>designed to accomplish--"to facilitate particular processes and outcomes."
>Selectional mechanisms/traditions sort people into "joint or collaborative
>work," broadly understood, called courses, majors, etc. Historically, these
>selectional mechanisms/traditions have often sorted by age, race, social
>class, expressed intrest/motive, etc. to acheive homogeneous (or, less
>often, heterogenious) groups/collectives.
>>
>David R. Russell
>English Department
>Iowa State University
>Ames, IA 50011
>USA (515) 294-4724,fax 294-6814
>drrussel who-is-at iastate.edu
>
>
>
Judy Diamondstone
diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
Rutgers University

.................................................