[Xmca-l] Re: The Problem with ListServs

[mike cole]

OK, I am seeing this out of sequence and it takes me to the discussion of
Maisha Winn's "auto review" of a sequence of her books. So its a thread
gatherer. And it reminds me to ask Peter a question!

How would you like us to use this facility?
mike

On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 3:22 AM, Greg Mcverry <jgregmcverry@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I have two email addresses for the listserv. Apologize if this is
> duplicate.
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Greg Mcverry <jgregmcverry@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, Mar 28, 2015, 9:28 PM
> Subject: The Problem with ListServs
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>
>
> I have been reflecting on XMCA since a recent hiatus..........
>
> This is a repost of my thoughts
>
> from:
>
> http://quickthoughts.jgregorymcverry.com/2015/the-problem-with-list-servs-and-connectedlearning
>
> List servs work, and work well. That's there major drawback. It is hard to
> move academics off of a tool that has functioned long before the Web.
>
>  Yes it comes with the baggage of bad email practices we suffer through at
> work: Unecessary reply-alls, threads being hijacked, threads getting too
> long and complex, people replying to older threads with totally new topics,
> and different formatting.
>
> This is all before we consider the complexity of different levels of
> learners steeped within varying discourses and even languages.
>
> Even with these major drawbacks learning gets done.
> List servs work because distribution discourse works better than
> destination discourse.
>
> Instead of trying to get people to come to your site or join your network
> the content just comes to you. You decide to reply. As Gina Tripani notes
> email is truly one of the original federated systems.
>
> I want to help move folks off of list servs and on to other more open
> distribution channels. While it is hard to move people off of tools that
> work I would like to see groups try new methods.
>
> *LRA*
>
> As e-editor of the Literacy Research Association we are trying to encourage
> people to publsih their own content and push through our new websites.
> Mainly by using the forums. These can be set up just like list servs, your
> inbox can be flooded as much as you want. So could your RSS feed.
>
> *XMCA*
>
> The Extended Mind Culture and Activity theory was a MOOC long before that
> was even a thing. There have been people arguing and seeking consensus over
>  Russian and German translations of words for over a decade. It is the home
> of Open scholarship on Cultural Historical Activity Theory, Vygotsky,
> Hegel, Marx and a wonderful group of scholars.
>
> It is ripe for a tool like Discourse or Known.
>
> I fall in and out of XMCA. It is a list serv that works too well. So I have
> to hide it in my email client if inbox zero were ever to be reached. I
> recently bundled XMCA in Google's new inbox tool which means I can see the
> messages and quickly dismiss them.
>
> Its when I need to find an idea again that XMCA gets difficult.
>
> It also reads like a Novel. The brilliant thought, often outside of my
> wheelhouse, makes casual reading impossible. The problem of course is it is
> email. Searching through email for threads of logic gets hard quick.
> Discourse
>
> I have been playing a bit in discourse with #ccourses and with Mozilla's
> webmaker (now Mozilla Learning...I think). At first I was hesitant. Not a
> fan of stackable forums. I like threaded discussions. Showing my age here.
>
> But the social, the tagging, and the categories make it ideal for a complex
> learning space like XMCA. This would be a little more of a closed off space
> but would resemble the list serv without all of the baggage (until we
> discover the new luggage that folks travel with in new spaces).
>
> I threw together a quick example
> <
> http://forum.networkedlearningcollaborative.com/t/winns-exploring-the-literate-trajectories-of-youth-across-time-and-space/18
> >(using
> recent emails as an example) on my own site (not sure if log-in required).
>
> http://forum.networkedlearningcollaborative.com/t/winns-exploring-the-literate-trajectories-of-youth-across-time-and-space/18
>
> XMCA is already installed on a university server. Discourse would be no
> different. Except better.
> Known
>
> I am just starting to play with Known but I could easily see it be used for
> distributed discourse. You can quickly push it out to everywhere.
>
> If Wordpress is chess, than Known is Othello. Both allow for endless
> learning but one can begin playing Othello almsot immediately.
>
> Basically as community of academics, in places like XMCA and Listserv, we
> should encourage people to publish on their own sites and syndicate
> everything to a common hub or space.
>
> Known would be just one example. This can be done with any blogging
> platform. The goal should be to own you own content in a federated web.
>



-- 
"Each new level of development is a new relevant context." C.H. Waddington