Mike wrote
> Hi EM-- So boundary objects do not involve agency?
On the contrary. I just believe that people's agency is revealed not only in
pursuing goals but also in building relations.
>I am not trying
> to be difficult. I like the idea of boundary object. But when/how/
> why do we distinguish boundary objects (is there a boundary object
> which is not an artifact) from other artifacts, some of which we
> call tools (in my crimped view, a subset of artifacts)?
Yesterday, we have a meeting at Delaware discussing research on our La Red
Magica project (a la Mike's 5th Dimension) and we commented that our site
coordinator Mark Smith is a "boundary person." His role of not being a
disciplinarian in the community center very contrasts with the roles of the
other community officers. However, unlike "people coming from the
University on a van" (i.e., "visitors), he is considered as a part of the
community center.
As to tests, I do not think that tests in school or any other "evidence of
learning" divorced from the activity flow are inherently required by or
necessary for teachers. Tests seem to be as tools (aha!) for negotiation
with people who are not in the classroom. I think that critique of testing
focusing only on low validity of tests often misses this point. In other
words, I argue that tests mediate not learning but negotiation (probably
about material resources). In a sense, request for "evidence of learning"
is not less bizarre than request for "evidence of love" as something
separate from the flow of events. Both focuses can easily kill the very
subject, evidence of which they try to find.
>How are
> we to distinguish/when the expressive and instrumental aspects of
> mediated action?
In my view, the distinguish is in our (research) focus and not "out there."
> Maybe one way to gain greater co-understanding here is to figure out
> what boundary objects are not artifacts and when boundary objects are
> involved in human interaction where no instrumentality is involved?
The notion of instrument generates the famous triangle model (agent, tool,
object) while the notion of boundary object generate a carousel model with
boundary object is its center connecting to communities of practices. How
about that? :-)
I do not think it is useful to separate instrumentality from relations --
they are both aspects of human life. However, sometimes some aspect becomes
our focus of attention and the other is kept on a periphery
(foreground-background metaphor), sometimes the reverse is true.
What do you think?
Eugene
> Maybe?
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Cole [mailto:mcole@weber.ucsd.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 1999 11:14 PM
> To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
> Subject: boundary objects versus
>
>
> Eugene responded:
> Hi Mike and everybody--
>
> Mike asks,
>
> > Eugene, why call test results a boundary object instead of an artifact
> > or a tool? What does the shift in vocabulary entail?
> > mike
>
> Because I'm interested in how people use tests to promote and negotiate
> specific social relations. I'm not interested in a mediated or artifact
> nature of tests (i.e., I'm not interested in instrumentalism). I'd more
> like to involve terms like discourse but I'm happy with boundary objects.
> Tests have different meanings for parties involve but they help to
> coordinate and negotiate these meanings.
>
> What do you think?
> ----
> Hi EM-- So boundary objects do not involve agency? I am not trying
> to be difficult. I like the idea of boundary object. But when/how/
> why do we distinguish boundary objects (is there a boundary object
> which is not an artifact) from other artifacts, some of which we
> call tools (in my crimped view, a subset of artifacts)? How are
> we to distinguish/when the expressive and instrumental aspects of
> mediated action?
>
> Maybe one way to gain greater co-understanding here is to figure out
> what boundary objects are not artifacts and when boundary objects are
> involved in human interaction where no instrumentality is involved?
> Maybe?
> mike
>
> Eugene
> ----------------------
> Eugene Matusov
> School of Education
> University of Delaware
> Newark, DE 19716
> Office (302) 831-1266
> Fax (302) 831-4445
> email ematusov who-is-at udel.edu
> Website http://ematusov.eds.udel.edu/
> -------------------------
>
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