To interject, I think we have to be careful about using the "transfer" when thinking about how one "system" of activity influences another. Transfer, especially as has been used in disciplines as education and cognitive science, carries the meaning of something that is durable from one activity to the next., like knowledge in the head. Apart from material artifacts, that is not what happens in the situations I've studied, and even material aftifacts are questionable, especially those that have a primarily semiotic function. Artifacts that have a primarily semiotic function may be such things as books, art, computers, ... and those that do not have a primarily semiotic function may be such things as hammers and table saws. Aside, I can't think of anything that is purely one or another. One can pretty much use a hammer from one situation of building a house to another in a durable way, but one can also take up the hammer to send a threat or message of defiance -- a totally!
different function. There is a sliding scale of material/ideal that Mike has written about in cult. psych. but I prefer to think in terms of functionality, especially semiotic functionality.
Artifacts that have a primarily semiotic function, such a university course evaluation form, function differently in different settings, sometimes just slightly differently, and often their function in one setting influences their function in another setting and vice-versa. In the setting in which one such form was created, and in which I was a participant, the creation of the form involved such things as the negotiation of differences between art faculty and education faculty about how students "demonstrate their learning", and how the faculty subsequently make decisions regarding the students learning, with disgreements over "grading" vs. "assessment". The decision to use either of these two terms on the form was the start of this negotiation. And then, administration was interested in the creation of a course evaluation form that would unify, and create a basis of comparison for, the evaluaiton of faculty across the many disciplines. But then, in the classroom at the !
end of the semester, student comments on evaluation forms to which I am privy often indicate their interest in changing the professor's teaching practices -- these students often being experienced and talented k-12 teachers have a good basis for advocating more effective teaching.
So, how the form was phrased and designed is influencing the students comments about the quality of courses as we expected -- and it was prior comments that helped influence the decision to revise the form. Committee influenced by classroom and classroom influenced by committee, with different timescales of influence and influence being highly asymmetrical while also mutual. In short, that's how I think of artifacts and "transfer", in which I question just how much of the artifact is durable from one setting to the next, while conceding that there does seem to be something that is durable. I don't believe that seeking to clarify "transfer" will be productive in a social-cultural-historical-ecological theory.
People and ideas are similar while also different than evaluation forms concerning how they function from one setting to the next, but while keeping this email short, I'd like to end that I also think what is durable needs to be questioned here as well. Privately, I've been using the term "transgenesis" instead to imply codevelopment, with what is the mediation of codevelopment also to be in a state of functional change, but what the heck, I'll share it at this moment, and see what you think.
So I am interested in question of formulating theoretically about the processes of how what happens at one time and place influences that of another, with shared people and artifacts.
bb
> Ed,
> Your question puts my issue in a somewhat different perspective, one
> that I have not worked on a lot, but it certainly seems relevant. COP -
> Community Of Practice - the way I interpret it to connect it with the
> Activity Theory Model, deals mostly with the "division of labor"
> (roles) -- and that is, of course,connected to the "rules" part of the
> model. So if you have one division of labor in one activity, which is
> also based on some stated and unstated rules, conventions and
> expectations, then, my question is, how another activity in which the
> rules and division of labor are different, interacts with the first one?
> Does it interact? Can it interact? and how?
>
> I have not read Jean Lave's work on transfer. Could you send a reference?
> Thanks
> Ana
>
> Ed Wall wrote:
>
> > Mike
> >
> > There are many ways in which I am somewhat on the border in many of
> > these conversations. As I read what Ana wrote what came to mind was
> > some of the work Jean Lave did on the notion of transfer (within a
> > social and anthropological context). I was wondering how Ana's
> > questions, if they even do, interface with that body of work. Thus, it
> > is quite possible I was asking about interfacing between ch/at and COP
> > (I don't know what COP is - smile - although I presume it has
> > something to do with social anthropology). I am sure there is a
> > different emphasis, but the phenomena sound somewhat the same. What
> > you say about Vrjo sounds interesting. Are those some relevant papers
> > at xcma?
> >
> > Ed
> >
> >> Ed-- I interpret Ana's questionS to involve the issue of transfer and
> >> relations between
> >> activities and partipants involvement in those relational connections.
> >>
> >> This also connects with Yrjo's characterization of 3rd generation ch/at
> >> research that
> >> focuses on connections between activity systems.
> >>
> >> Maybe your question could also be interpreted as a request to clarify
> >> the
> >> relations between ch/at
> >> and COP approaches to knowledge acquisition and transfer??
> >> mike
> >>
> >> On 9/11/05, Ed Wall <ewall@umich.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>> How does your question interface with the work of Jean Lave and
> >>> colleagues? A refinement?
> >>>
> >>> Ed Wall
> >>>
> >>> >I thought this question went to the whole list, but it ended just in
> >>> >Mike's box. Here it is again:
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> > My question is the interaction between different activities: what
> >>> can be
> >>> > "taken" from one activity to another? (Old question of the
> >>> universals)
> >>> > Also: what can be created only in a combination of several
> >>> activities.
> >>> > This is what I mean: we all participate in more than one activity
> >>> all
> >>> > the time. Is it possible to learn something in one activity and
> >>> then use
> >>> > it in another? In other words: what does it mean to "transport" a
> >>> > way of
> >>> > acting, behaving, or thinking from one activity to another?
> >>> > And - what is a product only of participating in a certain
> >>> > combination of activities at the same time?
> >>> >
> >>> > In my workshop in Sevilla I will explore interaction between the
> >>> > "imaginary" and the "real" -- passing through in and out, and the
> >>> > relationships between the two -- and what are the outcomes of this
> >>> > relationship.
> >>> >
> >>> > See you in Sevilla
> >>> > Ana
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> > Mike Cole wrote:
> >>> >
> >>> > > You have a question about ch/at you might want answered during
> >>> > your trip??
> >>> > > A shame Helena could not come, and odd about that symposium. Odd
> >>> > about
> >>> > > the whole
> >>> > > setup!
> >>> > >
> >>> > > See you in Sevilla.
> >>> > > mike
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> >
> >>> >
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