The Cocktail Party: The App That I Would Like to Develop

Discussions don’t usually happen in a linear, carefully delineated way.  Early bulletin boards had files (topics) and users could easily pick a topic and make linear comments to that post and further comments could go off from those until the discussion died off.  A good discussion board might have pages of topics, and over time these would gradually fade away.  It was very easy to program this type of interaction in the computer, easy to use, but it wasn’t very conductive for encouraging continued interaction. However, it is a very good system for developing a product, working on a team or tracking a response in a defined environment. It was about the best that could be expected for that time and that level of technology.

Times have changed, and the possibilities for discussion-assistive tools are comparatively limitless.  For developing my app, I looked at the natural, biological processes that seem to replicate how societies function.  There is often a central node (stalk, stem, host) that other, smaller nodes break off from.  These in turn grow, and they develop clusters of life that grow to the point where they break off and form new clusters. 

To see this demonstrated in the real world I like to think of a cocktail party—a place where people could go and mingle with many people, make connections and have some good discussions.  There is one central node, usually around the host or hostess; from that group smaller groups branch off to discuss other topics.  Some people work the room going from group to group before settling into one deep discussion.  My app tries to replicate this experience (without the alcohol—although users can add this if they want). 

The overall layout is a large central node, or discussion area, that has many discussions breaking from that main topic and further breaking into comments on comments.  The user can easily see the topic, and as they come into the room they can “see” where most of the comments are and join that discussion, or they can dig deeper into a tangent that they find particularly interesting. The goal of the app is to get the participants to move freely from group to group, to easily see the topics, to engage the participants, and to encourage participation at any point of the discussion. It is a more organic design than the traditional discussion board, it encourages a free flow of discussion and movement rather that isolating users into “rooms” or “chains”.  The initial view would be much like Prezi; the user can zoom in and move from group to group very readily.  The theoretical drawing I have included shows color-coding for each level of discussion; this could be one possible view of the discussion room.  Another possible view would be all the circles are color coded with each participant having their own color and pattern combination.  This way the group facilitator, as well as each user, can easily see who is participating and the level of involvement for each participant.

I think this tool could be extremely useful for education.  The instructor could readily observe participation levels, evaluate the subjects they are discussing, and contribute in areas as needed.  The circular and organic layout encourages more interaction and movement between topics and among the participants.  The circles would contain a box where the student could post comments, pictures or links.  The circle would grow larger as more people affix comments to it; this could also help users to quickly have a visual “feel” for the dynamics of a discussion.  For example, a second level comment on a topic might generate responses from many students, so it could potentially grow and draw even more attention.  I think that the students might enjoy seeing that their comments make a physical difference in the shapes and it helps them visualize how their input truly “expands” the discussion and adds value.  Instead of being a static comment in a line of comments, their comment gives growth and influence to the overall discourse. 

I could see this app as being part of a suite of applications used for online instruction; additionally, it could be used in any situation (business or education) where an online discussion forum would be desired.

The blogosphere and academia

First off - I wanted to make this a comment, but blogger was being a little uncooperative so it'll be post.

Blogging and coursework always seem like a funky marriage to me. Sure, I think they can work together, but sometimes it just takes a little massaging and a little pre-class priming, if you know what I mean. I think it's always a smart move - as Bill has done for this class - to outline the rationale behind a blog, otherwise there may be confusion about the purposes - pedagogical and practical - behind using a blog.


It's been my experience that writing for blogs can make some people uncomfortable. They're not sure what a blog post ought and ought not to be (I know this is certainly true for me). Sometimes they write as though they're seeking publication in a scholarly journal and other times they incoherently rant (and often preface their posts by admitting as much). And while I don't favor a particular type of writing over any other, I do think it's interesting to look at the types of writing yielded by blogging, especially when it's commingled with academic purposes.

Here are some definitions of blog writing that I've found: Wikipedia, The Online Journalism Review, Tech Crunch ... I am sure there are others.

I wonder how these aims, goals and ideas are changed when they enter the Ivory Tower. I always think it's interesting to look at blogs that have been completed in the past and track their trajectory and narrative. I have a very immature theory that the first handful of posts go a long way in defining the ethos of a blog.

Here's a blog our Writing Center Theory and Administration class worked on last semester. If you get a chance to take a look, I'd like to hear comments. To me, and I posted this once, it looked more like typical, alphanumeric reading responses than a blog. The hypertextuality of the blog was a little limited -- very few links, hardly any images, etc.

Do these elements define a blog, or am I wrong? What are the infrastructures that define blog writing? In this case, is it the syllabus? Is it the grading contract we've entered with the class?

I think this raises questions about a sort of "literacy-muscle-memory" that seems to exist (I know there's a real term for it, but I can't remember), whereby we use new tools in the same old ways. I don't necessarily think it's a detriment to the blog that more hypertextual and multimodal elements weren't used, I just think it's interesting how we sometimes treat blogs in academia.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this because I think blogging is an incredibly powerful tool, but I find striking the balance between formal and informal can be a pretty large obstacle if there aren't clear expectations.

When Course Blogging Goes Well (Hopefully)

One of the readings for Teaching with Technology is this cautionary tale by Steve Krause called "When Blogging Goes Bad." As the title suggests, it is about a time when his decision to use a blog as a way to facilitate learning in a course didn't go terribly well.

Steve passes along several bits of advice to his colleagues who are considering using a blog, and this piece has proven particularly useful for many people based on how frequently it has been cited and even re"printed" (even though the original version linked above was published in an online journal, it has in fact been printed in one or more edited collections as well). One of the goals I've set for AL 881 is to engage in reflective use of technology, modeling the kind of decision-making that I hope to encourage all members of the course to do as they design their own instructional experiences for students.

In the course syllabus, I've laid out my expectations for posting to the blog. Here, following Krause, it seems like a good idea to lay out an explicit rationale for using this blog as an instructional medium.

First: blog entries persist. The "sprint" format of this course means that we won't have a weekly face-to-face meeting where we can coordinate, reflect, and review material as we might in a traditional graduate seminar. Instead, we will have 2 weeks of online interaction, 1 week of intensive in-residence meetings, 1 month of individual work with peer & instructor reviews and consultations, and a final symposium where members present their projects. This blog is a place, then, where I ask members of the course to contribute their thoughts on the readings, their work in progress, and their own goals for the course. The posts will stay up, so the class members can come back to them as they do their own reading and writing over the summer, coordinating and calibrating their views with those of their peers.

Second: blog entries are just formal enough to foster reflection, and informal enough to permit a mix of personal and professional connections with the class material. Folks can comment on posts to keep discussion going, but even if the comments are few the posts themselves, taken together, can give us all a sense of how others in the group are thinking about the material we are reading and the work we are all doing. Here I am acknowledging Krause's discussion of blogs as a "publishing space" rather than a "discussion space." We'll use e-mail and group chat for discussion, and the blog to encourage folks to take their ideas and views "public" within the space of the course.

Third: blog posts allow me, the instructor, to monitor the level of engagement for each participant. The posts tell me where you are finding things valuable and where things are less valuable for your own interests. This, in turn, lets me know what additional or alternative readings I might suggest to you as you work on your major project, for instance. This is not just a matter of making sure each of you is visible - that is always a challenge for online instruction, but blogs are not the only way to solve that particular problem. Rather, it is a way to for me to get to know who you are as a professional and a scholar just a bit better and perhaps faster than I might otherwise.

Finally, using a blog in this way lets us have a conversation about a particular technology - a particularly common one, in fact - that we can now bring some personal experience to with regard to what it does and does not help instructors and students achieve. We will do that with other technologies in the course as well: Angel, Convore, Twitter, Google Docs, and perhaps others along the way.