I'm starting to see how these reading are tying in together. In simplest terms, our students make sense of new information we give them every day. As teachers, we can help them bridge the sense making gap by doing a good job of designing our content. It should be visually accessible, following Baggio's suggestions outlined below. But our lessons also need to be well planned in the ways that Clark discusses in her article. For example, we should plan our lessons so that we can measure our students' ability to not just remember, but perform any given learning objective. This is true for both digital and traditional forms of content.
As a student in this masters program, I feel this is how we are learning. The combination of introductory live sessions and extended readings are reinforced through the requirement that we demonstrate our understanding through blogs and projects. I have a feeling we'll be doing some visually emphasized content very soon. Clark/Baggio Reading Notes Jeremy Smith Developing Technical Training By: Ruth Colvin Clark Chapter 1: The Technology of Training
Chapter 2: An Introduction to Structured Lesson Design
The Visual Connection By Bobbe Baggio
Dervin Notes 2: New Dervin Notes: Dervin invented the gap metaphor in sense making to serve as a framework to study how humans do make sense and use information in information systems. It is an innovative, flexible theoretic tool with which to do so. It is both qualitative and quantitative. Underlying Assumptions and Theoretical Foundations We have to understand first that sense making is a set of assumptions and propositions about the nature of information, the nature of human use of information, and the nature of human communication.Some of these assumptions are “taken as given”, or axiomatic. Other assumptions are deductive. Still others are propositions that have received empirical support. These assumptions and propositions provide a methodological guidance for framing research questions, collecting data, and charting analysis. It derives down into a set of methods to interview humans and ask them questions about how they make sense in their lives. That’s why some call sense making a theory about conducting interviews about sense making. Dervin is funny here when she says: “It is that as well.” This was supposed to be funny, right? So, the methods for studying sense making derive from the theoretic effort which built the conceptual frame. The problem is that the connections between the methods, the assumptions, and the propositions are hidden. And depending on what your assumptions are, which DO vary, your methods, propositions, (and conclusions?), can differ. Certain things are assumed to be true and they guide the whole enterprise of the study of sense making. But there could be other ways to do it. So, sense making is simply a coherent set of theoretically derived methods for studying sense making. The core assumption upon which the study of sense making rests is the one of discontinuity. It assumes discontinuity is a fundamental aspect of reality. It assumes there are discontinuities in all existence, between entities, times, and spaces. It is an assumed constant of nature generally and of the human experience specifically. The discontinuity assumption serves as a good framework for Dervin’s research on humans’ use of information and information systems. It especially helps study human behavior around sense making that is internally controlled. One does not have to use the discontinuity assumption when they study information as it exists apart from human considerations. (externally controlled). (objective?) But most studies of information management, design, and practice do involve human actors. (Example: How do we market our information systems to people?) This is pertinent for people in the information design and management field. So, Dervin goes on to compare assumptions to show in a logical way why the assumption of discontinuity is particularly helpful, (even required according to Dervin), when studying how humans interact with information. She is trying to break with past assumptions that have guided research on information systems research. Information Use as Transmission vs Construction Using the discontinuity assumption, information is that sense created in a moment in time and in space by one or more humans. It does not exist apart from human behavioral activity. Because there is no direct observation of nature, all observations can only arise out of an application of human energy. This does not mean that sense making goes full post modern and says there is no order out there and no tools for humans to use to form stable pictures of reality. But it does assume that whatever order is out there is discontinuous from time to time and space to space. It also assumes (I love this.), that whatever order is out there is not directly accessible by humans due to the limitations of our senses and intellect. We are constrained by time, space, and species. Further, sense making assumes that humans have no external standard they can use to assess whether their observations are correct or not. Human standards for personal and collective conduct are created through interaction. Human sharing of observations can lead to more stable observations, but they will always be limited. So depending on your assumptions about information, what you choose to study will change. If you think that information exists out there independent of human construction, then focus on questions of transmission. (Did the info get to the person? Was it correct? How much?) But, if you focus on construction questions, you might frame your research like this: (What strategy did that person apply for them to call that info accurate?). (Will she try to show how the gap bridging metaphor works for both sets of assumptions about information?) Info Use as Seen by the Observer vs Actor Another assumption is that any study of sense making has to be done from the perspective of the actor and not the observer. Almost all current research emphasized the observer perspective. (Librarians typically ask people things like: Of the things we offer, which do you prefer? They bend people to fit their system and not the other way around. They cannot explain how people get use out of systems in unpredicted ways. Info Use as State Condition Vs Process Condition Sense making focuses on the internal and external behaviors people demonstrate as they take steps to make sense. It is a process. While people agree on the process view of sense making, many studies still see it as a state condition. They see people's search for information as a monolithic “state of need”. They do not ask what process led this person to be in this state of need or about the qualities of this state of need. It is assumed to exist monolithically. They do not study the behaviors. Human reasons to search for info are seen as too chaotic and varied to be able to study systematically. They retreat from individual to structural understandings of information use. When we do study the process of human information use, we find that it is actually not chaotic or capricious, but very systematic. Sense making sees people not as static entities but as entities acting in space time. People employ tactics to make sense. New info leads to new actions, some of which are repetitions of previous actions. (I think she’s getting the the gap jumping here.) Ok, yes, sense making is a process of gap defining and gap bridging. Sense making, thus, sets forth the gap idea as a theoretic assumption and a guiding frame for methods to interview people about how they make sense. It works for both observer and actor. It works in both set times and across times and situations. It works in both quantitative and qualitative respects. Many people are using the gap bridging framework to conduct studies.
3 Comments
Evrim Cakir
2/16/2020 05:57:48 pm
Wow, amazing your comprehension on the reading is very thorough. I keep reading and still haven't gotten that much information out! I agree we have to engage our students through our well planned lessons, but how are we making sure they are retaining the information? Great Job!
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Megan Burton
2/17/2020 12:14:19 am
It is nice to start seeing how the readings are tying together. I like your connection: "As teachers, we can help them bridge the sense making gap by doing a good job of designing our content."
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Tracy Moskowite
2/17/2020 11:51:38 am
Thanks to you I can understand that I can reflect on us being students in the master program. I was seeing all the connections in the reading, I feel very able to apply that to my students. I recognize that we have been prototyping our research paper and that we can refine it.
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AuthorJeremy Smith teaches third grade at Calistoga Elementary School. Archives
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