Self-reports are inaccurate?

[see: Coffield 2004]

Important to remember that self-report inventories are not sampling the behaviour of learners but of their impressions of how they learn, impressions which may be inaccurate, self-deluding or influenced by what the respondent thinks the psychologist wants to hear.

[tag: learning]

F2F vs online

[see: Dewar & Whittington 2000 and Maldonada 2001]

Maldonada paper: In CMC the gender roles are similar to F2F. Women tend to support, males tend to confront. Males write longer messages, more frequently, in a critical way and use more sarcasm. Women write shorter messages but express more doubts, suggestions and gratitude. Dewar and Whittington compared the type characteristics of Lawrence with those of F2F. The online participants identified with the F2F characteristics. Note to self must read this bit of the paper again.

So, F2F the personality type characteristics are the same as online (Maldonada), and the gender roles are the same (Dewar & Whittington).

[tag: personality]

Have strategies evolved?

[see: Livingood 1995]

Introverts readily adapt to using computers as a communications tool. This paper is quite old - 10 years. I wonder if things were different then... in that the people who were attracted to Internet communications were those who in part were escaping traditional communications (F2F and phone). They were attracted to the level-playing-field element of the Internet in which their voice could be heard without interruption, and they could pause to gather their thoughts before replying. However now, as per Whittington & Dewar 2000, users of online communications, irrespective of their personality type, have learnt (or been encouraged to) adapt to the requirements of online communication. This means that extraverts use it as much now as introverts... but extraverts ignore how at odds it is with their communication style and instead use it to communicate with lots of people, and to be social... communicate socially with more people? So online communciation strategies have evolved over the last 10 years?

[tag: personality]

Questions about Introverts

[see: Livingood 1995]

Introverts get their energy from quiet thought and introspection. How does this apply to weblogs? Will Introverts prefer them, to Extraverts? I suspect it will depend on whether the weblogs are made public (extraverts) or not (introverts).

In the US Introverts are a minority - 25-30% of the population. I wonder whether more Introverts go to University? i.e. the education system favours Introverts, or that Introverts do better academically?

Introverts are computer programmers. People who crave conversation and human interaction don't last long programming computers. Certain personality types are more likely to enjoy using computers. Might this also account for why certain types are more prevalent online? Hence more likely to have a weblog or online journal... cos they use the computer/Internet a lot already... and there is a greater likelihood that they would 1. stumble across the technology and 2. keep it up. If they are not online much then they would lose interest in it... or forget about it?

[tag: personality]

Personality Types adapt to online

[see: Dewar & Whittington (2000)]

Participants were asked to comment on adaptations they made for the online environment and what strategies they developed. These are very interesting. In a nutshell: although the online environment is suggested to benefit introverts (for example) the extraverts have nevertheless found it appealing for different reasons. This also applies to the other 6 personality preferences. So folk accommodate the online environment in their own way, and according to their personality preference.

Feelers found online communication cold and impersonal, and given the choice, would choose F2F over online. The thinkers did not mention this. **Feelers demonstrated similar strategies to extraverts for dealing with this.**

[tag: personality]

Online Course = Online Community?

[see:Whittington and Dewar (2000) and Dewar & Whittington (2000)]

Two papers by Whittington/Dewar quote other folk who suggest the importance of the sociological aspects and interpersonal side of distance education. I am wondering if we should think of our online courses as online communities... in the sense that they are not just places to learn the material but places which cater for the differing needs (as per personality type) of the learners? I know that this has been said before... but I'd like to emphasise the community part of the online course.

[tag: community]

Weblogs force you to reflect?

[see: Peter Honey Learning Log]

Does keeping a weblog induce you to reflect... so that you have something to write about? Is this not the opposite to what one is encouraged to think about blogging... i.e. that it is the act of making entries in the weblog that inspires the reflective writing? This alternative view suggests that the reflection predates the entry... that you reflect as you are doing so that when the time comes to make an entry in your weblog you have something to say - rather than arrive at your weblog and then wonder what to write. Interesting angle.

[tag: writing]

Learning Styles disadvantaged?

Example One:
[see: Strategy for studying learners using advanced learning technologies]
Sensing types (MBTI) aren't well represented in HE.

Example Two:
Schools tend to inhibit Legislative thinking styles (Sternberg 1998 cited in Lin, Lui & Luan, 2001). [Note: Legislative thinkers create working rules and tend to avoid solving problems that involve following rules. Compared with Executive thinkers who follow regulations and solve problems by following rules. Judicial thinkers evaluate rules and solve problems that require comparing and analysing multiple concepts.]

Example Three:
[see: Tailoring Assessment to Student Learning Styles]
The students who will be most successful in college move from the Affective (people-oriented, something of an opposite to cognitive) toward the Analytical side.

[tag: personality]

Thinking types & Feeling types

[see: Whittington & Dewar 2000]

W&D note that Feeling types showed a clear preference for posting on the informal areas of the discussion board. They develop relationships with other research participants. The Thinking styles posted little in the informal area and confined their comments to research areas. Thinking styles attend more to ideas, and Feeling types are concerned with creating relationships.

I wonder if this should be borne in mind when thinking about how new student use or not, weblogs? Do students who use weblogs informally, socially, prior to starting university do so for the social interaction... because they are Feeling types? If these students subsequently fail to use them in an educational context is this because they have been repurposed for something other than the informal use the students equated them with? Or, might students who didn't use them socially (i.e. because they are Thinking Types?) now find them useful in a learning context, for recording ideas?

[tag: personality]

Symbolic Interaction

[see: Methodology Readings - Symbolic Interactions]

The self is the definition people create (through interacting with others) of who they are. We come to see ourselves as others see us. The self is a social construction, the results of persons perceiving themselves and then developing a definition through the process of interaction.

I wonder how this would apply to the use of weblogs? How does someone define himself by his weblog when a person is meant to define himself in response to other people? With weblogs the ownership is retained by the blogger - so the blogger is projecting outwards... only that which he wishes to project. He is defined by the blog content - which he himself wrote. It is he who determines which bits of his offline self are available to others to interact with. So, what comes back from those he interacts with is a construct... an arteface. It is as real as the blog is real. An artificial blog will result in an unreal interaction... and an unreal reflection of the Blogger Self back to the blogger. It is an experiment, a manipulation, a game. If this is what the blogger wanted or intended, then fine. If it isn't, then the conflict which arises between the real (offline) self and the online construct may cause problems with offline socialisation. A Star online may in fact be A Loser offline. Interesting.

[tag: identity]

Hypothesis

[see: Methodology Readings - hypothesis]

Working title: Student preference for new digital technologies for learning

1. Aim One: Is there a correlation between preferred learning styles and preference for weblogs/wikis?
   
2. Aim Two: Is there a correlation between preferred learning styles and preference for public/private?
   

First Thoughts - establish the focus

[see: Methodology Readings - Planning the Project]

Brainstorm:
- do students who prefer blogs belong to a specific learning style?
- why do/don't students like/not like blogs?
- what do they like about blogs?
- do they feel comfortable with technology?
- do they like digital comms (chatrooms, email, discussion boards, MSN)?
- do they find writing enjoyable?
- would they prefer blogs to be private/public?
- share with tutor, with class, with whole www?
- do you adapt quickly to new technology?
- do you learn alone, study alone?
- do you value/welcome comments?

Personality

1. 06-Sep-05: Personality cw Identity
   
2. 15-May-05: Weblogs... The Fear
   
3. 14-May-05: All things to all people
   
4. 13-May-05: 2 - Who is The Reader?
   
5. 10-May-05: Environment & personality
   
6. 08-May-05: Multiple online personalities / facets
   
7. 13-Mar-05: F2F vs online
   
8. 11-Mar-05: Have strategies evolved?
   
9. 10-Mar-05: Questions about Introverts
   
10. 09-Mar-05: Personality Types adapt to online
    
11. 06-Mar-05: Learning styles disadvantaged
    
12. 05-Mar-05: Thinking types & Feeling types

Concept

1. 06-Aug-05: Why weblogs are not understood
   
2. 05-Aug-05: Coherance across metaphors
   
3. 04-Aug-05: A metaphor works when...
   
4. 03-Aug-03: Categorising weblogs
   
5. 02-Aug-05: Sub-categorisation
   
6. 01-Aug-05: The Weblog as A Place
   
7. 23-May-05: Cyberhome
   
8. 19-May-05: Alone with your thoughts
   
9. 12-May-05: 1 - Who is The Reader?

Learning

1. 16-Sep-05: Non-specific and versatile
   
2. 10-Jun-05: Interaction, and learning
   
3. 02-Jun-05: Bloggers are selfish learners
   
4. 22-Apr-05: Learning style/approach
   
5. 31-Mar-05: Self reports are inaccurate?

Context

1. 26-Aug-05: Technorati's blogosphere
   
2. 09-Aug-05: Ease of publishing
   
3. 07-Aug-05: Why are weblogs so popular?

Writing for online

Identity

1. 15-Sep-05: Privacy of the modern individual
   
2. 14-Sep-05: The post-modern mind
   
3. 12-Sep-05: The core self
   
4. 10-Sep-05: Tagging as identity
   
5. 07-Sep-05: Online identity - evolve
   
6. 05-Sep-05: Online idenity - create
   
7. 04-Sep-05: Music & identity
   
8. 02-Sep-05: Blogger Depression pamphlet
   
9. 23-Aug-05: Why read a weblog?
   
10. 17-Aug-05: We want to be public
    
11. 13-Aug-05: Public/private continuum
    
12. 11-Aug-05: Cultural shift: private to public
    
13. 01-Jun-05: Centre of control
    
14. 21-May-05: A way of making sense of?
    
15. 04-May-05: We are who we pretend to be
    
16. 24-Apr-05: Your past is plastic
    
17. 02-Mar-05: Symbolic interaction
    

Community

1. 17-Sep-05: No culture in academia?
   
2. 13-Sep-05: Interest groups and peers
   
3. 11-Sep-05: Tagging is arbitrary?
   
4. 02-Sep-05: Photoblogging
   
5. 30-Aug-05: Academic blogging
   
6. 27-Aug-05: Theories of collaboration
   
7. 21-Aug_05: How the community grows
   
8. 19-Aug-05: How a communty develops
   
9. 27-May-05: Posting hesitancy
   
10. 18-Apr-05: When collaboration works
    
11. 08-Mar-05: Online course = online community?

Writing

1. 09-Sep-05: Serialising your writing
   
2. 08-Sep_05: That which goes unsaid
   
3. 01-Sep-05: The word 'you' can make a difference
   
4. 31-Aug-05: Prompt me a life
   
5. 29-Aug-05: A place for sycophancy?
   
6. 28-Aug-05: Bloggers know what is genuine
   
7. 25-Aug-05: What does the writer get?
   
8. 15-Aug-05: The value of the personal
   
9. 30-Jul-05: Challenge yourself
   
10. 25-Jul-05: Speaking becomes writing
    
11. 16-Jun-05: Writing as a pastime
    
12. 15-Jun-05: Half a conversation
    
13. 20-May-05: Limited by literacy
    
14. 11-May-05: The Unwritten World
    
15. 20-Apr-05: Writing: what and who?
    
16. 07-Mar-05: Weblogs force you to reflect?