Friday 4 March 2011
Problem With The Special Interest Groups
Hi everyone. I'm feeling a need to write about the SIGs. Please tell me to shut up but I feel we are starting to make things more difficult for ourselves. I believe the SIGs should have fairly general headings such as 'Integrated Theatre' or "Education in Drama and Dance'. If the general topic interests you or is related to your inquiry then join the group. You can then discuss the specifics of your inquiry within that group and get the feedback from others who are interested in your topic. I think sometimes on this course people want to obviously show that they are being proactive and doing the right thing which is great. I do think that in the case of the SIGs however this is going to lead to a problem. At the moment everybody seems to be setting up SIGs that relate specifically to their inquiries. Not only does this probably mean that not as many people will join because the subject is too specialised for them but it also means we are going to end up with about 50 SIGs, one for each member of the course. This to me totally defeats the point. We may as well just be commenting on people's blogs again. I think it would be much better to have ten or twelve general SIGs that everyone's really interacts with (discussing the specifics of their inquiries within it) rather than fifty where you keep having to move groups to have conversations with people that should really be happening under the banner of one group. I hope this makes sense. It's just something that I think will help us all but tell to $*@! off if you like :)
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Mark hi, I understand what you are saying, but I think for now we are still testing the water to understand each others approaches. Maybe we will just take a bit more time to understand how each group functions, and shares dialogue. Once this has been established maybe then can we begin to narrow down the number of groups?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that I think we have too many questions - so much so that I have been reluctant to post one myself, even though it is pretty general! We are testing the water, but we seem to have gone onto 'stage 2' of the SIGs already!
ReplyDeleteI think it's great to have a dialogue and think it's great that everyone is engaging with loads of questions. I guess I am just finding it hard to keep track of all the different threads and think it would be easier if some of the groups merged.
ReplyDeleteI too agree. I've actually found that some of the SIGs do not relate to my professional practice at all so I've given them a miss.
ReplyDeleteI created mine when there was about 7 and now it seems to have expanded even more....
I think it would be much easier to have a few topics and have large and more focused discussions as that way I believe we will get more out of the module and it will a bigger benefit to us as individuals.
The activity on the Facebook page is great to see and very encouraging that this issue is being raised. There are areas of overlap in the questions being posed and the proposal to streamline the topics of SIGs is most welcome.
ReplyDeleteHi All
ReplyDeleteI must agree I have found it difficult to keep on top of the sig's the last few days. There are a lot of headings to go through and discussions to digest. I have to agree with Mark that a few of the headings are more sub sections that could be combined into one big group possible including mine. I'm not sure how this would be done though. Mark I believe our discussions would be closely linked so could be combined into one big group but then it makes it more difficult to sift through if a more specific topic comes up. Is there any way to divide the sections/separate them or join a page where only MT or teaching is up for discussion etc?
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteI must agree with Mark, with so many questions being asked i am finding myself skimming through the threads and only commenting on the ones which seem most relevant to my topic and possibly missing out on engaging with other members of the course who might have useful feedback or could give feedback to. I am also feel, and this might just be me but i don't feel like a group is really emerging. I think Rebecca has the right idea to possibly create separate pages for each group.
it sounds like it is time for a SIG review... R has done a prelim one and it is time to look again - admin and maintenance... for the next tasks however larger groups might let people have a wider range to try out the tools. Ideas about this anyone?
ReplyDelete