Respect Mah Authoritah!
http://aplaceinspace.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/time-to-decide-what-do-you-believe/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe751kMBwms&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BC1Ls0yK1_o
The public looks to speeches by the powers to be in order to judge their character. The speech given by Barack Obama was said at the time to be the deciding factor in his winning of the Democratic nomination for president. When 13 minutes of words can potentially change the outcome of 4-8 years on a global scale, it shows who we’re willing to secede power to.
http://aplaceinspace.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/why-are-you-writing-sideways/
The question indicated an important shift of authority relations within the group. Not that I am not still “the teacher” in terms of role, but it had become ok to question the authority figure. My behavior is not immune to interrogation. I can imagine the curiosity as a prelude to my inclusion in the fishbowl (”J”), which also represents a kind of leveling-of-the-field across roles, status, and maybe (?) identities. I think we can be optimistic that such a development bodes well for the course project and our continued learning together.
Now, just because it happened once does not mean it will always happen, or even that it is always possible! We, within our intragroup dynamics, may go through more storming-type phases, and we might even encounter some inter-group dynamics as we get serious about what to include/exclude from the coursewiki. Also – as I hope to continue to emphasize – every group is different, composed of individuals with unique histories encountering each other at particular times of life. As we are experiencing with each other, creating an environment in which deep collaboration can grow is a serious challenge!
http://aplaceinspace.wordpress.com/2008/04/05/audience-to-imagine-or-ignore/
Authority can be fallible:
I chose to ease us into a confluence of these conversations by assigning a question for the class that was (I thought, at the time) appropriate with where you/we were in our reading of the text (John’s book). I had been caught in the assumption that the title was a challenge to look John in the eye, and was surprised and dismayed to read of the painful associations he has with that particular phrase spoken to him as an unmeetable command. I considered that my experience was probably not unique, and also that there must be other interpretations. I suspected that the range of responses to the title would be interesting and open a window for us to learn something about ourselves. Indeed, the ways you reacted to the title varied! (In case you are wondering, this apparent tangent is within the scope of defining audience for the course webproject! In particular, I intend to illustrate something about “anticipation” and how we may want to consider it seriously as we confirm the scope of the project and begin to implement specific design ideas.)
