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A Pragmatic Technology Analysis of Distributed Knowledge Practices

A Pragmatic Technology Analysis of Distributed Knowledge Practices. Bertram C. Bruce Library & Information Science U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Outline. Classical design & evaluation Pragmatic technology Examples: Alliance teams ENFI Inquiry Page

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A Pragmatic Technology Analysis of Distributed Knowledge Practices

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  1. A Pragmatic Technology Analysis of Distributed Knowledge Practices Bertram C. Bruce Library & Information Science U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2. Outline • Classical design & evaluation • Pragmatic technology • Examples: • Alliance teams • ENFI • Inquiry Page • Implications for evaluation, technology studies, design Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  3. Waterfall model Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  4. Document the concept Specify the requirements Modularize (architectural design) Design each part Code the components Test each component Integrate the pieces Test the system Deploy Waterfall process Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  5. Problems with the waterfall model • Synergies of components • Problems hidden until full system test • Information ecology differences & changes • Don't know user needs in advance • Users don't understand the functions • User needs & situation change • Non-standard use Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  6. Modifications • Spiral design • Overlapping phases • Subprojects • Evolutionary prototyping • Staged delivery • User-centered design Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  7. Reverse the flow? Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  8. Pragmatism • Technological change • Scientific discoveries • Demographic shifts But, rigid concepts => an idea about ideas Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  9. Action -> -> -> Destiny Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny. –William James Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  10. Pragmatist themes • experimentalist philosophy • ordinary experience • means vs. ends • knowing — action • relationships • situation as a whole • logic — inquiry into inquiry • technology — means of resolving a problem Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  11. Pragmatic technology technology as the means for resolving a problematic situation -- Larry Hickman (1990), John Dewey's Pragmatic Technology Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  12. Problems find technologies technology => solves a problem solution to a problem => technology Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  13. Problem-solving cycle problem 1 => technology 1 technology 1 => problem 2 problem 2 => technology 2 technology 2 => problem 3 … Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  14. Implications • Technology studies: Alliance teams • Evaluation: ENFI • Design: Inquiry Page Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  15. Distributed Knowledge project • Study of the Alliance/NCSA • New ways of doing science in distributed teams • Distributed Knowledge Research Collaborative Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  16. How does embedded knowledge become mobile? Knowledge Technology Community Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  17. Application Technologies teams • http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/alliance/partners/ApplicationTechnologies/ Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  18. Grand vision Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  19. Problems • EOT often shows the greatest impact • But it doesn't use AT enough, and AT doesn't use ET enough • Successes often emerge from user community and are fed back into the Alliance • Large structure w/o clear lines of control leads to politics, miscommunications, difficulty in planning, failures to collaborate effectively Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  20. Enabling Technologies teams • http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/alliance/partners/EnablingTechnologies/ Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  21. Astronomy Digital Imaging Library • ADIL • developed and maintained by the Radio Astronomy Imaging Group • "collect astronomical, research-quality images and make them available to the astronomical community and the general public" Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  22. Incorporation into practice • Addresses existing problems • limited access to equipment • attribution for images • Reconfigurations • Worldwide collaboration • New modes of publishing Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  23. Pasteur’s death-bed words Bernard is right; the pathogen is nothing; the terrain is everything. – Oliver Sacks, Awakenings Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  24. Implications: Technology studies • Adaptive structuration: substitution, enlargement, reconfiguration (Giddens, Poole, Contractor, …) • Longitudinal studies • User response, reception theory • Ecological analysis (Bruce & Hogan, 1997; Nardi & O'Day, 1999) Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  25. Text sharing Drama Socratic tutoring Scenarios Small group discussions Brainstorming Collaborative writing Devil’s Advocate Distance networking Twenty questions Cross-age tutoring Discussion of reading Discussion of issues Open discussion Realizations of ENFI Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  26. Classical summative evaluation • Quantitative only • Little attention to antecedent conditions or classroom transactions • Assumes fixed, knowable entities • Unable to address unanticipated effects • No model for diversity of realizations Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  27. Hermeneutics Not occasionally only, but always, the meaning of a text goes beyond its author. That is why understanding is not merely a reproductive, but always a productive attitude as well. – H. Gadamer, Truth & Method Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  28. Alternate realizations Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  29. Evaluation questions Summative: How well does it work? Formative: How can it be improved? Situated: What practices emerge as the innovation(s) are incorporated into different settings? => How well do they work? How can they be improved? Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  30. Responsive evaluation … orients more directly to program activities than to program intents; responds to audience requirements for information; and … the different value perspectives present are referred to in reporting the success and failure of the program -- R. E. Stake, 1975, p. 14 Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  31. Implications: Evaluation • Need to understand diverse realizations • Innovation begins with the user • Technology as a tool for its own re-creation • Situated evaluation (Bruce et al., 1993; Twidale, 1993) Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  32. What is the Inquiry Page? • Partner project • Resource for inquiry teaching philosophy • Collaborative teaching & learning community • Lesson planning support and idea site Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  33. Evolving uses • Teachers share curriculum units • Project website: researchers, students • Student work • Community health care • Water quality: policy makers, industry, public, K12 Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  34. Design by use: Collaboration • Create and share a unit • Dialogue spaces: listservs, web forums • Spin-offs • Comment feature on units • Multiple authors with separate logins • Distributed IP: Style sheets • Synchronous editing support Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  35. Participatory inquiry Design through use or participatory inquiry aims to respond to human needs by democratic processes. Through creation of content, contributions to interactive elements, and incorporation into practice, users are not merely recipients of technology, but participate actively in its ongoing development. Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  36. Equitable relations, then tasks renders the progress of expertise in a community secondary to a relational and epistemological practice of confronting differences so that its participants can come to understand how the beliefs and purposes of others can call their own into question. Clark, "Rescuing the discourse of community" Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  37. Implications: Design • Design inseparable from use • User-centered design • Participatory design (Bjerknes et al., 1987) • Equitable relations • An idea about technology (Menand, 2001) Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  38. Meaning of technology only by extracting at each present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same thing in the future. -- Dewey,Experience & Education Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

  39. La propension des choses In the traditional configuration (shi)…, tension is expressed by the curve of a roof… François Jullien Bertram C. Bruce, UIUC

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