Saturday, February 2, 2008

Immersion, Spring Semester -- Week 2

Struggling to Comprehend Design-Based Research

As I mentioned in last week’s post, the iTeam is responsible for writing a collaborative paper on design-based research (DBR). I am still struggling to understand what DBR is all about within an educational context. I found this post on Learning-Theories.com, hoping to generate a better understanding of the concept. After reading it three times, I understand that DBR considers context as well as the intervention itself. But, the quote that jumps out at me is this:

The intention of design-based research…is to inquire more broadly into the nature of learning in a complex system and to refine generative or predictive theories of learning.

Since context can be such a fluid aspect within the design process and can change on a dime, how can “predictive theories of learning” be generated?

And my first week as Scribe has been … interesting. While I was rather happy to stop facilitating the team work, I am finding it difficult to focus on the task at hand in team meetings since I have to concentrate on note taking. In addition, I feel like I do not have a grasp on where we are in the design process since I am not facilitating the agenda. As facilitator, I prepped for meetings by reviewing references and notes to make sure that we were on track. It enabled me to create a more thorough understanding of where we were, what we were trying to get to, and what we needed to do. There were also a few times when I had a very strong urge to jump up during the meetings and start writing on the board to clarify ideas and help with the focus of the meeting. I’m finding it harder to “take a back seat” and sit on my hands (where appropriate) then actually facilitating the group.

On a lighter note, I thought I would share this amusing video on Second Life:

2 comments:

Jeannie said...

I'm sorry that you're having mixed feelings on your role as Scribe. Can you use a tape recorder along with taking notes?

Montay said...

That is a great idea, but unfortunately with all the work that I have in my classes this semester, recording the meetings will actually take up too much of my time outside of class to listen to and type up. So I will just have to try to adjust. But that is all okay ... I am only the scribe through 2/19, then we rotate our roles again.