H809-17. Very tentative research questions

I stand corrected: the most challenging part of this assignment is not the ludicrous word limit, but rather the generation of appropriate research questions. Here are some fairly feeble attempts, which came about only after days and days of reading and brainstorming. All feedback is most welcome, the more critical the better!

Sociocultural theories

-How did the wiki participants collectively solve the problem of initially setting up the wiki task?

(I'm not sure if this really qualifies as a sociocultural question; I suppose I was trying to focus on the situated nature of learning. There was a bit of confusion at the beginning of the task when some pages were overwritten. We sorted this out together through communication on the wiki and in the course forum.)

Later note: I have just read Nardi's description of situated action, and I now think this is an entirely appropriate research question. She mentions that the focus of study is the situated activity of practice, and that intricately detailed, temporal accounts of how activity unfolds in response to contingency should be given.

-How does screen-based composition re-mediate what gets done?

(This is from Crook & Dymott but it is not context-specific enough in its present formulation, and I have no idea how I would investigate it.)

COPs

-How can this wiki community be characterized and described in terms of people, purpose and policies?

(Here I could apply Jones & Preece's sociability framework, but I think this question is far too general, and I cannot really see why we would want to know this. It needs something further.)

-How successful was this wiki community?

(How do we define 'success'? Only 10 students have contributed so far, although there is no real deadline. Again, I'm not sure how much answering this question is going to tell us.)

Activity Theory

-What are the contradictions between subjects, objects and tools in the activity system which could help to account for the low rate of participation in the course wiki task?

(This was the approach taken by Scanlon and Issroff, which seems relevant here. This is the only question I am halfway satisfied with.)