Bringing Inquiry and Community to the Internet

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Bringing Inquiry and Community to the Internet

• LIS 391 Literacy in the Information Age
• Ann Peterson Bishop
• Muzhgan Nazarova
• Inquiry Page Collaborative

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Literacy in the Information AgeA Welcoming
AttitudeToward Change
Innis Technology is destabilizing long-standing
beliefs and ideologies, everyday lives and
practices (p. vii) Thoreau Technology is an
improved means to an unimproved ends (p. 6)
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Communities of Inquiry

• Community of Inquiry theory understands
  knowledge as communally constructed and emergent,
  proceeding through the interaction of critical
  and creative thinking
• Kennedy, 1996

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American Pragmatism

• William James (1675-1749)
• Charles Sanders Pierce (1839-1914)
• John Dewey (1859-1952)
• Jane Adams (1860-1935)

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American Pragmatism andTheory of Inquiry

• They all believed that ideas are not out
  there waiting to be discovered, but are tools -
  like forks and knives and microchips - that
  people devise to cope with the world in which
  they find themselves. They believed that the
  ideas are not produced by the individuals - that
  ideas are social.
• Louis Menand, 2001

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The Cycle of Inquiry

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Communities of Inquiry

• A group (a social setting) of individuals who
  use dialogue (interaction among participants) to
  search out the problematic borders of a puzzling
  concept (inquiry as philosophical)
• Turgeon, 1998

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Community Inquiry Labs
A place where members of a community come
together to develop shared capacity and work on
common problems. "Community" support for
collaborative activity and for creating knowledge
that is connected to people's values,
history, and lived experiences. "Inquiry"
support for open-ended, democratic, participatory
engagement. "Laboratory" a space and resources
to bring theory and action together in an
experimental and critical manner. A CIL is most
importantly a concept
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Community Inquiry Labs

• Web-based suite of Open Source software tools to
  support collaboration and communication (e.g.,
  bulletin board, document uploading, calendar,
  inquiry units)
• People create CILs (websites) on their own, to
  support their activities within and among groups
• Inquiry units lesson plans, action plans,
  meeting minutes, research reports, journals,
  policy statements, etc.

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Community Inquiry Lab Goalshttp//inquiry.uiuc.ed
u/cil

• How can we
• connect learning life?
• support participatory design?
• accommodate diversity shared values?

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Connect Learning and Life ESLARPESLARP Sample
Inquiry Unit
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Support Participatory Design SisterNet
http//sisternetonline.org/ourinquiry.html

• New model for Black women's organizing
• Wholeness through physical, emotional, spiritual,
  and intellectual health
• Political strategy to resist oppression and shape
  livable communities
• Community health fairs, conferences, and
  learning/action circles

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SisterNets CIL in Action Taking Action for Water
Quality
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Accommodate Difference Shared Values Paseo
Boricua Street Academyhttp//inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil
/out.php?cilid112
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Co-Evolution of Internet Technology
Knowledge
Technology
Community
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Welcoming Attitude Toward Change Active
Participation

• Every individual must be consulted in such a way,
  actively not passively, that he himself becomes a
  part of the process of authority.
• Dewey, Democracy Education

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Welcoming Attitude Toward Change Active
Participation

• Using inquiry and the internet in LIS 391
• Inquiry Units for student research
• http//www.inquiry.uiuc.edu/bin/unit_search.cgi?co
  mmandsearchsearchliasp3
• CILs for group communication, collaboration,
  content management
• http//www.inquiry.uiuc.edu/cil/

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CI Track Perceptions of Students

• Learning is not linear the inquiry cycle
  allows me to perfect my work, and allow others to
  input.
• I think the inquiry cycle is in general the
  learning cycle for me. To have the structure lets
  you feel through the part of the process you are
  currently in, and enable the focus of attention
  to the part of the cycle.

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CI Track Perceptions of Students

• In addition, the CIL allows for distant people
  to come together around the shared interest of a
  topic. Also, the CIL encourages the involvement
  by allowing for different interpretation of the
  information and its evolution by the members of
  the CIL.

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Resources
Bishop, Ann., Bazzell, Imani., Mehra, Bharat.,
Smith, Cynthia. (2001). Afya Social and Digital
Technologies That Reach Across the Digital
Divide. First Monday, 6(4). http//www.firstmonday
.org/issues/issue6_4/bishop/index.html Bruce,
B. C., Bishop, A. P. (2002, May). Using the web
to support inquiry-based literacy development.
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy,
45(8). http//www.reading.org/publications/jaal/in
dex.html Clark, G. (1994). Rescuing the
discourse of community. College Composition and
Communication, 45(1), 6174. Dewey, J. (1938).
Experience and education. New York
Macmillan. Glassman, M. 2001. Dewey and
Vygotsky Society, experience, and inquiry in
educational practice. Educational Researcher,
30(4), 3-14.
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Resources
Kennedy, D. (1996). Early Child Development and
Care. Western Carolina University. 120,
1-15. Reardon, K. M. (1998). Participatory
action research as service learning. In R. A.
Rhoads and J. P. F. Howard, eds., Academic
service learning A pedagogy of action and
reflection (pp. 57-64). San Francisco
Jossey-Bass. Rinaldo, R. (2002). Space of
resistance The Puerto Rican Cultural Center and
Humboldt Park. Cultural Critique , 50, 135-174.
http//leep.lis.uiuc.edu/spring03/LIS450PAR/Rinald
o.pdf Turgeon, W. (1998). Metaphysical horizons
of philosophy for Children. Twentieth World
Congress of Philosophy. Boston, MA August 10-15.
http//www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Chil/ChilTurg.htm