Social interaction must involve inter-subjectivity, or joint co-construction and decision-making. Participants would share power and authority, but would be unequal only in their differing levels of understanding. Inter-subjectivity might involve interaction between the student and the instructor, or between learning partners, or amongst a group. The discussions generated between learners would provide a mutual support system. The informal social network is expanded by the new connections among learners. Interaction online can involve members of several communities, so that irregardless of where the students are, they can still participate and become involved in the online community.
This is indeed what the Me2U community is bringing about. In addition, I have been tinkering a bit with Twitter (www. twitter.com) to track social interactions and provide another “sounding board” for giving me information about how I am tackling tasks.
Jean Baudrillard wrote the following: “We are changing our system of values, changing all our identities, our partners, our illusions, and so on. We are obliged to change, but changing is something other than becoming, they are different things. We are in a “changing” time, where it is the moral law of all individuals, but changing is not becoming. We can change everything, we can change ourselves, but in this time we don’t become anything. We are in a chameleonesque era, able to change but not able to become. This is our challenge.” .
URL: http://www.egs.edu/faculty/baudrillard/baudrillard-between
I really think that it is through the process of dialogue and reflection that we are able to construct something collectively meaningful.
Posting to blogs or writing in journals and revealing your self and ragged thoughts takes great courage. The process for literacy learners and grad students are in some ways the same, in some ways different. There is always that sense of maybe, or tentativeness, that what will be presented to others will be mirrored in some form, identified with, and not orphaned by indifference, or met with ridicule, scorn or destructive criticism. This is another challenge.
