Student difficulty finding 5 ideas on Team 2 and KU blogs

Kim and Patrick:

From one of my students re: finding your teams' 5 ideas on the blog sites (in order for her to comment):

"For Team 2 (Kim's group), I could only find one consensus topic on the blog, so I commented on that one idea. I got into the KU blog, but couldn't seem to find any explanation of their top 5 ideas. I find where they were just in a bulleted list, but nothing about them to comment on. I think I must be overlooking something really obvious? There was no one from the KU group in my mixed group (listed on Google Groups), so I just have nothing to go on."

Can you help? Many thanks.

Comments feed

Sam, is there any way we can get a comments feed on this blog? I have the feed to the posts running in Thunderbird now, but it is of little use without the comments.

On hyperlinks and hyperlinking

I think we need to encourage our students to make sure that every time they put a URL in a post, it is also an actual hyperlink. It is bad web form to write out a URL at all, but to do so without hyperlinking it is really unacceptable. I know we are dealing with some n00b5, but that makes it even more important for us to convey the importance of web standards now, set a good example ourselves and demand proper form from the beginning (too late!). Better late than never.

Team URLs

I gathered up the team blog URLs from various places and checked them out. If we want the students to comment on the ideas, I think we need to have them organized. If the ideas are listed separately and at the top of the blog, then the students can read them and comment on each one specifically. Based on my team's experience, they have good intentions but the process so far with self organizing the mixed groups has been stressful. I would like to have this new process of commenting on the blogs as organized as possible. Judging by the email I am copied on from various mixed groups, there is still a lot of confusion out there.
K State (Sam)
KU blog (Patrick)
All-Knighters (UNLV) (Charlotte - Anne)
Team Voltron (# 1) - (Marybeth)
Team 2 (Kim)
Team 3 (Marjorie)
Team Awesome (#4) - (Darcy)

On the same page

I have no problem with transparency or posting to the blog instead of email. I only hope we all check the blog as frequently as the email. Maybe there is a way to have the blog notify us when there are comments or new posts.

The ideas for my team, (team 3) Team Awesome, are at the following URL:

http://teamawesomeinnovationincubator.blogspot.com/

Logistics: Are we going to post a global so that all teams get the same information?
1. Where are the team idea URLs posted? Are they all going to be in the same place for easy access by the students?
2. Are there written instructions as to what we expect the students to do with these team ideas?
3. How are the instructions getting to the students?
4. Does each student comment on each idea from the other teams by leaving a comment on the blog? Will there then be expected to be about 30 comments per idea?
5. What is the deadline for commenting on the ideas?
6. What is the next step? Charlotte sent out a copy of our schedule but it still contains the original expectation of a presentation on July 2.

Are we meeting at 4 p.m. on Monday for a phone chat?

RE: the next faculty conference call, comment period and the need for transparency

Monday, July 3 @ 4 PM EST is fine with me.

I agree that more time was called for during the feedback process. So, what is the deadline now? I suggest July 9. Anyone? Bueller?

Darcy, I'm still missing your group blog address.

I'm going to be the broken record here, but ALL of these emails we keep exchanging should be taking place on the faculty blog in posts and then in the comments section. I understand the trepidation of "making sausage" where everyone can see, but that is one of the goals of this project. This isn't transparent and it needs to be.

So, in that spirit, I posted this email as a new post on the faculty blog.

Feedback clarification

At one point in the conference call today, I thought we agreed that each team would post their top five ideas in their own team blog, and students from other teams would come in and use the comments fields to give feedback on those ideas after we distribute links to all of the blogs.
That does seem to make a lot of sense.
We could then assign each of our students to go to the other six blogs and leave their signature, as it were. They could do it on their own time frame without negotiating a specific "meetup" time, and it would show who is (or isn't) participating.
In the last couple minutes of the conversation, the feedback vehicle ended up back in the Google Group, which I think we all agree is a klunky way to have a conversation. The best use of Google Group seems to be as a bulletin board/message board/list serve, not for dialogue.
What say you all about doing the blog/feedback idea?
(Please forgive, but I for the life of me couldn't explain to Darcy just now why we tilted back to Google Groups instead of blogs ... my brain aches ;-)

The blog roll

Here is the KU blog link: http://ehub.journalism.ku.edu/innovation

You can either add yours to this post or add them in the comments section so we can all easily find them.

Difficulty with mixed group communication

Four of my five Team Voltron members had not connected in with their mixed group members as of last night. (We had set a deadline of Sunday, 6/24.) They are saying they had e-mailed their mixed group members Team Voltron's five ideas several days ago and had received no responses thus far. Are you getting similar feedback from your folks? (Not sure why they are e-mailing each other and not talking on IM, Skype, etc.?? E-mail seems less efficient and interactive to me, but every one of them chose to e-mail the written ideas and await written responses.)

One Voltron member asked if he could avoid the mixed group process entirely. I went over creation-netting and the importance of tapping into the greater wisdom of the group to help fine-tune ideas.

I've encouraged them to contact their mixed group members again, before our next check-in on Wednesday. What have your experiences been?

"Second-Earth"??

Here’s an interesting article with predictions about the Internet 10 plus years from now (a Second Life - Google Earth, 3-D-like melding):

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18911/page1/

one more tool

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnect/

Might be an interesting tool to use to share presentations

If folks don't have secondlife capability - we need another tool for collaboration and for sharing presentations - here's one suggestion

https://www.yugma.com/index.php

it's free for 10 people
you can share desktops (so we could see presentations)
you can skype/call long distance in to do audio
you can text chat

Second Life and Philanthropy

The MacArthur Foundation (gives out genius grants and funds numerous PBS programs/NPR) is now on Second Life (see NY Times article below). I am sending this article to my students to show them another creative use for this virtual world. Several Volton team members are resistant to SL because of strange interactions they experienced there. I need to inquire further (for our research purposes).

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/us/22virtual.html?th&emc=th

Research 2

A student made an observation the other day which triggered some interesting thoughts. She felt the project should have included non-journalism students because journalists are the ones most threatened by new technology. In other words there is something "wrong" about asking journalism students to come up with innovations that are likely to relegate them in the periphery of the news writing process while mainstreaming citizen participation and engagement. She also observed that the process might have benefited from surveying ordinary citizens to find out what features they would love to see in news sites. Which brings me to my point about possible research opportunity. It seems to me that in future, one could design a research project that might include a team of ordinary citizens as a control group and test a few hypothesis on innovations processes and invested populations.

Research

There are interesting tensions playing out in my group between students who are experienced journalists and those planning to join the profession. The experienced folks think the changes in the media industry must be guided by journalists and cannot envision a future where journalists would be forced to surrender their privileged positions to ordinary folks. There is an article in the May AJR issue that captures a similar conversation in several media houses. I thought it would be a good starting point for future research on how our view of our role as journalists is likely to influence the type of online journalism models that we are likely to pursue, regardless of the ICT tools out there. Gannett, for example, is totally against the idea of citizen journalism and prefers to use citizens for leads and story ideas.

Check in conference

I'd like to ask Brandy to reserve us some conference call time Tuesday evening at something like 5 p.m. Eastern.
Would that work for everyone? I think we can make it later with no problem if that is easier, b/c Brandy would not have to be there. We should all be able to call into this from home or wherever.
Speak up and I will ask her to set it up Monday morning.
It sounds like there's lots to chat about ... not to mention the virtual margaritas ;-)

Faculty check-in?

If we can come up with a time next week for a faculty check-in chat, I'd also like to discuss the project-wide presentation on Second Life, Monday, July 2. Numbers of my folks have hardware issues that limit their access to SL (me too). Is there another possibility here? This issue emerged on the final night in Ithaca. I don't think we have resolved it thus far. Thoughts? When might we pow-wow next week? Are evenings good for the faculty group? M-W-F mornings are good for me too.

Thus far

We've met four times thus far and I am impressed with my students. They have more good ideas than we can use or are feasible with our resources. Yes, there is a lack of certainty that the ideas they are offering don't exist in the rest of the world. Honestly, I don't see how that can be avoided. With Google Labs and Microsoft out there operating in this same thoughtspace, our best bet is to find a concept that is simple enough to achieve in the time available but esoteric enough to dazzle the mind. Right now, I am enamored with Mailbox Maps for it's elegant simplicity and am using that as a guidepost for the students.

To Marybeth's point, I don't know that this needs to be something no one has ever conceived of before. No, a simple mashup won't suffice, but taking an old idea and turning it upside down and sideways may just amount to genius. Think of the powersquid. It is, at its core, the ubiquitous powerstrip. But this innovative design was award-winning and makes most people scratch their heads and say "Why didn't I think of that?". If we can achieve a similar result on what I consider a more important facet of life, I would feel successful.

The student's have it narrowed down to five ideas and are zoning in on one in particular, but the final decision hasn't been made (to my knowledge).

Tomorrow (Friday) is not good for me and I have another call set for Monday at 1:00 p.m. CST. Any other time on Monday OR Tuesday after 2 p.m. CST is good for me.

Real conversation and virtual margaritas

First the clarification : What we faculty types planned in Ithaca was that by the end of this week, each of the 36 students would gather in "mixed groups" with the other six As, Bs, Cs, Ds, and Es to talk about their ideas. (This has nothing to do with the "mixed teams," which refers to all teams except Kansas and Nevada). Each student on every team was assigned an A, B, C, D or E in Ithaca, and it looks like most of the students remember their letters. We set up the Google group so they could sign up under their letter designation and contact each other to arrange to meet and talk about their ideas.
It looks like that is going reasonably OK, although I don't know if Marjorie's team is in there. I'm getting email addresses from Brandy to make sure they're looped in.
(The pages show we We have 3 As, 7 Bs, 6 Cs, 4 Ds and 5 Es, for what that's worth. That adds up to 25, which is a far cry from 36 ;-)
I'm also getting digital copies of our calendar and project plan to post in the Google Group for handy reference.

Now the question: How about we (faculty) have an actual real live (audible) conversation just to touch base and do a reality check? The generous and all-knowing Brandy has offered up Park School's Webinar account so we could all dial in at once ... (I could arrange for virtual margaritas on the River Walk in Second Life.)
Does 3 p.m. East Coast time Friday work for anyone else? I can't remember when Sam's leaving for Kenya, but if he's still here next week we could do it Monday or Tuesday at 3?
What say you?
Sam -- What's your sked?

Process Strong, Content Weak

We had perfect attendance for our Skype chat tonight (with one member checking in from Ecuador)! Team members are respectful, offering good questions of each others' ideas and solid feedback. And while the ideas sound creative and full of potential, each team member comes to the table with almost no research on their demographic (local community), no sense of possible competing products/platforms, and little to no mention of new tools/technologies they have discovered in their explorations. Most of their ideas utilize tools/functions similar to Google, Digg, MapQuest, nothing original or new. I am constantly encouraging them to research and investigate what's out there. And posts to our blog seem to happen an hour or two before a Skype call, so not a lot of interaction and querying of each other in between chats.

My question: is this okay? Shall I continue to encourage, cajole, prod and settle for the limited results I am receiving? Should we send a faculty e-mail to the entire group stressing the research component? Should Dianne weigh in with the students? I'm trying to stay somewhat hands-off with my team, but I feel like there needs to be some kind of re-focusing on the mission/seriousness of this project. I'd love to hear your perspectives/experiences. Sam? Marjorie? Patrick? How are things going for all of you?

Best, Marybeth

Mixed group question

I am about to send a project-wide email asking the students to sign in on their designated mixed group page in the Google Group.
I'd like to add in that note that they are supposed to communicate with each other and the students are to arrange mixed group meetings.
My memory and Darcy's is that they make the arrangements and meet on their own, with no faculty intervention/prodding/arm wrestling.
Is that everyone else's impression?

Participation Issues

Hi guys - wanted to c heck in to see how its going with all the teams. I don't see many teams all filled in on the mixed group page on the google groups. And there hasn't been much chatter here on the blog so thought i'd start some.

My groups is effectively down to 2.5 people. 2 haven't made it to the last 2 chats, haven't contributed any ideas, and haven't emailed (not even lame excuses). one of the five is doing kick-butt work - at all the chats, lots of ideas on teh blog, lots of ideas during the chat. The other sort of active person posted 4 pretty good ideas to the blog, missed one (of 3) chats. The half person is late to chats and missed the last one entirely even tho we scheduled it after he got off work, and he's only posted a couple of not very well thought out ideas but at least he posted something. I have emailed everybody in the group with expectations after the 2nd chat when 3.5 people didn't show up.

I know one team had someone drop out after the first couple of days because they realized they didn't have time to do the job justice - that's responsible (slow on the uptake about the project maybe, but responsible)

My response is to treat it like a job/paid internship. Fire the 2 who haven't contributed and see if their schools have alternates, although it is getting really late for them to start contributing ideas. Put the sort-of-responsive person on warning that he could be the next to go if he doesn't step up to the plate. Letting them continue is not fair to the 2 who have actually been doing some work. Their behavior is disrespectful to the other team members and wouldn't be tolerated for long in the work place.

ANybody else having this problem? Anybody have any ideas? It is up to us, the faculty in charge of the teams, to come up with a solution. So - what do you all think?

Kim

Hard news question

Any input for me on this student-question posted previously??

"A question arose about whether the platform the students are envisioning needs to focus primarily on "hard news" topics. I know they can develop "entertainment-oriented" ways of delivering news and info, but are there parameters on the actual content being "harder" rather than softer news? I didn't think so, but wanted to check in with you all.

Many thanks,
MB

Student interaction issue and some questions

I'm not the researcher among us, but my understanding is that we faculty folks are supposed to use this blog as a shared journal of this process to be used as a digital record for research.
If we use the "labels" or "tags" consistently, we should be able to use that as a taxonomy to search back for areas of discussion or notable incidents for future reference, research or lessons learned.
So in keeping with that, I am labeling this entry "friction" and "mentoring." I'm sharing an incident from my team from this week because it should be noted for the record and also because I would be interested in your feedback as we all navigate new terrain on this project.
(In the interest of clarity, I am naming the student below. I can go back and "unname" her if others among you think I should. Blogs have big erasers built into them.)
One student on the All-Knighters team left me a voicemail Monday night saying she had decided to withdraw from the group because of "issues" with her teammates. She is one of only three ESTJs in the student group. (I mention that for future reference, not because I feel competent to interpret anything from it now.)
When we finally talked by phone Tuesday night, Lauren referred back to some friction late Saturday afternoon, during the students' four-hour Creative Project Assignment. Lauren said she left the room to get supplies, and when she returned, the group had made a dramatic shift in its approach and "idea." Lauren also said her teammate, Jenna (the only ENFJ among the students), was "making it all about her."
There was some confrontation between the two, leaving both feeling unhappy. After Angela's presentation in the auditorium Saturday (which included her prescient reference to the "self-centered follower"), Jenna had pulled me aside and gave me a somewhat tearful version of events. I was able to persuade Jenna to drop her initial plan to not eat with the group, and sent her off to join the rest of the team for dinner.
Tuesday night when we talked, Lauren said she had concluded that she had only one ally on the team. She said others had supported her privately, but not in the group. She also said others were unwilling to have a frank group discussion about the process. She said the lack of respect and candor were making her too angry to continue on the team.
I was able to dissuade Lauren from quitting and I did convince her that her perspective, voice and life experience are important to the success of the project. I pulled the loyalty card as well, telling her that it is important to not let me down.
I'm left with a lot of questions, including how I should best address this with the team. I am inclined to reiterate what they were told last weekend: That they need to have a frank discussion and come to agreement on how they will make decisions and how they will deal with dissent and friction. Do any of you feel like you have done that successfully? Can you share any insight on this? This counts as mentoring and not directing, right?

thank you in advance,

-- charlotte-anne

Welcome

Hello all and welcome to our blog. Feel free to post any useful resources, ideas, tips and "edgy stuff" that can help our young innovators come up with revolutionary ideas.