The Threadmeister activity created shared responsibility
Designating Threadmeisters served as a necessary management tool, since tribe members at both schools needed to know the basic facts about the island so that they could create the maps and brochures. In writing the brochure section on “rules,” for example, the person responsible for that section only needed to read the Threadmeister’s Re-port to be in agreement with what Cartier Replica had been decided over the last two weeks of discussion. All tribe members understood that the various Threadmeister Reports would contain the final word on tribal decisions regarding laws, consequences, housing options, etc. and that they needed to post responses before the deadline.
The Threadmeister activity created a strong sense of student ownership and shared responsibility. It was also one of the most significant demonstrations of authentic student motivation I saw during my two years of work with online forums. As often happens in professional interactions, students were working with people they could not see or hear, but who, like them, had thoughts about how to translate discussion topics into actual words and images and how those choices would be received by the others. Working on the Tribal Paradise Project, students had a vested interest in trying to make sure that everyone’s opinion was heard and that everyone was being understood, since effective work on the maps, brochures, and presentation depended on clarity and inclusiveness. For the first time, it felt that our work with the forums was creating a learning environment that promoted Selber’s concept of multilateralism as well as a more authentic learning experience with the rhetorical triangle of audience, purpose, and context. Rather than writing to their instructors for the purpose of earning a grade, these students were composing complex texts for a real audience of peers, with the real purpose of persuading the other tribe members to join them, within the real context of the impending Tribal Council.
This authenticity was not always easy to man-age, since some of the interactions were authentically difficult. Some complained about fellow tribe members’ lack of response or inability to explain why they liked or didn’t like certain ideas. Their frustrations frequently reminded me of project planning endeavors I’d tried to coordinate online with other teachers: the lack of response, the vague language, and the misunderstandings resulting from misinterpretations. Occasionally, tribe members strongly disagreed, providing for some of the project’s most interesting “teachable moments.” The most famous of these became known as the National Worm Day Incident.
One student, frustrated with her tribe’s lack of discussion regarding national holidays, sarcastically posted a comment that suggested a “National Worm Day.” Although she claimed she did not mean to be snide, the comment led to serious strain in group interactions, all the way to the Tribal Council presentation. The positive side to this difficult snag was that, as stories of National Worm Day spread, the students began to pay closer attention to what tone they were conveying Breitling Replica Watches online and how it might be interpreted. As I circulated among the groups, I heard students remind each other that they would be seeing fellow tribe members in person soon and that it would be best to remain civil. During our discussions about this learning, students voiced an awareness of how carefully they needed to phrase their postings and how their words might be misinterpreted without the benefit of intonation, facial expression, or body language. They also recognized the temptation to say things online that they would never say to someone’s face.
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