My Mental ProcessFiguring out Dervin’s article: The tools I used After reading Brenda Dervin’s article, I still feel that there are certain parts that I need to review in order to better understand and be able to explain it to someone else. Initially, I felt a bit overwhelmed and uninterested in continuing to read the article. It was difficult for me to focus on the text and I had to reread the same sentences several times. I was actually looking forward to the few images I noticed later in the text, but continued to try and make sense of what the author was explaining before getting to the visuals. My process while reading included taking a few breaks throughout the article to think about what I was understanding before I continued reading. When I read in my head, I was easily distracted by the most minimal sounds in the room or I started thinking of something else. I found myself reading aloud and imagining the author speaking the text to me. I was able to do this after the audio clip in the youtube video provided. I watched the video that broke down topics from Dervin’s article and I found it extremely helpful. I was able to think about the explanations in the video and make connections while reading the text. That was one of the main reasons I was able to start making sense of the article. I found the video to be that bridge that I needed to cross that gap that prevented me from understanding the author's ideas. The text started to make more sense after I watched the video several times before finishing the reading. I was able to make more connections from the samples given in the video and felt more motivated to continue reading as I found more parts of the text were making sense. What is Dervin trying to teach? Although there are many things discussed in the reading, one important detail I took away from the article was that sense-making, as explained by Dervin, is “a generalizable methodology developed for the study of all situations that involve communicating”(68). The sense-making metaphor illustrates how knowledge is communicated, but Dervin points out that it’s not always a linear process as situations and the person dealing with the gap or providing assistance to help cross that “bridge” can be different. Something else I learned from the article’s exemplars is that sense-making provides information that can be used to respond to the “user’s” thinking, or in my case, to my students. When thinking about myself and my experience in the classroom, I know that all of my students are very different from each other, they think and act differently. If I understand the tools they need to successfully cross that learning bridge, I will be able to better communicate knowledge to them. Based on my thinking, if I were to teach this same reading to a high schooler I would start by using the visual presented in the video. Maybe we would analyze the image and terms used before even watching the video to try to make sense of what the visual with the bridge means. Then after watching, discussing, and thinking about the video, I would move on to the text. Personally, I felt that having some background, more specifically the video and images, allowed me to connect better with ideas in the text and be more interested in learning more. Of course this is only what helped me, I may need to provide different tools for my students.
4 Comments
Lisa
2/4/2018 05:30:19 pm
It's interesting to think about introducing a dense text through video first, and then the actual text. When we talk about productive struggle, the question becomes, when is it best to introduce the productive struggle. Do we create immediate success first or throw down the challenge first? That would something to explore further!
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Marisabel Olguin
2/5/2018 06:56:44 pm
I struggled as well with the text and resorted to rereading, highlighting, looking up words I didn't understand and taking a break from the text as well. I agree with the idea of giving the students background before introducing such a difficult concept. I never felt like I would back away from the challenge but the video would have prepared me for what I was about to encounter. I find that my students react to a topic in a much more supportive manner when they have a little background on the subject. Your drawing is very insightful!
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Maria Dowling
2/5/2018 09:19:37 pm
This was definitely the most difficult piece of text I have read in a long time! I agree that the video was so helpful in helping piece all of the information together, or as you put it bridge my understanding. I really connected with the statement you made:"If I understand the tools they need to successfully cross that learning bridge, I will be able to better communicate knowledge to them." I hope that I can accomplish this with all of my students. How?? I'm still working on it... Let me know if you figure it out.
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Benjamin Scinto
2/5/2018 09:46:54 pm
Notion of communication being a recursive rather than linear process is spot on. Were communication linear it would presume all communicators were truthful, omniscient, and uncolored by experience. When thinking of communication and sense making as a cyclical or back and forth process, one recognizes and validates the value of others and self.
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