Instructor Feedback

Hey gang, sorry for the delay.

The point of turning in a rough draft this week was so that we could give you feedback while you're progressing. So, we have a good deal of feedback. You have a critical week and a half left; don't hesitate to let me know if you'd like me to look over a section again or clarify anything I write here.

So, we can give feedback on global and detailed levels. I'll start with the global. The point of the project, you recall, is to answer these questions:

1. What are the wider social and cultural changes that are entailed by this trend? In other words, these trends don’t emerge in a vacuum, and they often reflect other social and cultural changes as well. What are some of the major contextual factors giving rise to this trend?

2. How are new digital technologies, and their uses, affecting and affected by this trend?

3. What are the educational opportunities and challenges arising from these developments?

I think these questions are subjected to thoughtful analyses in the wiki, but that the organization you have at this point is not particularly helpful for the reader. In particular some key connections need to be more explicitly made. Why is it important to consider different types of divides and various challenges to various conceptions of the divide? Overlapping conceptualizations is a good section, but it suggests wider confusions, contradictions, and/or conflicts in popular discussions about this issue. What does the lack of consensus about what the DD is, or what it means, do to these discussions? Also there are logical relationships between different definitions discussed that could be drawn out in considering how you think it should be conceived. (1) and (3) in your outline also seem to be doing similar things; it would help to ask yourselves what the point of these different sections are in order to make the connnections and distinctions more clear to outside readers. I am thinking offhand that (3) should be part of (1) (as one of the authors suggests), but it's also possible that you all may know something I don't.

The point is that the types and conceptions should be reworked as they respond to the questions above, of the context of the issue, of identifying the issue, and of its historical trajectory. It might also aid criticality and thoughtfulness to consider the logical flow between challenges and solutions that have worked and not worked. Why haven't some things worked and why have others? Overall the particular arguments and perspectives you should be developing right now as the researchers are not coming through. This might also require thinking through editorial issues - you might try organizing an "editorial board" that considers how clear, compelling, and coherent the wiki reads as a whole, when the voice/flow/perspective/approach changes and how to aid readers in gaining from your relatively impressive research done thus far.

You might try rethinking the structure as a whole in terms of the outline, as well; right now the outline does not suggest you will be discussing education specifically, when this is a big part of your work (which you have done).

Finally, your discussion of the types of divides and different conceptions do not play clearly into later sections on educational and other challenges/opportunities. You might consider charting out the challenges/opportunities for each type/conception and then reorganizing based on what you find; for instance, what types of divides/conceptions of divides can education help with, or aid/hinder education, or otherwise directly relate to education, and which do not, and how? Being able to answer this multi-faceted question (more like 10 questions!) through the wiki would be a great sign of its overall success in terms of thoroughness and thoughtfulness.

Now a few more minor/detailed questions:

Successes and failures, and why: More please. WHY have some of the these been so intractable? CAN they be addressed, or are they inevitable?

Factors that are obstacles: I think you could do more here to make clear that education is also part of the problem as well as part of the (potential) solution. This is a big issue, it seems to us.

Do you plan to keep individual authors’ names on the sections? It’s up to you, of course...

Our goal in giving feedback is, of course, to challenge you to do the best work you can with the time you have. We don't expect perfection but we do want you to learn a lot and have a final product you're proud of. That's my hope with this. Please let me know if you need more feedback with anything in particular and we wish you the best of luck in this next week!