Dear Volodja: Thanks so much for this post! What sort of qualitative stuff are you thinking of doing? Do you have people trained in sociological or anthropological observation? I'd be especially interested in a social ecology of Dotlrn usage: how people come to integrate it into their daily lives. For instance, I've got a couple of teachers who are now jazzed about putting a couple of study questions online the day before class. I think of it in dramatic terms whereby instead of this big hit of one class meeting a week, they are now orchestrating a prelude the day before and beginning the class with reference to this prelude (ok, I need a better metaphor, but you get the idea). I sometimes think of how the forums extend the seminar beyond the 90-minute period, how the intensity of that face-to-face is extended by the reminders the forum can provide. I think the science is sociology, or?
All the best,
Bruce
