Margaret A Syverson

What do readers, writers, and texts have in common with the human immune system, the economics of the stock market, the rise and fall of a pre Columbian city state, or a ship's navigation crew? Recent interdisciplinary research in complex systems and cognitive science has suggested some intriguing possibilities. This seminar will explore some of the foundational theories emerging from this research and their potential for informing English and composition studies. The course introduces concepts in situated and distributed cognition, activity theory, distributed cognition, and complexity theory to establish a theoretical framework for analyzing writing situations, as a way of testing the applicability of these theories for literature, rhetoric and composition. One goal of this seminar is to help students define and develop working bibliographies, which are somewhat different from annotated or "works cited" type bibliographies. For this purpose, students will write regular responses to the assigned readings on the class wiki. They will prepare a short presentation to the class on a text chosen from the recommended reading list. Students will also be responsible for developing an academic project suitable for publication in print or online.

In an information-saturated world, we find ourselves scrambling and overwhelmed. Much of the information that washes over us is useless, some of it is dead wrong, and all of it creates the phenomenon known as "information anxiety," the desperate attempt to keep on top of the information flood. Recently, there has been a great deal of discussion about "information design" or "information architecture," the use of careful design to help manage and navigate large complex sets of information.

But information design is only a part of the solution. The real issue is how information becomes knowledge, and how it connects with existing knowledge to expand or reorganize what we know and do. Knowledge is information in use, applied in specific contexts for particular purposes. We inhabit various "knowledge ecologies," which range in scale from the culture as a whole, through media such as newspapers and television, to shared friendships, a classroom, a writing desk with all of its tools and resources. Most of these ecosystems involve people; knowledge "artifacts" such as books, web sites, and other media; technologies; social structures; and environmental influences. They are dynamic, constantly changing systems, through which information flows and knowledge is constructed. Knowledge that is constructed is directed back into the system to inform the development of more knowledge; and all of this knowledge is part of how activity gets accomplished in a particular environment, whether it is the operating room of a hospital, a second-grade classroom, a high-tech business, or a government agency.

Students in this seminar will investigate real-world knowledge ecologies, track information flows and activity in these systems, and design projects to help support emerging knowledge construction in knowledge ecosystems.

Probable texts

Thinking in Systems, a Primer. Donella Meadows

Cognition in the Wild, Edwin Hutchins

The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society, Kenneth Boulding

Ecologies of Knowledge: Work and Politics in Science and Technology, Susan Leigh Star

Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart, Bonnie Nardi

Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Bateson

Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages, Alex Wright

Coursework

1. A major research project leading to a publishable article or composition in text, multimedia, website, wiki, or other online medium, project to be negotiated with instructor. This project will be completed in stages:

    a. A project proposal of two pages

    b. Observational field research in a knowledge ecosystem: an office, classroom, a hospital unit, a non-profit organization, for example.

   c. Report of recommendations for the benefit of the system.

   d. The final presentation as article or composition, suitable for publication or conference presentation.

2. Regular digital presentations on the research project.

Evaluation

Evaluation is via the Learning Record, a portfolio‑based system fully described on the web at www.learningrecord.org.  Students construct and submit a midterm Learning Record and a Final Learning Record composed of samples of their work, observations, and interpretations of their own development on the basis of five dimensions of learning.