• Introduction
• Some Organizational Background
• Ongoing Conversation about Learning
• Shared Learning
• New Opportunities for Learning
• A Note about the Writing
• A Non-Conclusion
• References
• Printable Text of Article

© Copyright 1998-99 by Anne Agee (aagee@gmu.edu), Susan Kehoe (skeho1@gmu.edu), Cindy Lont (clont@gmu.edu) and Ann Palkovich (apalkovi@gmu.edu).  The right to make additional exact copies, including this notice, for personal and classroom use, is hereby granted. All other forms of distribution and copying require permission of the author.

Section Five:
A Note about the Writing

Anne:  Writing this article turned out to be an unexpected learning opportunity for us, different and somewhat more difficult than we had anticipated.  They difficulty was not just in struggling with the intellectual concepts related to the scholarship of teaching and how that might work in a learning community.  It was just as much the difficulty in creating a form that would mirror the collaborative process we were trying to describe.  At first, we were each writing miniature academic essays.  We worked from our separate perspectives, reached conclusions, wrote them down, explained our reasoning.  Then we decided on a more dialogic style that would provide more insight into the discovery process.  So we began to work by email, sharing ideas and responding.  Then we met face to face to see how our responses could form a whole.  Then we created a web page and started putting pieces together.  It was a process of constantly breaking down our ideas and allowing room for the thinking of others in the group so that we could collectively make a point about the nature of scholarship in a learning community.  I think we achieved what we wanted: a small learning community in action.

Cindy:  We wanted to reflect what an electronic journal could be. . . more than the traditional pages laid out on a Web site, a way of thinking and writing that would make better use of the medium.  Of course, as with any new idea, it meant more work (like talking to others so we could include their perspectives in links) and thinking of different ways to develop our ideas in order to provide richer descriptions and, we hoped, a better opportunity for others to contribute.

Ann: In a way, inventio has offered us not just a forum for discussing teaching and learning issues, but also an opportunity to explore new formats for discussion.  As we talked and discussed and debated and haggled, we found ourselves exploring new ways in which ideas could be presented that went beyond the limitations of linear presentation in traditional print media.  The conversation format, the use of links leading to supplementary materials seemed to enrich our thinking, our collaboration, and our writing. 

Anne: And also led to a rich tangle of ideas which forced us to develop a new language for ourselves to help make the ideas coherent.

Ann: An online journal such as inventio offers some intriguing opportunities to explore not just the writing process, but the ways in which we are conceptualizing these issues.  Our ability to link directly to the materials to which we refer provides the reader with immediate access to ideas that jogged our own thinking.  And the readers' ability to respond online to this essay makes it possible to create an ongoing conversation.  Beyond that, it is possible to document for the first time the changing dynamics which are part of this interplay.  For many years, conversations about pedagogy and learning have taken place on this campus, and on many campuses nationwide.  Yet there are few records of these conversations, the ideas they generated, the issues they raised, and the responses to challenges we all face as teachers and learners.  One of our hopes is that this dynamic format helps us create a more effective means of tracking these conversations, sharing ideas, and reflecting on the ways in which learning is intimately a part of all aspects of the academy.

Next Section: A Non-Conclusion

Previous Section: New Opportunities for Learning