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- What was interesting about the article
I think the comparison or examination of the passive consumer and the active participant were the most interesting discussions in the article. The observation that the increase in the complexity of information and the rate at which we receive it requires us to work collaboratively in order to process it all. I could not help but to think of the formation of the Constitution of the United States while I was reading this article. It seems that the framers of the Constitution followed many of the principles of design as outlined in this article. It was designed for reuse and built in anticipation of future problems or changes in government and society. It was built on the assessment that their prior experience with governmental systems in Europe was unpleasant. Finally it was a collaborative effort that resulted in a resolution and compromise between many active stakeholders. I thought it was interesting how the article described the decentralization of learning by focusing more ion collaborative efforts and learing from eachother rather than being a a passive student and consuming information fed to you by a single instructor.
- What was uninteresting about the article
I thought the article should have addressed the fact that many people that may be direct stakeholders in a particular situation are apathetic towards its outcome. Thus, If the active participants design a system to meet their needs, there may be an entire class of individuals for which the design does not adhere to.
- What was the main message of the article
The main message of the article seemed to be that by having active participants, or stakeholders collaborate on a problem, they can all benefit by creating a widely accepted resolution, and can learn a lot at the same time. Furthermore, technology, if applied correctly, proves to be a good tool for helping groups of peolpe collaborate on a single effort. Also, the article seems to stress the decentralization of knowledge and learning and stresses how important getting information from many sources is to understanding complex problems.
- Are themes discussed in the article that I would like to know more about
I would like to know more about what other situations the EDC may be applied to. What about social or political situations, is there an effort create some kind of simulation that might determine what the most perfect governmental system would be based on the collaborative effort of many people? Is there any effort to move to more collaborative learning in classrooms at any grade level. Is this in wide practice in any school system anywhere? (beyond just regular group discussions)
- What was interesting about the EDC system
The effort that the EDC is making to make stakeholders feel as though they are in control, and remove them from the passive consumer role that they are traditionally used to is a great idea. I can imagine that difficulties may arise when trying to remove the generally apathetic attitude that many (but not most) citizens feel when it comes to public policy issues or other problems that the EDC may be put to use for. Also, people often feel intimidated by new technology and will be hesitant to embrace it initially.
- Other systems or ideas that are closely related to the article
A professor recently told us about a book titled "eXtreme Programming" by Kent Beck that endorses collaborative programming, relentless testing, continuous integration, visual modeling, onsite customer feedback, collective code ownership, and several other ideas that are consistent with the article and the EDC. Also, my highschool had a town meeting every wednesday at which students were able to make rulings on decisions normally reserved for "higher up" administrative types.
- What did the article say about design
When involved in the process of design, It is important to anticipate changes that may occurr in the future, and how these changes will react to the current design. Closed systems in which the process is considered finished once it is designed are poor for creating a fully functional system. This is an important question to address because many problems do not arise until the system is put in to use. Therefore, systems need to be flexible and be made in a way that it is easy for them to evolve.
- What did the article say about learning.
A challenge facing collaborative efforts is first acquiring informed participants. It is anticipated that increased participation leads to more active learning. The article stresses the decentralization of learning by criticising traditional learning environments in which an all-knowing teacher feeds information to the unknowing students. The article holds this concept fails to understand that everyone has something to learn from someone else, and it may be more beneficial to have the entire class collaborate on the learning effort.
- What did the article say about collaboration.
With the increase in the amount of information and the rate at which we receive it, it often takes a collaborative effort in order to process it all. Complex problems require groups of people working together toward a shared goal. If the individuals within the group make up a wide array of varrying perspectives and backgrounds, then the ultimate resolution to the problem will be more applicalbe and better fit to change as needed.
- What did the article say about innovative media support for these activities.
The article referenced innovative media support for collaborative activities as externalities. One effect of decentralization is that there is no single base for the information to reside, or where it may be accessible to all active participants. Therefore, externalities used as records for all the mental work that goes on in the community. Innovative media also plays a part in the reflection process of collaborative design, and allows the user to assess what has been accomplished.
- Ideas for extended research
Well, more classes like special topics could be created in which the process is actually put to use. Then administrators could actually see how it works and how it might be different than traditional classroom settings. I personally think it would be interesting to see how collaborative learning works with younger age groups, maybe before they even enter the traditional classroom.
          
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