Internet Learning Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2014 | Page 105

Internet Learning
Figure 24. Question and Answer Pairs in Renlit Thread.
time, we can easily imagine that by focusing
on Renlit’s professional domain of wine
distribution, rather than on the media depictions,
Jakata’s question has acted as a sort
of conceptual filter that helps to shape and
guide the subsequent conversation. Naya’s
subsequent question in 06 NAYA also focuses
on wine, seeming to reinforce the effect
in 08 RENLIT, where we again see Wine
concepts dominate. We see a similar effect,
in different concept categories, between
Loret’s question in 04 LORET, and Renlit’s
response in 07 RENLIT. Both responses are
dominated by the blue and yellow Analytics
and Business categories, with no reference
to Media, and with some reference to Wine
by Renlit.
Now, we can combine our insights
from the timeline diagrams in 7.3. RQ2
Example and from the categorized concept
diagram in Figure 23 and Interactive 4. 03
JAKATA, 04 RENLIT, and 06 NAYA all contain
questions, and all issue a spreadRequest
of Level 3/Elaborate. In each case Renlit’s
response contains a personalStory, and the
topicSpread score for the response either
meets or exceeds the requested topicSpread
level (see Figure 17). And in each case, the
dominant concept categories in Renlit’s response
match the dominant categories in the
question. This appears to support a hypothesis
that questions can act as important inflection
points in a discussion, and indicates
potentially interesting ways of finding and
surfacing those inflection points to enhance
learning and instructional effectiveness.
To round out our description of this
thread with respect to topical focus, let’s
look at responses 09-12, in Figure 23 or in
Interactive 4. In 09 VISKA, Viska contributes
a short post describing the Lion Nathan
Group’s QR codes, in case Renlit is
not aware of this. Note that this post, and
Renlit’s thank you note in post 11, are the
only posts in the thread that do not mention
any of the larger, central concepts. Alakel’s
post 10 ALAKEL is a short comment on analytics,
which connects to only one central
concept – data – and receives no reponse.
Another interesting feature of this thread is
Renlit’s summative post, 12 RENLIT. Here,
Renlit retreats from the increasingly technical
narrative, and resets the topical focus to
the Media, Business, and Analytics concept
categories. The digital-ethnographic data indicates
that Renlit is returning to the discussion
prompt to ensure the thread overall has
met the assigned goals. It is interesting to
note that although Media concepts feature
prominently in three of Renlit’s seven posts,
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