At the Friends Association for Higher Education conference, "Centering on the Edge: Intellect, Spirit, Action," held on June 16-19, 2005, Anne Dalke gave a plenary session entitled:
The Grace of Revision: Making Community in Public
"There is a theory--a theology--behind my practice of web-work, one quite congruent with our Quaker understandings of the rich resources of Spirit."
Here is the website she used for this presentation: The Grace of Revision: Making Community in Public
She gave two other presentations as well, also making use of the web. Here are the links to those sites:
Once Upon a Time: The Satisfying Experiment of a Quaker Writing Group
The presenters included David Ross and Anne Dalke (Bryn Mawr College), Deborah Shaw (Guilford College), Mike Heller (Roanoke College), and Barbara Dixson (University of Wisconsin Stevens Point).
"We Make the Road by Walking": A Panel Discussion About Using the Web for Educational Purposes
The presenters included Anne Dalke (Bryn Mawr College), Steve Gilbert (TLT Group) and Paul Grobstein (Bryn Mawr College).
"I am advocating exploration of a particular kind--which leads to the making of a community of a particular kind: one that is open, porous, labile, willing to be tested, willing to test, in conversation, any and all presumptions, refusing ever to stop or "close" the conversation around any agreed-upon position-- including any litmus test of what constitutes "community." The trick here is BOTH to claim what we know experientially--AND to do so with a willingness to revise, and be revised, by our encounters with others.
Here is more information on Serendip.
And if you are interested in participating in an online discussion, please feel free to contribute to the web forum on Education and Technology.
Anne says:
I'm fascinated by what seems to be happening as a result of the creation of the website that is Serendip (where my web work is hosted): an experiment in whether an (open? fragile? egalitarian? democratic?) community CAN be formed among people who begin less with a shared set of common beliefs (including any a non-negotiable sense of what constitutes community) than with a shared desire to learn, to go exploring into
- the original relation each of us has (can have!) with ourselves/our unconscious/Spirit as a rich reservoir for knowing
- the original relation each of us has (can have) with other knowing (and unknowing!) selves
- the original relation each of us has (can have) with the universe.