<div><p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica">Dear ICD list,</p>
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<p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica">I was asked to facilitate a discussion this week, and thought this was a wonderful opportunity to bring up the subject of apprenticeship. First, some background: I am pursuing a dissertation at UC Berkeley's School of Information where I'm studying creative tools. My research sits at the intersection of material culture studies and computer interaction design. As part of this research, I spent some time as an apprentice bookbinder in the UK where I was taught how to take apart older books, restore them, and put them back together. This experience contrasted greatly with my experience as an undergraduate graphic design major at RISD, where I learned how to arrange type and graphics through iterative design critiques. In the bookbinding workshop there were no formal critiques; there was learning through doing. </p>
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<p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica">So my first question to this group is how the contemporary DIY ethic, and its accompanying how-to, step-by-step tutorials, work in comparison to a formal apprenticeship? Many researchers, including Jean Lave and Richard Sennett, have described the socially situated nature of craft apprenticeship and the importance of participating in a community of practice. But the ways in which digital instructional tools might play a role in this traditional skill development seems underdeveloped.</p>
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<p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica">A recent example of interest is the <a href="http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1921148" target="_blank">Tortellini-making computer game</a> developed by University of Bologna researchers (Roccetti et al, 2010). The game enables a novice pasta-maker to hone his or her pasta-making skills by watching video of an expert, replicating her workmanship, and responding to a system which tracks and evaluates the player's imitated actions. The tool thus combines video and gesture recognition techniques to simulate in-person instruction. Instead of studying alongside a master craftsman for seven years, a similar system might provide a scaffolded environment for learning a range of hand skills. </p>
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<p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica">Yet what skills are learned through such a game? And how do those skills compare to in-person instruction or apprenticeship? As experts in educational technology, I am curious how you respond to the concept of apprenticeship and technology's role in facilitating such work, more generally. </p>
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<p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica">All the best,</p>
<p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica">Daniela</p><p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica"><br></p><p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica">
<br></p><p style="margin:0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;font:12.0px Helvetica"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:small">-- <br>~-:~-:~-:~-:~-:~-:~-:~-:~<br>Daniela Rosner<br>Ph.D. Candidate<br>
School of Information, UC Berkeley<br><a href="http://ischool.berkeley.edu/~daniela" target="_blank">http://ischool.berkeley.edu/~daniela</a> </span></p>
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