Recentering open for those at the margins: three lenses on lurking

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Caroline Kuhn, Leo Havemann, Suzan Koseoglu, Aras Bozkurt, and Sue Watling

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#OER19 Galway

#lurkerexp

abstract

The group formed around the #HEdigID slow chat that Suzan led.

The chat went on much longer than the planned one day. Some participants were present or dipping in and out, without saying anything.

We began to think about the meaning of lurking, or silent or invisible participation - is it participation?

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Questioning the meaning of lurking

….As a term is lurking just matter of fact or is it pejorative?

Questioning the meaning of lurking

Your own experience

1. Form pairs. Can you think about ONE online learning space where you are a resident by choice.
2. Can you now think about ONE online learning space where you are a resident because it is required or it is an expectation.
3. Discuss: How do you feel about your participation? What kinds of activities do you do there? Optional: send us a tweet about 1, 2 or both #lurkerexp (5 min)
4. Feed back to whole group (5 min)

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Extending experience (readings)

In this section we aim at exploring the ideas of Frances Bell, Sue Watling and Sherri Spelic, they have written about lurking from different perspectives.

The readings are also on this Padlet wall.

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• Form three large groups
• Each group will focus on one of the readings (15 min)
• Feedback, group discussion (5 min)

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Three lenses on lurking

• towards a framework

1 Lurking as troublesome

The ones who lurk are maybe doing it as a conscious act of resistance, but maybe they are in such a position that they do not have the capabilities or the will to participate.

Digital literacies as troublesome knowledge, lurkers in a liminal space, moving towards the capabilities they need to participate proactively.

In which case: for whom is it troublesome? What is troublesome, the lurker’s experience, or the outsider perceiving the lurker?

2 Lurking as political

What if we further problematise lurking, thinking of it as a voluntary act, as an act of resistance, as an answer to some kind of transgression? Understanding lurking from a political lens forces us to look at (uneven/unbalanced) social structures and relations in education. But is it a deliberate and conscious act of resistance? Is lurking an action or a reaction that has not yet been internalised in all its magnitude? What are learners resisting? Do they know, critically, what is bothering them?

3 Lurking as ordinary

This lens challenges the othering of ‘the lurker’, the use of this term to identify a category of persons, the privileging of the visible and measurable over the invisible and the non-measurable. It obscures the potential value of reading, reflecting, and other solitary, often unseen learning activities. What if we understand lurking as a normal, mundane and necessary behaviour that any learner or participant engages in online spaces, part of the time?

Using the three lenses for thinking about lurking where would you place your view?

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Please add your thoughts to this padlet

https://padlet.com/caroline_kuhn13/lurkingexp

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(and/or send more #lurkerexp tweets)

Thinking about lurking with a framework

Thank you!