Activity Log
The format of your activity log may be a looseleaf notebook divided into sections,
typed or handwritten. It may also be a series of entries in an electronic form divided
by electronic formatting. This may be physically presented using zip or floppy disk,CD,
or networked webpage. It may also be a three dimensional "box" with objects
as well as written and pictorial works.
The content of your activity log is meant to describe your process, activities
and thoughts throughout the time you are taking this class. It is CRUCIAL in evaluating
your progress in this class.
It will consist of the following sections:
Group Work
Fifth Discipline Group Exercises (One per week.)
Meetings: Chosen Discussion Topics
Group Structures and Processes
Individual Work
Journal Reports and Analyses
Readings/Reseach
Fifth Discipline Individual Exercises
Individual Project: Notes, Progress Tracings
Other
Class Notes, Thoughts, Reactions, Ponderings
JOURNAL
The Journal is SEPARATE from the Activity Log, a PRIVATE notebook. It has two
primary purposes. It functions as a device to capture data to be used in examples
to illustrate data analysis with confidential data. Second it is a device to assist
in understanding the dictum "Know thyself" and to illustrate various aspects
of YOU as individual system interacting with small group systems and larger cultural
systems in communication activities (Templates One, Two and Three made experiential:
up close and personal). The cumulative RESULTS of your findings regarding your own
patterns of information handling and the PUBLIC presentation of your analyses of
confidential data will appear in your ACTIVITY LOG.
The Journal consists of twenty minutes of handwriting or three handwritten pages
per day done immediately upon waking (before entering the brainwave pattern usually
present in day to day work). The content is meant to catch the flavor of your ongoing
thought processes and may or may not directly relate to the content of the class.
It is meant to capture the systemic nature of your own information processing procedures.
This part of the course relates to the Personal Mastery section in Fifth Discipline.
Many students have noted that it provides a direct experience of the Delphic/Socratic
dictum "Know thyself". Additional frequent and regular information recording
in forms other than handwriting at other times of the day will provide additional
valuable information for your later analyses. You will rapidly notice the different
style of writing done by hand immediately upon waking and that done later in other
forms (even when addressing similar content).
During the first three weeks of class you will simply report your journal activity
in the Activity Log. For example, you may write: "Wrote three pages today reflecting
on the reading I did last night, pasted copies of some of these in the reading section.
The most important ideas were ..". Or perhaps," could only write one page
today tried to recapture a dream that related to the nightmare scenario I read on
X's web page. I am sure I will be able to write more about this later after I have
pondered its meaning." In addition to the early morning writing, this is a good
place to record personal triumphs and difficulties with group, general life etc.
It is also a free think space to ponder 'what if' and generally clarify and document
your 'talk to yourself'. You may find that your 'talk to yourself' varies as you
change writing media, times of day etc. when you do your later analyses. MOST IMPORTANT
TO REMEMBER IS this is your PRIVATE DATA SPACE. It will be treated just as raw confidential
data is treated in qualitative research studies.
By the fourth week your journal and activity log will contain enough information
for you to practice analysis and reporting of information. This will emulate research
procedures you may later want to use if you intend to analyze and report on confidential
data gained from interviews, field observations, etc . For example, lurking behind
the second portion of the report above may be a very colorful dream that you would
not share publicly. However, as you examine the many pages you have written in both
the journal and activity log, you may (using data analysis techniques) find patterns
that reveal information handling patterns that you can report and share publicly.
For example, you may find that both in dreams and in group interaction you emphasize
visual and/or kinesthetic information over auditory/verbal information (spoken words).
This discovery could be recorded as PUBLIC DATA and methods obtaining it documented
in an analytic report in your ACTIVITY LOG.
Just as in published research, only the PUBLIC information (NOT the raw confidential
data) will be shared. Also, as in most academic research, the PUBLIC data may be
divided into what you choose to share with only the instructor and with both the
instructor and the class.