Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: July 23, 2002
Latest Update: July 23, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Finding Stuff on the Web

Teaching Essay Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individaul Authors, July 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This essay is based on a delightful site jeanne just happened to come across. History of Use and Community Based Navigation Backup. History of use is a great way to remind us all of the first basic rule searching for information. ASK SOMEONE WHO KNOWS or is likely to know..

And the term "history of use" gives you a neat academic way to explain your search methodology. That sounds so much more impressive than "ask smeone who knows." One of the samples on the site is a restaurant guide. What better way to find out what's good at what restaurant than by asking people who have been there to tell you. The Web is a great reource tool here, for it enables many people to join in a communal task, such as sharing restaurant reviews, regardless of the difficulties they may find in physically coming together.

Now take Bakhtin's advice and do something creative instead of the normative expectations of the local group to which we belong. Consider doing a "history of use" community based navigation for the discussions of Bakhtin and other social theorists. Suppose we haven't yet discussed the "I-for-the-other" as one of Bakhtin's aspects of the self. Perhaps someone at another college has already discussed that concept. So maybe it would help to use the Dear Habermas forum to ask others what they know about the concept. As we post responses on an "I-for-the-other" file, the concept itself will become clearer. In other words, we might be able to learn more effectively by asking other students and colleagues who have already been there, done that.

HISTORY OF USE AND COMMUNITY BASED NAVIGATION Backup. "In the real world, people often navigate by following paths successfully trod by previous sojourners. These routes evolve over many similar journeys, not as the result of special efforts. These pages track efforts at prototyping and testing community and history-of-use navigation in distributed digital media."

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