iMET 9 Assignment

AR Project Planning

Forum: Critical Friends AR Roundtable

03/11/07 due 03/18/07

On Critical Friends (IVCT, 2007):

Critical Friends and Critical Friend Groups are peers or colleagues who ask probing questions and offer helpful critiques. While they may be independent of the project/task/issue, their role is to ask probing questions to enable those involved to gain fresh insights into their work. The strategy may be used in individual or group settings. The main benefits of using critical friends are that they provide

• an outsider's view of the project/task/issue
• independent questioning to ensure that the focus is maintained
• alternate sources of information or expertise.

Critical friendships begin by building trust. Critical friends must listen well, offer value judgements on the learner's request, respond honestly and promote the work's success (Costa and Kallick 1993).

No one has all of the answers, but many creative solutions can be found in a supportive community setting. For this week's Forum, we will use the power of the community to support each other's work toward planning your final research projects.

Please respond to your peers from the perspective of a Critical Friend.

For this week's Forum assignment you will:

1) Think about your AR in some specific ways
2) Post your ideas to the Forum
3) Provide "critical friend" feedback to a peer on their project