RSA 4: A Theoretical Framework for Building Online Communities of Practice with Social Networking Tools

RSA 4-

A Theoretical Framework for Building Online Communities of Practice with Social Networking Tools

http://web.ebscohost.com.cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=c8779059-15b7-4e77-b0b7-49b6859c2c88%40sessionmgr15&vid=6&hid=10

            During module seven, we focus on how building learning communities through technology support learning and achievement at high levels for a diverse population of learners. In this weeks reading the overall message that I walked away with was best said on page 158 in Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom, “By learning together in a learning community, students have the opportunity to extend and deepen their learning experience, test out new ideas by sharing them with a supportive group, and receive critical and constructive feedback.” (Palloff & Pratt; 2007). The idea that an online learning community can create all of these different elements is quite amazing. I think it is important for people to begin to understand that, an online learning community, just like a face-to-face learning community thrives on the same principles. In a face-to-face learning community it is important to build guidelines, discussion, feedback, and collaboration. These principles, which are the basis for a successful learning community, are no different in an online learning community.

            The online resource A Theoretical Framework for Building Online Communities of Practice with Social Networking Tools tries to develop a theoretical framework to help us understand learning among groups of individuals that use social networking to work towards a common goal. According to the article, “we define social networking technology as tools that facilitate collective intelligence through social negotiation in a common goal or a share practice.” (Smith, 2004) The article discusses the importance of collaboration between a group of people and how that collaboration in a social networking helps to create a sense of community and responsibility to one another. I found it interesting in the article when they discussed how social networking is blurring the lines between “real world” and virtual world. The virtual world is becoming the real world, it is where people are beginning to feel most comfortable communicating and collaborating with others due to the speed at which they can connect with one another.

            This article supports this weeks reading because both take a look at how the online learning community support groups of people and allow for them to collaborate effectively. According to A Theoretical Framework for Building Online Communities of Practice with Social Networking, “The community is a group of people who learn and interact together, building relationships that result in a feeling of belonging and mutual commitment,” (Wenger, 1998) Both readings discuss the importance of making sure that every person in an online learning community feels that they are valued so that the learning experiences that result from an online learning community are authentic and worthwhile. When an online learning community is set up appropriately participants in that community feel a stronger desire to participate and often connect on a deeper level.

References

Gunawardena, C. N., Hermans, M., Sanchez, D., Richmond, C., Bohley, M., & Tuttle, R.

(2009). A Theoretical Framework for Building Online Communities of Practice

with Social Networking Tools. Educational Media International, 46(1), 3-16.

Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (2007). Building online learning communities effective strategies

for the virtual classroom. (2 ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

RSA #3- A Vision of K-12 Students Today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8

RSA #3- A Vision of K-12 Students Today

            During week five of our module, the reading focused on the ability to build online learning communities. This week we focus on the many aspects that are necessary in order for an online learning community to be authentic and effective. There are many online management tools that help to foster these online learning communities, and it comes down to finding an online tool that will fit best with your learning communities desired outcomes. The common goal of all online learning communities, are that they are structured to foster learning and teaching. According to page 5 in Building Online Learning: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom, “Learning is an active process in which both the instructor and the learners must participate if it is to be successful.” (Palloff, Pratt; 2007).

            With the idea that in order for learning to occur the instructor and learners must participate, I took the time to seek out an alternative way to share the importance of that statement. As I was looking through YouTube I came across, what I consider to be an inspirational video portraying numerous students sharing statistics and their feelings on the importance of being 21^st century learners. The students in this video showcase the changing of an era from “old fashioned” teaching to that of learning and being a part of the technological age. I found this short video quite amazing, due to the statistics. According to the video A Vision of K-12 Students Today posted by bjnesbitt on November 28, 2007, “76% of teachers have never used Wikis, blogs, or podcasts.” As I am aware that this video is more than a few years old, this is a staggering percentage of teachers who are not accessing all of the learners in their room. If a teacher is not accessing all of the learners in the classroom, then in turn they are not creating an effective learning community.

            According to Building Online Learning Communities: Effective Strategies for the Virtual Classroom, “There is one important element, however, that sets online distance learning apart from the traditional classroom setting: Key to the learning process are the interactions among students themselves, the interaction between faculty and students, and the collaboration in learning that results from these interactions.” (Palloff, Pratt, 2007). As you will see in the video as well, students are begging to be engaged and to be a part of their learning. As the reading suggests the key to learning are the interactions between the instructor and the learner, in order to make an online learning community successful. By allowing the students to collaborate with their instructor, the interactions between them become more authentic and thus the online learning community becomes an area for learners to become instructors, and vice versa. In an online learning community all participants must contribute equally to gain the most from an online learning community. All in all, the video and the reading both suggest that it is important for all learners and instructors come together to form a learning community.

RSA 2: Learning as Our Fundamental Purpose

http://web.ebscohost.com.cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8bd99833-8fc9-421f-92e4-d2b280659560%40sessionmgr111&vid=18&hid=106

RSA #2- Learning As Our Fundamental Purpose

The focus of module three discusses that each school’s purpose is to ensure students are learning at high levels. This week’s module suggests that common assessments are created to measure, and guide students’ instruction. The module also focuses on building the capacity of the staff to effectively work collaboratively to accomplish a specific goal.

The biggest factor in the ineffectiveness of formal strategic planning rests on its faulty underlying assumption: some people in organizations (the leaders) are responsible for thinking and planning, while others (the workers) are responsible for carrying out those plans. This separation of thought and action is the antithesis of a learning community, which requires widely dispersed leadership and strategic thinkers throughout the organization. (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010).

This passage supports this week’s focus. It presents the idea that in order for a school and its students to achieve at high levels all members in the school community need to work together.

The article Teachers Making Connections: Online communities as a source of professional learning focuses on the impact that the internet has on our lives and how people are constantly turning to the internet for personal and professional needs. Teachers are under constant pressure to learn new skills, update their knowledge and change classroom practices (Richardson, 1990). The article discusses how it is crucial in a time when the profession of teaching is so ever changing, that we need to provide learning experiences for these teachers.

With this constant change and this need to work collaboratively, what better way to do it than through technology. With technology teachers all over the world will be able to effectively collaborate with one another. When we open up our learning communities and view them as communities that go through ongoing learning together, we open up our minds to a whole new group of people. The learning that happens together though an online forum needs to address the teachers concerns, which are the success of their students and maintaining their students achievement at high levels. If all educators keep this common goal in mind we are looking at a world wide professional learning community. Just as we read in our weekly readings there needs to be common assessments and in order to create these common assessments, teachers need the time to make sure their learning targets reflect what they actually want their students to walk away knowing. In an online community educators are able to communicate with one another and create these assessments that ensure student success.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for

professional learning communities at work (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Duncan-Howell, J. (2010). Teachers making connections: Online communities as a

source of professional learning. British Journal Of Educational Technology,

41(2), 324-340. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00953.x

RSA1: Professional Learning Community in Relation to Effectiveness

http://web.ebscohost.com.cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5c7c876d-704c-4f42-8886-4a26f388e158%40sessionmgr111&vid=6&hid=123

RSA1: Professional Learning Community in Relation to Effectiveness

The focus of module two is that in order for a professional learning community to be successful, all schools need to have a common goal. The focus of a PLC is student achievement, which results in students and teachers using common curriculum and assessment to ensure growth and success.

Educators in a PLC work together collaboratively in constant, deep collective inquiry into the questions, “What is it our students must learn?” and “How will we know when they have learned it?” The dialogue generated from these questions results in the academic focus, collective commitments, and productive professional relationships that enhance learning for teachers and students alike. (DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, & Many, 2010).

This passage suggests that with focus on answering these two questions that revolve around students learning, not only do students succeed, but it forces teachers to teach more thoughtfully and with purpose. According to the reading these questions are and ongoing responsibility of the staff to constantly assess and reassess. When a staff keeps their focus on common curriculum and uses the guiding questions they have a more authentic environment for students and faculty. When that environment for student learning is driven by common assessment and staff realizes using this data is an ongoing process, we see students’ achievement increase.

Professional Learning Community in Relation to Effectiveness was published in October 2010 in the Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. This article follows a study of nine schools in Iceland, all of different cultural backgrounds and differing home lives. These nine schools have all implemented professional learning communities regardless of resources and backgrounds. Within these separate buildings there has been improved student success. An effective professional learning community “has the capacity to promote and sustain the learning of all professionals in the school community with the collective purpose of enhancing pupil learning.” (Stoll, 2006). The article suggests that the improvements in professional learning communities, improve the schools’ level of effectiveness. They found the basis of the professional learning communities effectiveness to be the ongoing discussions that occur between staff in a building and/or district and buildings that were not having these ongoing effective conversations were not reaching high levels of student achievement. With shared responsibility and ongoing discussions and learning students and staff alike begin raising achievement and learning levels.

The findings in the online article I read this week support the information in this week’s required readings. Module two focused on creating a focus on student learning and in order to do that, teachers must work collaboratively to create common assessments. The online article and required readings further prove that a common goal ensures the high achievement of all students in a building. Changes are not the same as improvement and there is not improvement if the students are not positively affected. (Sigurdardottir, 2010, p. 408). If staff keeps this thought in mind while functioning as a professional learning community, buildings  and students alike will reach the proven level of success that every building strives for.

DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for

professional learning communities at work (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree

Press.

Scandinavian Journal of Research. (2010). Professional Learning Community in Relation to School Effectiveness, vol. 54. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.cucproxy.cuchicago.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5c7c876d-704c-4f42-8886-4a26f388e158%40sessionmgr111&vid=6&hid=123 

Cake Cutting

Life is changing fast! This is my husband Pat and myself. We had such a fantastic day and couldn't have been more fortunate to have all of our family and friends with us! The new Mr. and Mrs. Hoeft :).