Reflective Summary 1

1. What is a community?
A community is defined by dictionary.com as “a social group of any size whose members resides in a specific locality, share government, and often has a common cultural and historical heritage or sense of identity”. Renninger and Shumar add to this definition by stating “people in physical communities share concerns, resources, quality of life, help, and so forth. (Renninger & Shumar, 2002, pg. 6) Burbles, 2000; Fisher, 1982,; Wellman, 1999a give this definition of a community: “Communities are composed of people who live close to each other, who freely share companionship, goods, services, and support of all kinds to other member of the community. (Haythornthwaite, 2002, pg. 159) Riel and Polin describe community “as a multigenerational group of people, at work or play, whose identities are defined in large part by the roles they play and relationships they share in that group activity. The community derives its cohesion from the joint construction of a culture of daily life build upon behavioral norms, routines, and rules, and from a sense of shared purpose”. (Riel & Polin, pg. 18)

What is a virtual community?
A virtual community is defined by dictionary.com as “a group of people who interact via Internet Web sites, chat rooms, newsgroups, email, discussion boards or forums; also called an online community”. In a virtual community, relationship is typically defined not by proximity but by contents of individual interest – classes of objects, ideas or events about which participants have differing levels of both stored knowledge and stored value (Renninger, 2000) (Renninger & Shumar, 2002, pg. 6) Riel and Polin further expand the definition of community as “a social group in which learning is an intentional, explicit goal. (Riel & Polin, pg. 17)

What are the key characteristics of a virtual community?
Some key characteristics of a virtual community include the “adherence to common goals, membership requirements, hierarchy and roles, shared history, common meeting place, social construction of rules and behaviors, and enactment of rituals (Bruckman, 1998; Renback, 1999; Jones, 1995, 1998; Kollock & Smith, 1999; McLaughlin et al., 1995; Mynatt et al., 1998) (Renninger & Shumar, 2002, pg. 163)

Riel and Polin base their definition of virtual communities on four dimensions of community: membership, task features and learning goals, participation structures, and mechanisms for further growth and reproduction. (Riel & Polin, pg. 19)Membership: Who joins? How do they find their way to the group? What is the life cycle of their participation in the group? What sort of differentiation, if any, exists among members? Task Features/Learning Goals: Groups come together for a purpose. In some instances, the group may be explicitly tasked with a product to develop or an activity to complete. For others, the group is simply engaged in joint activity as part of some larger enterprise.Participation Structures: A critical distinction among groups arises from the formal or informal means of group members with access to the full range of community activity, for example, tools, events, history, and other members. Furthermore, groups differ in the opportunities they afford members to participate in a variety of way. Some communities are very open to and supportive of shifts in members’ roles and identities in the group.Reproduction and Growth Mechanisms: These are the means by which the community grows and the mechanisms by which the community continues to exist independent of members who might join or leave the community. (Riel & Polin, pg. 20)

2. Why do we need to build and design a virtual community?
We build and design virtual communities to aid in the exchanging of information, network among people with similar goals and ideas as ourselves, seek out and provide social support, and plan working environments. Members of the community rely on timely deliverance of current information. This requires that the members of the group be committed to the community. They need to be willing to support other members of the community in a computer assisted, collaborative, learning situation. These communities allow individuals who are distributed geographically from each other and the institution offering the program to work together. These members need to be able and willing to share and add information to the community. Virtual community members also join communities looking for companionship, emotional aid, advice, sharing of goods and services and to promote well-being. And finally, members of virtual communities plan work, allocate tasks, and coordinate joint efforts to sustain these communities. (Chapter 6, Building Virtual Communities)

How are virtual communities related to learning?
Virtual communities can be based on Lave & Wenger’s Theory of Situated Learning. The principles of this theory are that knowledge needs to be presented in an authentic context and that learning requires social interaction and collaboration. (Lave & Wenger, 1991)

Virtual communities also use the theoretical framework of Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory. He states that “social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition. All higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals”. (http://tip.psychololgy.org/vygotsky.html)
Vygotsky believes that cognitive development is limited to a certain range at any given age and that full cognitive development requires social interaction.

An example of this is EIPT 6433. Not only are we learning about virtual communities by actually being in one, we are also interacting socially and collaborating weekly with other students in the class and the instructor teaching the class. Dr. Ge provides guidance for our weekly post, offers feedback on best practice, and then gives us the opportunity to fix any mistakes that we might have made. We are learning by doing. We are experiencing working with Blogs, not only for academic posting, but also for social posting. We are not just reading about the subject, but actually getting to use the information we are learning about.

3. What are the factors influencing the success or failure of an online community?
According to Riel & Polin, communities are not always healthy contexts of close interpersonal relationships. Communities must be able to accommodate change or variation. Sometimes a community can be too scattered and isolated to the point that members are unable to interact with each other or sequestered from community cultural resources. In this case, the members may be unable to develop common practices or shared values. A community can become unstable if the identity or purpose becomes unclear or contested. Learning communities need to be able to attract new members if it is going to be able to continue and develop. If a community becomes dormant because member ship becomes static, there is no evolution of the system, the activities or the roles that support it. In these cases, learning is more problematic and limited. In other words, simply labeling a group of people as a community neither ensures that it functions as one, nor that it is a beneficial, cohesive unit in which learning will take place readily. (Riel & Polin, pg. 18)

Caroline Haythornthwaite asks the question “Are CMC’s (Computer Mediated Communications) an appropriate means for building learning communities: based on reduced cues on one hand and increased connectivity on the other, increased participation and inclusiveness but the potential for misrepresentation and antisocial behavior, and reduced communication richness but committed participants engaged in the rules and behaviors of their online community? After reading the Case Studies in CSCL2, I think this is a question that has to be asked on an individual basis. CMC’s can be successful if the proper attention is paid to the community at the startup and if the community is dedicated to the community during its lifetime.

What are some of the practical considerations for the context when designing and building a virtual learning community?
Design considerations are general guidelines for creating effective communities. (Cuthbert, Clark, & Linn, Building Virtual Communities, pg. 215) The Building Virtual Communities textbook illustrates four design considerations for creating successful learning communities:

• Support the actual practices and daily tasks of the participants,
• Collect experiences and represent them in an accessible and equitable manner,
• Provide a framework to guide the learning process,
• Represent the identities of the community members.

This design framework is based on the Scaffolded Knowledge Integration Framework inspired by the Social Development Theory by Vygotsky and the Cognitive Apprenticeship Theory which states that students are apprentices. Practices and patterns of participation are modeled by the teacher and, in turn, by students and their peers. (Brown, 1992) (Cuthbert, Clark, & Linn, 2002, pg. 216) Using this frame work students a) make the process of thinking visible, b) make science accessible, c) encourage students to learn from each other, and d) foster lifelong learning. (Cuthbert, Clark, & Linn, 2002, pg. 216) An example given is the need to collect experiences and represent them in an accessible and equitable manner is closely related to making thinking visible and encouraging students to learn from each other. (Cuthbert, Clark, & Linn, 2002, pg. 216) This theory also stresses the coordination and integration of ideas as well as encouraging different paths for learning by mixing hands on earning with online discussions and modeling tools. ((Cuthbert, Clark, & Linn, 2002, pg. 218)


Works Cited

Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives). New York: Cambridge UP, 2002. Print.

CSCL 2, carrying forward the conversation. Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002. Print.

Riel, Margaret, and Linda Polin. Online Learning Communities. Print.

"TIP: Theories." Theory Into Practice (TIP). Web. 25 Feb. 2010. http://tip.psychology.org/lave.html.

"TIP: Theories." Theory Into Practice (TIP). Web. 25 Feb. 2010.
.

CSCL2 Chapters 1-8

I'm sorry I was so late posting this week. Basketball District's and Area's were this week , plus make-up games we missed due to weather, so I have been to about 10 games this week and my homework has definitely suffered for it. I apologize to those of you waiting on me to post!

I read chapters 3, 4, 5, and 7.The major points from these chapters are that the educational paradigm shift taking place from passive to active learning, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Communities are becoming more common place in today's educational settings, students today need to be able to work well alone and with others to become successful in today's new learning paradigm, and that Lave and Wenger's concept of Legitimate Peripheral Participation is the basis behind the new trend behind educational learning communities. (Lave and Wenger, 1991)

Chapter 3:

Educational paradigms are shifting from a Transfer of Knowledge (TOK) paradigm in which rote memory and the reproduction of external knowledge - learning – is a passive absorption and reception of objective knowledge (Bruner, 1996) (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 112) to a Learner-as-Thinker paradigm in which education emphasizes the subjectivist character of knowledge construction as a result of students individual knowledge and strategic experiences and their interpretations of the word around them (Duffy & Kuth, 1991) (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 112) In other words, learning is no longer passive but active. Students today should be challenged to work toward more thorough and complete understanding of the subject by being guided, by the teacher, to participate in practices of progressive scientific discourse. (Scardamalia and Bereiter, 1994) (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 112)

The central objective for the studies reported in Chapter 3 was to investigate the cognitive and didactic aspects of computer-supported Collaborative Learning Networks in university and vocational education settings, and to answer the following questions:

1. Can computer-supported collaborative learning be effectively introduced in the regular (university) curriculum? The study found that there is no single answer to this question. Results show that students are not accustomed to sharing their knowledge and, in particular, that goal setting and teacher interaction are necessary to stimulate building on each other’s notes. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 112) This will require learning on both the student and the teacher’s part. Students need to learn to develop their knowledge building attitudes, but teachers also need to learn to use the time normally expended on lecturing to monitor and stimulate the processes of learning. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 112)

2. Is collaborative knowledge building being promoted when collaborative learning networks are introduced?To answer the second question, averages and cumulative knowledge building results were addressed. There seemed to be a high correlation among the knowledge building variables that indicated a higher level of collaboration than is normally seen in regular classroom. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 112) However, these activities seemed to take place more at the beginning of the course when teacher involvement was high. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 112) Therefore, it seems to suggest that the relationship between teacher involvement and student activity applies to both university and secondary vocational education. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 112)

3. What kinds of teacher interventions are needed for collaborative knowledge building?With regard to the question of teacher didactics, students treat coaching and stimulating by the teachers as very important. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 126) The studies show that it is not sufficient just to create an open environment of discussion but that students need a systematic didactic approach and high degree of teacher involvement to make online learning communities successful. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 126) Important steps include articulating prior knowledge and students’ theories, relating to students’ own interests and questions, making use of the jigsaw-method, and using authentic final tasks to experience the use of knowledge. It is also important to publish public notes by students to stimulate the sharing of knowledge and understanding and also to conduct face to face meetings weekly so that students can discuss their progress and come to collaborative solutions to facilitate their learning on the Forum. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 126)

In conclusion, using Knowledge Forum not only encourages students to take on more responsibility for their own learning but also enables teachers to be more effective coaches. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 126)

Chapter 4:

The purpose of this study was to analyze the epistemological nature of elementary school students’ process of knowledge-seeking inquiry in the Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1991) (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 129)

The studies showed that the difference between the CSILE groups may be found in the implicit epistemological assumptions and cognitive design of the projects. Two of the classrooms studied took on conceptually unchallenging study projects that focused on the familiar everyday environment. The design of the study projects carried out by these groups guided the students in working with factual knowledge rather than in searching for explanatory scientific knowledge. These groups produced explanation-seeking research questions; however, the scientific information processed by the groups was at a substantially lower explanatory level than the third classroom. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 126)

Results of the present study indicate, generally, that students need a great deal of pedagogical and epistemological guidance to participate at a process level of inquiry. Students cannot be expected to discover these practices by themselves without guidance and expert modeling. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 126) The study also shows that the lecturer or presenters external structuring and regulation are vital to secure students’ active participation in CSCL. The teacher has a very important role in computer-supported collaborative learning from elementary (Lipppon & Hakkarainen, 1997: Lipppon, 1999) and secondary (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 153) to university level (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 153) education. The challenge is to provide support and external structure just sufficient to enable productive participation but not to replace the students’ own self-regulative efforts. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 126)

The study also pinpointed several problems in using CSCL in classrooms. One being that teacher’s might not have the personal experience or opportunity to become acquainted with the epistemology of scientific inquiry. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 126) In other words, they may not have had the experience of learning to implement the higher level practices of inquiry that are needed to sustain this learning environment. Also, students might not be aware of the cognitive value of different kinds of questions and the advantages of forming one’s own intuitive theories. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 126Therefore, professional development of practicing teachers is of extreme importance if using CSCL in today’s classroom will ever come to pass. (DeJong, Veldhuis-Diermanse, and Lutgens, 2002, pg. 126)

Chapter 5

An important issue discussed in Chapter 5 is that students need skills to regulate their learning activities effectively. (Dewey, 1938) Two of the essential skills needed in learning are the ability to direct one’s own work and the ability to work with others. (Dewey, 1938) These skills go hand in hand with Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development. Vygotsky argues that the immediate potential for cognitive development could only be fully realized in a collaborative context. (Vygotsky, 1978). Therefore, in order for students to be successful in relatively autonomous learning (or working) environments, they need to know how t work independently, how to collaborate with their peers and with experts in the learning process, and how to balance these two modes of working and thinking. (Shaffer, 2002, pg. 198)

This study looked at a design studio course taught using a loose schedule and structured desk crits. It provided a framework for collaborative activity that preserved student autonomy in the learning process but also provided a model for collaborative interactions. (Shaffer, 2002, pg. 220) This study shows that using the design studio model can be successful in mathematics too. (Shaffer, 2002, pg. 198)

The Study shows that no mater which model is used in providing supportive collaborative activities, students’ experiences of collaboration are influenced by their sense of control – or lack of control over their learning process. (Shaffer, 2002, pg. 198)Learning to work with others is an essential skill, particularly for the modern workplace. Once important think to think about is how to create an environment where both collaboration and personal control of the learning process are given adequate support. (Shaffer, 2002, pg. 198) The design studio may offer one viable model for creating such environments. (Shaffer, 2002, pg. 198)

Chapter 7

There are several situatied learning theories, but the one most developers use when developing educational systems, Lav e and Wenger's is the most used. (At least in 1991). Their views on collaborative learning are based on the theory that focuses on the social characteristics of human learning. This theory sees learning as the process of change in social relationsh in which the learner is imperatively situated - or that the learner learns in the social context in which the individual is placed. (Lave and Wenger, 1991).

The participants in this study were required to identify their formation and transformation in the collaborative learning through AlgoArena. (Suzuki and Kato, 2002, pg. 295) They were to characterize their membership category as programmer/nonprogrammer. THey were then required to identify conforming student/brat, therefore redefining their role in the community. The identity of the students was flexible, depending on the social relathionship of which the person was a part. (Suzuki and Kato, 2002, 0g. 295).

The learning process in the AlgoArena classrom was shaped through the participants continuous collaborative enterprise in which they mutually and contingently formed and transformed their identities and activities.

Case Study 1

Case Study 1: Facebook: The Free, Online Social Networking Website

http://www.facebook.com/:

I chose to study the Facebook community for Case Study 1. I chose this community because I am a member, but I don’t use it that often. I wanted to delve deeper into this social community to see exactly what it had to offer its members - me.

Facebook is a social networking website. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college. Users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information and other personal information. Communicating with friends and other users can be done through private or public messages or a chat feature. Users can also create and join interest and fan groups, some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising. To combat privacy concerns, Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who can see what parts of their profile. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#cites_notes-61, 62, 63)

Facebook is the wildly popular, free social networking site that combines the best of blogs, online forums, photo sharing, clever applications, and interaction among friends. Members of the community – users - are able to do such tasks as signing up, networking, shopping, joining groups, finding or filling a job, and a whole lot more. Once you join you are able to create your own page and make connections with other members who went to your school or those who work at your company or play on your soccer team. Once connected you are able to access the personal and professional details of all the “friends” you’re connected with, the people they're connected with, and so on, and so on. (http://www.amazon.com/Facebook: The Missing Manual, 2008)

Once you join, you are able to set up a profile page listing where you went to school, where you work, your interests, birthday, contact information etc. There is a page where you can upload your own pictures into photo albums. There is a lookup bar where you can find old friends, and a place where you can decide to keep track of these friends, or not. You can virtually poke friends or leave notes for them either on their home page message board or in a private e-mail. If you chose, you can send and receive updates from Facebook friends. There is a place where you can buy and sell marketplace and classified ads. If you are looking for a job, employees and employers can comb through the member pool looking for suitable matches. Face book can be used as collaboration tools to keep team members, co-workers, clients, and projects up to date. With all this it is made safe by using a “multi-pronged approach to ensure your privacy”. (http://www.amazon.com/Facebook: The Missing Manual, 2008)

When I first joined Facebook, I used it strictly to keep up with Special Education Clubs at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. At the time, this was the easiest way for the professors of the classes and the leaders of the various organizations to keep the membership posted of class times, assignments, club meeting dates, etc. My last semester of working toward my first M.Ed, I was President of SCEC and my use of Facebook grew. I was then required to do the posting of dates, etc., instead of just getting the e-mails. The only “friends” I was connected to were the other students in my classes or the other members of these organizations. When I graduated, I never deleted my account, so I still received updates from group members, but I didn’t participate any further than that.

A couple of years later, I stared my 2nd Specialization on my M.Ed., so again I started using Facebook a little more. I attended classes on campus while obtaining my first Specialization, but by the time I started my 2nd Specialization, all of the classes were on-line. We never met as a group, in person, on campus. All of our assignments were posted on D2L and we were required to participate in on-line discussions, very similar to how we use D2L in this class. Again, messages on Facebook were sent and received to keep us up to date with organizations and classroom assignments. Not everyone in the organization could participate on D2L due to the fact that not everyone was actually enrolled in the various classes at one time. I started using Facebook again. At first, I just received and replied to messages sent through SWOSU. But then, I started getting e-mail notifications from people I graduated from High School with. A reunion was going to be held during the upcoming summer, and information was being sent from the Facebook platform. This opened up a whole new Facebook world for me.

After I started receiving updates on my class reunion, I began searching for high school friends, friends from OSU, where I went to school for my B.S., and people that I worked with. I joined my children’s pages so that I could “spy” on them, but noticed that our Pastor and Youth Pastor were already friends of both children. (I love that!) I was able to join Emmanual Baptist Church group and EBC Youth group; we even have a Group for mission trips that each member can post from while on trips to Ecuador, Greece, or Oklahoma City. I still am not a daily Facebook user, but I do receive updates in the form of e-mails. That way I can pick and choose which updates I respond to and which updates I read and delete. One thing that I don’t think about too much is on-line security. I should probably worry more about that.

I am taking another class this semester, and we have had very extensive talks about online security, especially when working with minors. I am a Special Education teacher, so I already live and breath FERPA regulations, privacy of working with minors with disabilities) but I don’t have a lot of technology in my classroom, so I needed to find out about FERPA for schools. One of our assignments was to find classroom rules for using Wiki pages. I was kind of amazed at what I found:

· Only ever use your first name or a nickname when you are writing on this or other blogs or wikis
· Never use any other student’s last name
· Never post any personal information–such as your home phone number or home address on this or any other blog or wiki
· Never share any of you usernames or passwords with anyone and never log in as another student
· Always tell your parents or teacher right away if you come across anything that makes you feel uncomfortable
· Remember the “grandma rule” that anything you put on the internet could be read by your grandmother so only write things you could say to the nicest of grannies
· Be a good online citizen and never write or post anything that could hurt anyone else
· Always check with an adult if someone asks for your phone number or to meet you
· Never make arrangements to meet anyone over the internet without telling your parents first
· Make sure you publish only your own work. Don’t, under any circumstances, use other people’s work and call it your own (this is against copy write)
· Make sure you proof read your writing before you post it to check the spelling and that it reads okay (http://commun-it.org/wiki/index.php/Wikis#Rules_and_Guidelines

I am amazed at everything that can be done on Facebook. It truly is a community. Facebook “engenders feelings of belonging and purpose". (Anderson, 1991; Jones, 1997. Renninger and Shumar, 2002 pg. 82)) Participants do not come to the site with similar levels of knowledge but they share a vision of the site as a community where all participants contribute to the shared goal of the community. (Renninger & Shuman, 2002, pg. 82)


http://webquest.org/index.php:
I also chose to study Webquest.org for Case Study 1. I chose Webquest.org because I love the interaction between the student and technology. I think it is a more hands on learning tool and today, you can find WebQuests for almost any subject, therefore it is also an easy educational tool to use in your classroom.

What is a WebQuest? A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from recourses on the internet, optionally supplemented with videoconferencing. (http://webquest.org/index.php)

Riel and Polin, 2004 describe different of learning communities in their article “Online Learning Communities: Common Ground and Critical Differences in Designing Technical Environments”. Upon reading this article, I believe that WebQuest.org is a “Task-Based Learning Community” in which the members of said community are in a formal school setting and in which the task emphasizes group learning as a way to scaffold individual learning. (Riel and Polin, 2004, pg. 21) The following chart explains the membership, task features and/or group goals, participation structures, and reproduction and growth mechanisms of the group:

Community Dimensions and Product-Based Learning Communities

Membership: Membership is assigned or grouped. Members know one another. Group identity is temporary. Leadership is assigned or evolves through interaction

Task Features and/or Group Goals: Topic, project, or group goal is well specified. Learning goals are defined as part of the project. Timeline is used, often with phases and specified deadlines. Value of the product is assessed by others.

Participation Structures:Participation is often defined with specific roles and responsibilities. Small-group interaction, which may be shaped by explicit division of labor.

Reproduction and Growth Mechanisms: Specific Learning Community ends with the production of the product that reflects the learning. Transfer of practices and procedures from one community to the next through products, procedures, and guidelines. Community practices carried between discontinuous groups by organizational leaders or programs.
(Riel and Polin, 2004, pg. 22)

I love implementing webquests into my classroom. It gives my students a chance to work in groups and individually. Usually I use them in conjunction with reading a book in my Language Arts classes. An example would be “A Call of the Wild” by Jack London. The webquest is divided by chapter groups. Each group has online vocabulary activities and quizzes. I use the vocabulary lessons as prereading activities and the quizzes I divide by chapter so that the students can use the questions as reading guides. After reading the chapters, the students can take the online quizzes – this seems to be more fun than a paper/pencil quiz. There are writing assignments and projects for each group of chapters and the students have to research different topics to complete these assignments. I have also found reading quests where the book is actually read to the students, then they can work on the activities. This is a more interactive and fun way to bring literature to students who do not read on-level.

As mentioned earlier, WebQuests have been created over many topics. They are a great way to use technology in your classroom!

References

Vander Veer, Emily. Facebook: The Missing Manual. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media Inc., 2008.

Facebook. Ed. Eric Eldon. 18-12-2008. Wikipedia. 12-02-2010

<>http://commun-it.org/wiki/index.php/Wikis#Rules_and_Guidelines

http://webquest.org/index.php

Renninger, K. Ann, and Wesley Shumar. Building Virtual Communities. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Riehl, Margaret, Polin, Linda. Online Learning Communities: Common Ground and Critical Differences in Designing Technical Environments. Pg. 21-22

Renninger & Shumar Chapters 9-12

"Computer mediated sharing of common interests, experiences, thoughts, and fellowship combined with an ability to access health and welfare information and/or challenge professional monopolies of expertise is becoming ubiquitous. (Burrows and Nettleton, pg. 249) In other words, online self-help and social support networks are on the rise in the United States and across the globe. This is a day and age where we can get on the Internet and find out how to raise children, train dogs, whiten teeth, lose weight, and on and on. Sociologists today are having a difficult time trying to "contain" this phenomenon into a particular group. Are these self help websites considered a virtual community? I feel that they are a virtual community based on the previous definition given by Rheingold: "People in virtual communities do just about everything people do in real life, but we leave our bodies behind. You can't kiss anybody and nobody can punch you in the nose, but a lot can happen within those boundaries".
People are helping to create and manage "virtual friendships" and building personal relationships with people they are meeting over the Internet. These friendships could be dictating lifestyle choices of the members of these communities. People are turning to chat rooms, facebook, myspace, etc. to form friendships that are just as meaningful as the friendships with the next door neighbors, but these friendships are not dictated by geography, time or space.

Self help groups are not new, however, the Internet has has accelerated the spread of these groups. Personal experience has become almost as important as professional knowledge when "blogging" on these self-help sites. Advice is no longer uncritically accepted, and now we have the ability to gather information and knowledge from a variety of sources. Virtual Communities have given people a technology in which they have to engage and interact and in which they must be proactive in their participation, and, lastly, the better equipped with technology people are, self help technology may offer advantages to the people that have the time, the reflexivity, the inclination, and the resources to exploit it.

Renninger & Shumar Chapters 5-8

Based on the definition from the text: Learning Communities are created by members to share information between these members and to add to the information on a continuing basis. In order for theses Learning Communities to stay healthy, several factors must remain in place. Learning Communities:

• Rely on a timely deliverance of information
• Require people that are committed to the group
• Support computer assisted collaborative learning situations guided more by the group than a single individual.

There are several reasons for the development of Learning Communities for teachers. These websites help educators to setup and locate daily lessons or individual activities, allow for Professional Development Opportunities so that information can be shared, and it allows a venue for Authoring Communities where research can be carried out. These websites allow teachers to "make connections between those resources and their practice by providing examples of how to introduce ideas that connect with their learning goals.

Most of these websites operate on a "Scaffolded Knowledge Integration System". Examples are WISE system and the NetCourse system. These systems are used to exchange resources or information, develop coherent ideas, and to support an individuals understanding. WISE uses web pages, classroom ideas, and scientific investigations. These web pages emphasize coherent understanding by supporting participants as they compare, contrast, sort out and organize ideas. It also allows participants to support ideas with evidence and compare alternatives. (Cutbbert, Clark, and Linn, pg. 216)

BLog 2 Week 3

1. What are the implications of the power of the virtual communities to education?

The power of virtual communities is limitless thanks to the Internet and the world wide web, especially with the advent of Web 2.0. There are so many websites available today that anyone can find almost any piece of information, usually within seconds. What's even better is that websites are ever-changing with today's Wiki's. Anyone can add new information to existing websites - and with this new and changing information - these websites are able to stay current. The fluid and dynamic characteristics of today's web make it a very powerful tool for education.
Examples: Wikipedia- the online encyclopedia that "anyone can edit".
Blogs- we are able to stay connected to our classmates by creating blogs. We can post and our classmates are able to reply.
Desire 2 Learn - an amazing online classroom in which the instructor can post lessons, discussions, copy chapters of books, etc. The student has a personal locker in which he/she can save documents, and there is a discussion link used to "blog" about whatever the instructor feels necessary. Because it is all saved onto a server, I can pull up any information from any computer.
Google Earth, Google Maps, and on and on.

2. Teachers are losing authority regarding knowledge due to students' extensive exposure and access to all kind of information and resources. Does it make us all experts in various ways?

I don't look at it as losing authority but really as gaining authority. I can dictate, for the most part, at least while they are in school, which websites my students view. I love literature web-quests. They are so useful in my Language Arts classes. By using these web quests my students can work at their own pace, either individually or in groups. They can look up more information on a topic as needed, take quiz's, make worksheets for themselves or others to use. Again, the list is usually limitless as to what we can do with a computer and an Internet connection.
When I taught Geography, I found many PowerPoint's and activities talking about landforms and the themes of geography. My students were able to make their own PowerPoint's and word documents detailing everything they had learned during different lessons. It was also very easy for me to modify individual students assignments based on their individual needs.

I had a Smart Board in my classroom. It is amazing the amount of lessons that have been put online for classroom use. This is just the beginning in technology for the classroom.


3. How will education and the structure of schooling change in this digital age?

I believe that the so called "mortar and brick" classrooms will soon be a thing of the past. I received a 2nd Specialization on my M.Ed. from SWOSU completely on-line. Those classes were structured very much like this one. We answered questions on the discussion page. She posted all quizzes and tests, and we had a Portfolio Project, for each class, posted onto the lesson plan page. At first I was worried about not getting "face to face" time with my fellow students. But again, as in this class, discussion questions were posted for every chapter, and we had to post and reply to the other students in the class. One thing that I really enjoyed was the ability to chat online and to page each other from D2L. That way, if I was working on a project and ran into trouble, I could see who was on-line and send them a page. I got instant feedback that way, instead of having to wait for them to check their e-mails. I do not feel that I was alienated from the other students or the instructor. I was able to work at my own pace and it was actually much better for me at the time because my kids were younger and this enabled me to be home at night when they were home, and I could do homework on Saturday mornings while they were still asleep.

4. What do you think this hyper-connectedness means to the future of nursing education?

I do not know anything about the nursing field, but I assume the same would hold true for any type of education. Hyper-connectedness will allow more people to take classes without having to commute. I think this will allow us to become a more computer smart society and a more educated society. Now the only things stopping us from learning are the lack of the technology to help us connect to online or distant learning campuses and the classes to be put online.