learnE – My experiences in elearning

My final decision about which learning community to join was not necessarily a quick one.  After looking at approximately four different options, I have selected IWR (Interactive Whiteboard Revolution).  I need to acknowledge Ian Bell and his comments on our own community (eLearning Experiences) which helped me make a decision.  Upon investigation, it was evident to me that this would certainly help myself and also my colleagues as we have recently had SmartBoards installed in our training rooms.  Although making very good use of the ‘touch’ capabilities for demonstration, we are primarily using this expensive tool as a ‘fancy whiteboard’.  Any newfound knowledge in how this ‘tool’ can be used can only assist us in our training environment.

What is a learning community?  In Learning in Communities, Stephen Downes states that ‘the idea that a group of people can create a more complete understanding than a single person working on his or her own is necessary for the process of shared cognition’.  According to Kumur as viewed on 25 March in Edutech Wiki, shared cognition is ‘related to peer learning and thus the process of building and maintaining a shared conception of a problem ensures a natural learning environment’. 

Lewin (1951) stated that ‘individuals would be more likely to learn and change their attitudes and behaviour if they had interacted in a group where norms were formed collaboratively’.  He also states that ‘behaviour and learning are considered to be a function of the interaction between the person (psychological differences among individuals) and the environment (differences among external situations). 

I believe that when a group of people who share like interests and/or wish to attain a common goal can share a common environment, be it physical, online or virtual, it is possible for unlimited learning to occur.  What is of upmost importance is for all members of that community wanting to be involved, to share and to believe in the benefits that it will give themselves as well as other members.  Any community (learning or otherwise) is only as good as its participants and the input that they give.

IWB is an interactive community using the internet as its community base and has been created ‘as a place for educators to have ongoing conversation about the effective use of IWB’s in the classroom with an aim to develop good IWB use, using sound educational pedagogy’. This site is an online environment where participants can freely communicate with all other members as and when they desire.  There is no joining subscriptions, there is a variety of information available including forums, blogs, tagging, twitter, etc and the emphasis is primarily on collaboration.  There is a simple yet clear set of guidelines for etiquette – play nice, be kind to each other and share your stuff .  It is evident from the information that is posted that the members are ‘loyal to the cause’ and all information is shared in good faith.  There are some prominent contributors but in the short time that I have been a member, there is a noticeable growth in the membership including vendors, teachers and trainers.  One member has stated: Access to on-going peer support is vital in enhancing not only your capability but indeed your colleagues as well.

During my career, I have prided myself in being able to keep learning as a high priority and have always felt more comfortable working and learning in teams.  In the past most of such learning situations have been f2f and telephone/teleconferencing involvement.  I understand that learning communities are not a novelty but I consider myself a novice in the world of online/virtual learning environments and am certainly not at all familiar with ‘learning communities’ – aside from the odd dabble on Google groups!  Since joining IWB, not only have the ‘conversations’ highlighted so many varied and useful applications but I have also become aware of the huge amount additional reference material available including websites, video podcasts, another learning community (Promthean Planet), etc.  I anticipate the amount of knowledge and information that I will gain will be very beneficial. 

I have found that not only am I keen to see the latest posts, etc, but am quite intrigued about the variety of ‘communication’ options available where I can participate/read/comment – all in the theme of ‘learning’.  Brown (2008) mentioned that research has shown that ’students, who studied in groups, even only once a week, were more engaged in their studies, were better prepared for class, and learned significantly more than students who worked on their own.’  This is certainly the case for me. 

Reference List

2008, Online Learning community, Social networking in Plain English, viewed on 25 March 2009, http://utselearning2009.ning.com/video/social-networking-in-plain

Callahan, Shawn, Schenk, Mark and White, Nancy, Building a collaborative workplace, Anecdote Collaborative Workplace – Whitepaper – Putting Stories to work, http://www.fullcirc.com

Downes, S, 2004, Learning in Communities, Australian Flexible Learning Community, viewed 25 March 2009, http://community.flexiblelearning.net.au/GlobalPerspectives/content/article_5249.htm

Cornford, I. 1999, Social learning, in J. Athanasou (ed.), Adult educational psychology, Social Science Press, Katoomba, NSW, pp. 73-96.

Redmond, P and Lock, J, 2006, A flexible framework for online collaborative learning, Internet and Higher Education, 9 pp 267 – 276

Saunders, S. 2008, Social Psychology of Adult Learning, in Athanasou, J. (ed.), Adult Educational Psychology, edn 2, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, ch.3

Seely Brown, J. & Adler, Richard P. 2008, Minds on Fire, Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0, Educause Review, January/February, http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823

Wenger, E. 1999, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, Cambridge University Press, USA.

Epilogue: Synopsis (pp.225-229)
Epilogue: Chap.10 (pp.230-240)
Epilogue: Chap.11 [partial](pp.241-257)