RSA #4: Building an
Online Learning Community
Wow! My Own Online
Learning Community
On
slideshare.net, Jane Hart, an author, speaker and consultant on technology
tools, displays her materials from the SchoolNet Conference in South Africa from July of 2011. Her presentation, entitled “Building an Online Learning Community,”
begins by clearly defining what one is and then details why
teachers should belong to them. Her
reasons include: “communication conversations,
collaboration, collaborative discovery, content/knowledge co-creation, and
sharing” (Hart, 2011, p. 11-15). Hart also gives explicit examples of them that
are found through out the World Wide Web such as Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs,
Delicious and SlideShare. She divides these examples of tools into two
categories—individual and organizational. Individual tools are blogs, wikis, social
networking sites and social learning platforms. Organizational tools are course
management tools and social and collaboration platforms. She ends the
presentation with giving ten tips to starting up an online learning community.
Why should teachers use
online learning communities for professional development?
The article, “Teachers making
connections: Online communities as a source of professional learning ” by
Jennifer Duncan-Howell examines the use of online communities as a
source of professional development for teachers. The traditional methods of
professional development such as workshops or conferences have not shown to be
effective forms of on-going teacher training. Duncan-Howell’s study determines
that teachers prefer that the location of the professional development is not
at their current workplace and that it be conducted in a two to three month
program. In addition, her research showed that teachers’ goals of teacher
training were to transform their teaching practices and to increase student
achievement. Professional development should be “practical and authentic”
(Duncan-Howell, 2009, p. 338).
The
author shares several positive aspects about online learning communities. Not only do they provide professional
development, but also they allow for teachers to work together with other
teachers who are not staff members at their own schools. Teachers are not alone
in the learning processing; furthermore, they are surrounded by peer support
and assistance. They present opportunities for discussion and analysis of
material through chat rooms, email listings, blog postings. By going to these
collaborative spaces, there are no time constraints for busy educators and its
content upholds newness and array of content. Lastly, a teacher’s professional learning
network should be organized by subject area (Duncan-Howell, 2009).
Together
Both articles examine the use
online professional learning communities and encourage educators’ use of the
tool for strong professional development. They both give clear and concise
reasons on how they can benefit teachers. The first author gives examples,
while the second author gives more research-based data to endorse the usage of
them.
However, both articles fail
to include an essential element of a professional learning
community—trust. Participants need to
feel comfortable to share resources and knowledge. If they do not have the
expertise or background in the content area, they will be hesitant in
participating, and therefore the learning experience will decrease.
References
Hart, Jane. (2011). Building an online learning community
(SlideShare slides). Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/janehart/building-an-online-learning-community
Duncan-Howell, J. (2009). Teachers
making connections: Online communities as a source of professional learning. British
Journal of Educational Technology, 41 (2), 324-340. Retrieved from
http://blackboard.cuchicago.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-1009776-dt-content-rid-4416804_2/courses/8988.201430/EDT-6030-Online-Template_ImportedContent_20130911124320/Howell-Teachers%20Making%20Connections.pdf
