We listened to phd candidate Elaine Khoo share her insights from research on online communities that contributed to her phd thesis. Would like to share a little of that here; found it so relevant, so logical, so serendipitous in timing, so synergistic with what other commentators are saying in this week's lesson...
Elaine's enquiry was how to go beyond the mechanics of the technology to enable learners to be comfortable to engage with each other, with the content, with the faciliator... to be comfortable to participate. Her leading question was "What kind of pedagogical strategies need to be put in place to encourage participation?"
She shared five principles of online faciliation:
- Affordances and constraints: An elearning environment has limitations and constraints as well as offering benefits and affordances. There are things that can be achieved very well, and teaching practices that cannot easily be transferred.
That's a fact of life - we should get used to it I like to use metaphor, so hang in there with me: recent reflection at an mLearning day here how the stereotypical archtype that is the tertiary educator is dragged bouncing and sliding along the road compelled unwillingly by the overwhelming powerful digital and information explosion toward change in methodology and pedagogy. For many of you this may seem a no-brainer, and you're choosing to embrace it, but in reality there are many many teachers who can't or won't adjust or adapt, and each such teacher has good and valid reasons for resisting. They are right in many ways, there are definitely constraints. Let's be realistic. - Safety: A safe and inviting environment encourages participation. We need to be very aware of the need to foster trust and respect. (My question is what mechanisms and strategies might do this?)
- Authenticity: there needs to be real-world contexts for the learning to be meaningful. (Again, I'd like to see ideas around this).
- Goals: Different types of interaction are fostered by goals.
- Learning communities: Students value the concept of learning communities. A faciliator is responsible to take on a number of roles for the growth of his or her learners... the faciliator needs to foster intellectual, social, and emotional development, have managerial and technical skills, as well as sound pedagogical underpinning. Not a trivial list!
Khoo, E. G. L. (2010) Developing an Online Learning Community: A strategy for improving lecturer and student learning experiences. Available at: http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz//handle/10289/3961
3 comments:
Ummm...just thinking about that list and it's not easy to be a facilitator. And I am wondering if this is one of the reasons teachers prefer to be teachers...stand up in front of a class and deliver content..rather than facilitators, which is a far more complex role. Or am I over-simplifying and/or being too harsh?
Thanks for sharing this.
I really appreciate your own insights the insights from the research.
It is good point people resist adoption of new technologies for very good reasons.
This is going to be the case in my profession of health promotion.
I find Roger's (1975) Theory of Diffusion of Innovation very useful to think about this.
The Theory of Diffusion of Innovation is network of interrelated theories and concepts. Rogers defines diffusion as "the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system."
Rogers has described five categories of adopters based on the how innovative people are. The key groups for introducing innovation into adaptive systems are the groups he describes as the innovators, the early adopters and the early majority. Other categories include the late major and laggards.
Innovators tend to be the first people to adopt an innovation. Innovators are risk takers, they may be younger, have a higher social class, have great financial resources. Innovators tend to very social and have a strong interest in scientific sources and interaction with other innovators.
Early Adopters are the second quickest group who adopt innovations. They have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the other adopter categories. Early adopters are also typically younger in age, have a higher social status, have more financial resources, a strong education, and are more social than late adopters. Opinion leaders are key influence on weather a innovation spreads.
Wikipedia is good place to get an overview. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations
that lst remionds me that to be afacilitator there seems to me to be two things that are needed within the individual:
1) a willingness to hold incongruencies. in other words to not have to be right (this is possible accordning to some human development theories after yiou reach 50 years of age, so hang on in!!!!);
2) a reasonable sense of self as a capable person, as there are many challenges to that idea in the facilitation role.
Outside of that of course all the contextual things apply- reliable and well supported technology (i.e. someone to sharpen the crayons and lay them out)
-sound time and space management-allowances and affordences of unds and time-a community of practice.
Quite a challenge eh?
I do beklieve it's possible though.
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