Summary-week+4+discussion

Summary for the Week

Thanks for a great week everyone! To sum up this week we pulled a quote from an article that was posted called “The Frontier of School Reform with Trailblazers, Pioneers, and Settlers":

“Networking turns lonely ordeals into shared ordeals. Lonely ordeals debilitate, shared ordeals inspire and motivate" (Schlechty, 1993).

Throughout the week we enjoyed hearing all about:


 * Comments on Connectivism from Rick ** - Sarah Stack

Sarah shared a response from Richard regarding connectivism as it relates to collaboration to find solutions to problems. Richard stated that connectivism is certainly not “neat or orderly” and would be better described as “chaotic connections, missed connections, and near connections” that create a kind of network. Although some aspects are deliberate or planned in part, haphazardness is the predominant feature. He said that technology opens some possibilities and closes others. Even so, connectivism is based upon the premise that the connections of the network contain knowledge that brings meaning to the participant.

Corinne discusses her own gradual introduction to social media. As many of us do, she found that putting her ideas on a public forum was daunting. The first major step she took was to respond to an article online, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, co-founder of Powerful Learning Practice. A positive response from the author lead her to join an online book club and truly experience the wonder of belonging to a VLC. Though the practical purpose of improving pedagogy was realized, Corinne found that her confidence grew and she came to value this group greatly. The sense of loss she felt when the club finished seems to have led to a desire to find similar opportunities.
 * Online Book Club **- Corinne Dutka-Stainbrook

Janine talked about how technology changes, such as Delicious, and is constantly being replaced by different technology. Elaine pointed out that Rick’s lecture talked about a period of mourning when old technology is no longer “the popular” choice. Stacey reminded us that we should be teaching the tools needed to use any online technology instead of one particular technology because they are quickly replaced as new technology is developed.
 * What? ** - Janine Smits

**Spreading Resources on a VLC**- Rebekah Bennetch Rebekah shared how she uses Pinterest both for personal (Doctor Who!) and professional interests. Through Pinterest she has connected and shared resources with other educators. She posted some of her great teaching-related boards, which sparked a lot of interest.

**Wait for it...email- that’s my VLC** :)- Michelle Davis <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Michelle has a rich email community with the staff at the high school where she works. The staff uses email for all things relevant to their community, the professional, educational, social, and personal. Although Michelle felt “sheepish” about selecting email as her example, it resonated with many people in the group.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Mustachianism** - Elenna Nickel <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Elenna shared a blog she follows, Mr Money Moustache. Although she checks the blog regularly, routinely uses the blogger’s advice when making financial decisions and speaks about it to friends and family, she has never actually participated with the community online. She noted Rick’s assertion that we cannot claim membership in a community unless we participate in it, an idea that others found thought-provoking.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**DIY VLC** - Ian Hecht <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Eons ago, Ian recalls building a Small Form Factor pc and the struggles that entailed. His lifeline was connecting to a website community of experts. They helped him complete the build, but Ian was hooked and came to see this community as a place he could go to talk about just about anything. A gaming guild was formed and resulted in some impressive standings and a long run as a team. The responsibilities associated with having a family reduced these interactions. Ian describes his progress through all aspects of the learning trajectory (Driscoll, 2005, p. 168).

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**On the Periphery…** David Morin <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">David speaks of being on the periphery of twitter, facebook, & Google+. He stated he is an introvert. This is his first true experience with and online community and he is again staying on the periphery because his experiences don’t seem to apply to the discussions. He states that he is moving out of his comfort zone as he moves inbound. Roxy appreciated that he shared and indicated that it shows a good level of trust within this VLC. I (Stacey) wondered if the lack of common history with the group was holding him back and encouraged him to share his ideas as from a Connectivist point of view diversity makes learning more meaningful.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Building my PLC, but no real VLC** - Karen Fox <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Karen’s recent determination to explore learning community options via Twitter, Google +, various tech websites and her continued work with the SMART Exemplary Educator program have been wonderful, but she is still seeking a VLC that feels community (as described by Richard). The ETAD 803 Virtual Community meeting Karen attended on June 3/14 fit the bill. She said: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. The conversations were natural <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. There was a shared need, so the conversations were purposeful <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. There was a small number of people <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. The “guide”, Jay Wilson, shared, answered questions, and ask further questions <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Karen aspires to bring these qualities to other VLCs of which she is or will be a participant.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**VLCs are everywhere** - Lianne Kenyon <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lianne came to the conclusion that even though she didn’t think she was a part of any VLC’s… they were everywhere! texting, facebook, pinterest, fit bit, and twitter. She also mentioned online chats she lead with some grade 8 students. Kids that normally would not have shared in the past began to share in the discussion and she had some evidence of their learning collected. Rick H. spoke of the connected world we live in and the advantages to this connectivity. Sarah posted an amazing Ted talk on the Power of Introverts as a result of Lianne’s statements. Many of us could relate to the connectivist nature of our world today.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Virtual Learning Communities** - Marilyn Black <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Marilyn focused on the ‘Sask Teachers United’ facebook page. The group came together with a common purpose whether or not to accept the tentative STF offer. It has provided online access to exchange ideas with a variety of teachers from around the province. She suggests ‘Sask Teachers’ is a good example of Situated Cognition. She predicts that the number of participants will decrease after the June 5th vote. She identified herself as on peripheral / inbound trjectory but not an insider. She parallels this experience to the way that some of her students must feel in her classes. Roxy suggests its a great example of “bound together for a reason.” She mentions it is a great example of situated cognition because teachers are “in the trenches” everyday. Marilyn suggests “Learning is Learning” and she is learning a lot from her peers on this site.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Feeling like…** Beige Biggins <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Beige spoke of the VLC that she has recently embraced. (Through ETAD, DCMOOC & Twitter) To her they feel like communities because the people in them are willing to share and participate and they have an open mind. She spoke of her trajectory through VLC; in her first ETAD class staying on the peripheral sharing here and there. Beige now seems to be on an inward trajectory as she has become more trusting of the learning community. Roxy and surprising Rick suggested that they are both on an inbound trajectory (but for different reasons.) Marilyn jumped in and spoke of similar feelings of nervousness when she began to share within the community. I (Stacey) started wondering how do we continue to connect once the class is over? Twitter? Rick made numerous suggestions “Social Capital” group that meets monthly for lunch and skypes in the distance folks, “The EdTech Posse”, EdTech Saskatchewan - a google online group, ETAD Summer Institutes. It looks like we’ll need to figure out what suits us.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Take the reins and fly!!** - Randall White <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Randall described the wonderful learning community he was part of at a school he used to teach at. Although he enjoys his current school, it lacks this sense of community he experienced; the PLCs in place are overly managed by administration. Stacey’s suggestion these be called MOOSGs instead of PLCs resonated with others. Rick’s paper made clear for Randall the conditions that need to be in place to nurture this kind of community in his current workplace. He plans to reach out to the superintendent with these ideas to work toward creating a vibrant learning community at his school.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**The invisible Community** - Rick Schwier <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rick spoke of the support he felt from his invisible community while presenting at a conference in Hawaii (lucky!) The giant screens behind him shared tweets from his supporters during his presentation. His experience was very positive. While a fellow presenter had the opposite experience. His tweets were negative, unfair and unkind. All that replied seemed to feel badly for the “other guy.” Jonathon mentioned that “Anonymity can be friend and foe.” Randall referred to it as hiding behind the WWW curtain. Ian suggested that they should have thought more about the implementation of the live twitter feed before they displayed the comments. The conversation then drifted to should schools and teachers use twitter? Jonathon provided a negative example and then suggested that educators need to take control over what is allowed to show up on your news feed. Ian shared numerous examples of the positive affect their school’s twitter account has had on promoting a positive school community.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**The people we walk hand in hand with daily!** Greg Woitas <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Greg talked about how the community in our schools is very similar to that of our online communities. He also discussed how our school communities affect our online communities positively and negatively. He says that “our greatest hurdle is to build a positive in house community”. Jonathon brought up the “top down” hurdle. He made a great point about how divisions often dictate what happens in the schools and they are not the ones that have to deal with those decisions. Stacey shared a great link in response called “The Frontier of School Reform with Trailblazers, Pioneers, and Settlers. In this article it had a great qoute, “Networking turns lonely ordeals into shared ordeals. Lonely ordeals debilitate, shared ordeals inspire and motivate. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">" <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Corky posted a great quote from Driscoll “when <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the situative concept of community of practice is applied to a classroom context, it becomes apparent that the culture of the classroom has to change." Leading back to the saying, Change is inevitable.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Virtual Community…** Cheryl Anderson <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cheryl shared her experience with VC’s in the classroom. She had many positive things to say about them and gave us the rundown on the pros and cons and what she would do differently next time. From there it became a place to share resources such as Remind 101, One Note and Power School.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**#Community** - Jonathan Scott <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jonathon created a great visual describing Wenger’s five stages in learning trajectory and discussed the benefits of VLCs. He cited Twitter as a great learning experience and the most interesting VLC he participates in. This topic generated a lot of responses from both the die-hard Twitter users to the Twitter averse.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**The AU Virtual Learning Community** - Rick Heise <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rick created the first thread describing his experience with Athabasca University and their lack of VLC in some courses. Although Rick loved his courses and appreciated the option to start them at his convenience, he felt “isolated” and lacked a sense of community. Rick Schwier pointed out that if there is no community, there is no VLC.

Your moderators, Janine, Sarah, Stacey, and Roxy

Reference: Schlechty, P. On the Frontier of School reform with trailblazers, pioneers, and settlers. //Journal of Staff Development//, //14//, 46-51. Retrieved, from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ482557