Task, Practice and Knowledge Based Communities – Online learning

Riel and Polin’s article ‘Online Learning Communities’ is based around the premise that learning is a social activity and is at the heart of online learning communities – an idea that already holds quite a bit of ground in the educatoin field, as Anne (another NGL course participant) has already discussed.

The article goes on to explore three different types of learning communities – task based, practice based, and knowledge based – which exist together in a learning organisation. Each of these can be supported through technological systems to deliver benefits for both teachers and students, e.g.
• Through supporting interactions via online tools
• By introducing students to professional communities and enabling them to be part of a team
• Through providing students with opportunities to experience handling tools for inquiry
• Helping students to be familiar with and build skills with working in online communities and observe other (expert practitioners) in the field
• Providing practical and expert support networks for teachers

As a student
While reading the paper, I could see examples of each of these communities in the NGL course –
Task-based – the way in which the fellow NGL students are sharing and reviewing blogs to meet the assessment requirements of this uni course
Practice-based – through the links we share and discussions on our blogs about literature in the field of Networked and Global learning. By doing so we building our knowledge as practicioners in the education field.
Knowledge-based – through posting online and recording articles in Diigo and linking to each others’ blogs. We are creating an online repository of information on NGL!

As a teacher
In my role as a teacher I can see value in drawing on each of these three types of communities – task, practice and knowledge based – to support learning in my organisation.
So far I have had some preliminary discussions with staff members and senior management about what sort of learning activities we will need to implement to achieve our aims of transitioning staff to new practices in the coming months. In these discussions we have tossed around the idea of setting up an internal collaborative website for our staff (the students) where we could provide information and training modules for the new practices we are going to implement. On the site staff can read and discuss the modules or new procedures with their peers, and ask each other questions to assist with the change (task-based learning). We were also looking at setting up a ‘library’ section of the collaborative site, where we could keep records of key information about our area of work that staff could draw from into the future (knowledge- based). It was also hoped that the staff would use the collaborative site to upload articles or news about new changes or ideas in the field or to provide mentoring to fellow staff in both the short and long term, to support existing and future staff to improve their practice (practice-based).

Reference

Riel, M., & Polin, L. (2004). Online learning communities: Common ground and critical differences in designing technical environments. In S. A. Barab, R. Kling, & J. Gray (Eds.), Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning (pp. 16–50). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

CLEM as a teacher

Ok, so I got a little bogged down in focussing on the CLEM model (Community, Literature, Example and Model) as a learner, rather than in my role as a teacher.

So here is a quick run with my teacher hat on, in regards to delivering learning programs to Government staff:

CLEM’s four components are:

1. Community;

What, where and how active is the community of teachers/practitioners etc who use this approach to learning? Are there different communities? How do you engage with this community?

Communities might be…..

Here are some of the communities I have identified across Government:

VARIOUS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
NSW ICT COMMUNITY
DEPTARTMENT OF FINANCE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING COMMUNITY

While these communities seem to be mostly in the areas of Government ICT and Human Resources, which is not my area of focus, I can still contact some of the participants to learn more about how they operate and how I can establish a successful community of practice in my own work area.

2. Literature;

What academic (and other) literature exists around this new approach? use of this ICT to enhance student learning? What does it reveal about how to apply this ICT to learning? What does it say about how to use this ICT and how not to use this ICT? What is this ICT good for when it comes to student learning? What are the common problems and limitations?

See my previous post on the CQM Toolbox here, where I have started to explore the literature around professional networks and communities relevant to my learning context. I hope to build on this more in the coming weeks.

3. Examples; and,

What examples exist of this ICT being used to enhance student learning? What makes a good example? What makes a bad example? Are there examples applicable to you? What can you learn from these examples?

The Australian Public Service Commission website provides some different examples of how Government professional communities currently operate, which includes:

Virtual communities of practice (includes Govdex and Govspace)
Website blogs
Face-to-face networks and forums

The best option for my context would be a Virtual Community of Practice (CoP) using Govdex, which provides a secure online collaborative space, which (as I learnt only late last week) I will be able to get permission from our Department IT Security team, for our staff to access and use. This would also be a better option then face-to-face networks and forums as our students are geographically dispersed. A CoP would also be more desirable than a website blog because of the need to have a private training space which is just for internal staff

by garryknight

4. Model.

How does this ICT work? What is the vocabulary associated with this ICT? What does it offer that’s different from other ICTs? What are the common technical problems with this ICT and how do you fix them?

I am yet to work out the logistics for setting up a community using Govdex, but I expect it will take some time to learn how to use the site effectively and exploring its potential before seeking access for my students. I am grateful that there seems to be a help file and a way to contact the site administrators, if technical help is required. I could also ask my internal IT team for support.

CQM Toolbox – a practical strategy for networked learning in the business sector

I came across a short article published back in 1997 in Industry Week magazine titled ‘CQM Toolbox’ which looks at learning modules for Senior Executive run by a Centre for Quality Management. The article provides what I consider to be a rather progressive view (in comparison with my personal experience in the workplace) of incorporating networked learning to achieve improved business outcomes. The article discusses a range of networked learning strategies which work alongside traditional workplace training delivery methods of workshops, courses and seminars. These networked activities include user groups, study groups and ‘peer to peer networking roundtables’ which are intended to act as ‘support systems’ for implementing new initiatives, overcoming hurdles and to initiate discussions to develop new ideas and improved ways of doing business!(“CQM Toolbox”, 1997, p.30)

While the article doesn’t specifically refer to networked activities in the online space, I can see that there are opportunities here for my work context (as a teacher). With many of the key Government agencies situated in Canberra, it would be possible to set up some sort of face-to-face cross-agency roundtable, perhaps with videoconferencing to international agencies or using a secure online meeting place (e.g. a Ning). This could be used to assist my section to better implement our current training program and also as a way to keep across ‘best practice’ approaches in the field, going forward. I suppose this is essentially the same as creating a Professional Learning Network or Community of Practice.

by RDECOM

As a student, I can see this is very much what we are doing here in the NGL course – creating a Community of Practice or Professional Learning Network using WordPress and Diigo as platforms for this – we are using each others posts to spark new ways of doing things or to overcome hurdles (e.g. Paul’s response to one of my earlier posts). Whether I will be able to use these same online tools in my workplace will be at the mercy of our Department IT security team – as it is important that our work discussions remain confidential, something which can be tricky in the online space. Something for me to pursue further down the track.

References

Clifford, M (2013). 20 Tips for Creating a Professional Learning Network. Retrieved from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/20-tips-for-creating-a-professional-learning-network/#ixzz3BeH9m6f1

CQM toolbox. (1997). Industry Week/IW, 246(13), 30.

University of Southern Queensland. (2013). Communities of Practice. Retrieved from https://www.usq.edu.au/cops

Learning about online Image Credits

David’s recent post about attribution of images has been quite a steep learning curve for me. I am so used to linking images, memes, videos and music via social media platforms such as Facebook and twitter without any formal referencing and also seeing my peers do the same, that the idea of seeking proper licencing to use this media did not occur to me at all. This might also be because it is so easy to access, copy, paste, transfer and link media from across the web both quickly and easily.

After reading more about copyright and licencing on the Creative Commons website it did not take me long to realise how important it really is to give credit to other people for their work, just like I do in my work and uni studies.

In response, I have now gone back through my posts and edited or removed the images, to ensure that all material I have used in my blog is properly credited, to the best of my ability. It has taken quite a few hours to get a hang of it and make the changes, but it is well worth it.

I can certainly see that this will have some implications for my role as a teacher. If I plan on implementing a networked learning activity where my students may need or want to go online to source media to supplement their learning, I will need to make sure that I educate then on copyright licencing in the online space and encourage their use of the Creative Commons website.

by Kalexanderson

On the topic of crediting and referencing, a quick look at Mari’s blog posts has got me thinking that I might need to make my references to the course readings a little more comprehensive. At the moment, I am just linking back to the Diigo or mendely site. Mari however has included the list of references down the bottom of each blog, which means that, even if you are not a member of the NGL course, the full reference for the articles are available to you – a very good idea.

Growing my definition of networked learning

When I enrolled in this course, I thought I knew what networked learning was all about – using online tools to enhance learning. Since completing the readings from week 2-3 (Goodyear, 2014; Dron and Anderson (2007); Anderson and Dron (2012); and the course notes (especially the references to Goodyear and Carvalho, 2014), I have come to realise that my definition of networked learning is rather narrow and outdated.

I have come to better understand that ‘networked learning’ is more than just encouraging our students to read and absorb material online to learn, but it is about interacting online with others and SHARING our learnings, and that there are now more tools available to us than in previous decades, to support this learning process.

by Sean MacEntee

In terms of my role ‘as a learner’ in this course, I had initially thought that the process of learning how to play a new tune (See my learning objectives post here) could be achieved simply through watching you tube videos and reading articles online. It is now becoming clearer and clearer to me, that I should push myself beyond this, and look at what collaborative opportunities there are available where I can connect with others to learn, and where (outside my blog) I might be able to share my learnings with others (Dron & Anderson, 2007; Riel & Polin, 2004).

It is this Connectivist approach, which can enable enhanced learning where I, as a learner, and my students (if I can apply this in my teaching context), can achieve the highest levels of cognitive functioning (in relation to the Bloom’s revised Taxonomy) Anderson and Dron (2012).

NGL and Life Long Learning

I was just reviewing GG’s Blog and came across a post where GG posted a personal teaching philosophy mind map. The philosophy matched very closely with my approach to teaching and also my aims through this course. One aspect of GGs philosophy which I had not really considered in my own context however, was the idea of Life Long learning.

It made me realise that I have been very focused on trying to apply NGL to my workplace purely so that I can meet the immediate objectives of business area, which are: making sure our staff members can adequately perform the new procedures that are being implemented, and that they can then have the skills to coach and guide their fellow staff to and providers to undertake and comply with the new procedures as well. (Sorry fellow students, that I can’t be much more specific about the learning activities, I am very restricted by the confidentiality requirements of my Organisation).

GG’s post reminded me that my learning and development strategy also needs to involve consideration of life long learning, and offering my students knowledge and skills which will be of value and benefit to them both inside and outside the organisation, now and well into the future. Something for me to consider for Assignment 2 where I start to plan a networked learning approach.

Edit: 17 August – Oops, I just revised my first ‘As teacher’ post and realised I did in fact allude to life long learning as one of my teaching objectives here, although I did not consider the idea in depth at all. I am surprised that this was part of my thinking in week one and that I had forgotten this 2 weeks later. As a student of NGL, this has shown me what an excellent idea blogging is for tracking my learning, and also how valuable it is to be able to reflect and edit/build on previous posts. It has also demonstrated to me what a ‘messy’ pathway my learning follows – a concept which has been identified by Bigum and Rowan (2013) “Learning new material, developing new skills or making new discoveries can be complicated, lengthy

and messy.” All the more reason then, to share my learning process, so others can benefit as well.

Big thumbs up from me for the NGL course!

by Sean MacEntee

Professional Learning Networks – an option for introducing NGL in my organisation

Just came across an article by Miriam Clifford, about Professional Learning Networks which I think will be extremely useful for me in my teacher role.

In her post, she references a recent Harvard study where scientists are considering “sharing discoveries is more efficient and honorable than patenting them”, an idea which Miriam sees as at the heart of the theory of connectivism and establishing professional learning networks.

Her article has got me thinking about the benefits of a PLN in my own organisation:

Facilitating learning through meaningful interactions
Improve classroom teaching
Help develop new projects
Act as a form of communal intelligence.

She then presents some strategies for constructing PLN and to use it effectively. One suggestion was to keep track of new technologies through the site Mashable, which I found really interesting. I have added a link to this site to the group Diigo, so that other students in the course can access it.

I see that setting up a professional learning network could actually work in our organisation. I feel like It would get a lot of support from management because it offers a way of keeping up-to-date with best practice and the new changes and ideas in our particular field. I hope to revisit this article again as part of my research for Assignment 2.

A confused student: Understanding through the Threshold Concept

The short article by Kligyte “Threshold concept : A lens for examining networked learning Case study” provides a useful insight into the challenges that technology can pose and which can discourage people to adopt new technologies in the learning environment.

Kligyte presents five potential barriers for individuals trying to break into the online networked space. These are:

Troublesome – the idea that networked learning is too alien, incoherent or counter-initiative and thereby people are reluctant or discouraged to take it up. In my role as a teacher, this is certainly one of the challenges I face. Over the past couple of years I have heard staff (my students) in my organisation commenting that they prefer face to face training with hard copy training manuals, and aren’t overly enthusiastic about suggestions to move online let alone interact with social networking or the like. I’ve heard them say ‘it’s too complicated!”, “why bother changing to a new system[of learning], when we have one that works already”, and “I can’t type very well anyway, I’d be no good with that techno stuff”.

Discursive – this relates to the language barrier posed by networked learning. As a new user of social media and network learning tools, it wouldn’t take long to get lost in the online techno-jargon, especially with blogs . This is certainly something I need to keep in mind if I want to explore using blogs as a way to introduce networked learning into my learning context.

Irreversible – the idea that networked learning cannot be unlearned.This is very true for me as a student- once I have found an easier way to do something online, I find it hard to do it any other way. E.g. since learning how to research and find quality resources or articles online from across the world, I rarely bother with using hard copy textbooks from libraries anymore – too cumbersome!
Integrative – this refers to the connections among different aspects that networked learning reveals. I can certainly relate to this in my role as a teacher. In Week 2 we were asked to make links to a range of different figures on twitter and other sites, who can offer something towards our understanding of networked learning. Through this activity, I connected with a range of individuals like Selena Woodward, who were not necessarily in my field of Organisational learning, but I realised, could still offer perspectives on networked learning in other fields, which would be of value to me as a teacher, and also offer ideas which can be applied to this context. This activity revealed new connections for me!
Liminality – this revers to the nature of interactions with networked learning being a messy activity. This has been the biggest challenge for me as a student of the NGL course, and which I suspect is one of the issues among staff in my organisation (my students) which has prevented the effective use of networked learning. From my own experience, it is important to have enough time to practice interacting in the online space to use it comfortably, however we always seem to be under time constraints (especially in the organisation that I work in) which prevent us from being able to master the skills of networked learning as readily as we desire. As a result, I am trying not to cut corners in the early weeks of the NGL course and am making sure to give as much time to activities as I can, to enable me to find my own ‘unique pathway to transformative understanding of networked learning” (Kligyte, pg 541).

Other NGL course participants

I’ve enjoyed viewing the blogs of other members of the Networked and Global learning course and learning about the diverse education backgrounds and selected learning tasks of participants.

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I would like to provide links to two of these blogs in particular. The first of which is Insights.

The author of this blog is, like me, working in a non-traditional teaching role at USQ. I look forward to learning more about this author’s insights on NGL and how it can be adapted to this environment. I hope we can also share some resources on NGL as we move through the course.

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The second blog I would like to link to is: Future Learning Musings

I am enjoying the interesting writing style of this blogger and pop culture references 🙂 Very entertaining. This blogger is working as a teacher in a learning environment very different to mine, as a Primary School Teacher. I am interested in broadening my understanding of the application of NGL in the school environment. Look forward to keeping an eye on this blog over the next few months.

Personal Knowledge Management – How do I do it?

I have tried to map out my PKM routine in the table below. In general, the tools listed are those which I have already used in my studies, with the addition of tools such as Diigo, Mendeley and Feedly which I have only just started using thanks to this course. The ‘Share’ component of the table is an area which I have little experience with. The tools listed here are more so the ones which I would ‘like’ to use, rather than what I am currently using. I feel that I do not yet have all the knowledge and skills to use some of the listed tools such as diigo, mendeley, twitter, for the purposes of sharing my learning with others. But I am confident that as undertake further research, view how other members of this course are using these applications, and start having a go myself, I will be able to comfortably and effectively use NGL tools.

I also hope to add more actions, strategies and tools as I broaden my understanding of NGL over the coming months.