Online and Social Networking Communities

A Best Practice Guide for Educators

Karen Kear

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781136907821
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

Online and Social Networking Communities is a professional guide written for educational practitioners and trainers who wish to use online communication tools effectively in their teaching. Focusing on the student experience of learning in online communities, it addresses 'web 2.0' and other 'social software' tools and considers the role these technologies play in supporting student learning and building learning communities.

The guide offers:

• real-world case studies and quality research
• must-have lists of useful resources
• guidance on building and supporting online learning communities
• discussion of how collaborative learning can be assessed
• coverage of wikis, forums, blogging, instant messaging, Second Life, Twitter, desktop videoconferencing and social networking sites such as Facebook.

Online and Social Networking Communities helps educators and trainers develop a critical approach by exploring online learning from both the student's and educator's perspective. This practical guide provides the tools to help develop confident and thoughtful online educators, able to create successful and enjoyable learning experiences for their students.

1
Introduction

This chapter explains the purpose of the book and provides a brief introduction to online collaborative learning. It considers the concept of community, and how this can apply in an online setting. A brief commentary is given on the communication tools that can be used to support online learning communities. The chapter then explains how the book is organized, and how the subsequent chapters will use: case studies from around the world; summaries of key points for practitioners; suggestions for further reading.

This book is aimed at educators who want to use online communication to support learning and build community among learners. This includes lecturers at universities and colleges, school teachers, and staff developers in business and public organizations. The book discusses the benefits of learning in online communities, the communication tools that can be used, and the issues that arise. Particular attention is paid to ‘web 2.0’ or ‘social software’ tools, and the role these technologies can play in supporting learning and building community.

The primary focus of the book is the practice of online learning and teaching, but this is grounded in a discussion of research in this area. The aim is to enable readers to develop an informed and critical approach to online collaborative learning, and to the communication tools that can support this. The book builds on many years of experience and practice at my own institution, the UK Open University, which has been a leader in online learning and online communication for many years.

Learning in Social Networks

The educational experiences of learners are being changed by new approaches to education. In these new approaches, learners are active – they learn by working with each other and communicating with each other. Studying is no longer an individual activity, with hours spent alone, reading books or lecture notes. Instead, there is an increased focus on collaborative learning, with students working in teams, sharing ideas and resources, and creating things together.

In parallel with these developments in learning, there has been a rapid adoption of the web in education. Until relatively recently, use of the web in education was largely based on the delivery of course content, but the focus has now changed to communication. This is in line with wider changes in how the web is used in society. The web is no longer just a transmission medium, presenting content to passive recipients. Instead, the web enables users to interact with what they find, and to communicate with each other, directly or indirectly. Through social network sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, users can maintain social networks beyond their immediate location. These new developments in web use have been characterized by the much-debated term ‘web 2.0’ (O’Reilly, 2005).

Although face-to-face education has adopted online communication only relatively recently, the educational use of this kind of technology is not new in itself. There is a long history of its use in distance education. What made this technology attractive to distance educators also applies to face-to-face education. Online communication technology can provide flexible settings, where learners can keep in regular contact with each other and with their teachers, and can also make use of the wide range of resources available via the web. Through online communication, learners can gain support from their peers, and feel part of a learning group, or a course cohort, or their institution as a whole. The increased sense of belonging that can arise from regular online interaction perhaps explains why the term ‘online community’ is often used in this context. The development of a sense of community is an important aim for educators, and for many students it is a key factor in promoting motivation, confidence and enjoyment of their learning.

By using online networking tools such as discussion forums, social network sites, wikis, blogs and instant messaging, learners can carry out activities together. They can be members of online learning communities, able to support each other wherever they are. However, simply giving learners communication tools will not automatically create a learning community. It requires a teacher with skill, knowledge and imagination. The remainder of this book is an exploration of how online communication can be used to foster collaborative learning and a sense of community. In this chapter, I give a brief overview of some of the concepts that will be examined in greater depth later in the book.

Collaborative Learning Online

Collaborative learning involves interaction and dialogue. This interaction is not simply the one-way transmission of information from teacher to student. It is the exploration of ideas with other people, asking and answering questions, and solving problems with others. When students meet with their teachers and peers, there are many opportunities for learning through communication and interaction. However, face-to-face interaction is not always feasible for students, so an alternative is to ‘meet’ online. This kind of meeting can be done synchronously, where all participants are online at the same time (for example, via instant messaging or videoconferencing), or asynchronously, where contributions can be made at one time and then viewed by others later (for example via forums and wikis). This distinction between synchronous (real-time) and asynchronous communication is a basic organising principle of the material in this book.

Online communication tools, whether real-time or asynchronous, address constraints created by spatial separation: learners who are in different locations can nevertheless communicate online. In addition, asynchronous communication tools address separation in time: learners can communicate even if they are not available at the same time. Using real-time and asynchronous tools, learners can jointly carry out activities, share ideas, and support each other. Teachers can be in more regular and convenient contact with their students, and can keep track of their needs and progress.

The use of online communication in education is not without difficulties. Learners can feel overwhelmed and confused when taking part in very active online communities, where there may be large numbers of contributions. A further problem, particularly with asynchronous communication, is that it can seem impersonal, particularly if there are long delays between contributions. These issues, and others, can result in low participation, and therefore less effective learning. Later chapters of this book will explore these issues in more detail, and consider how to address them.

Concepts of Community

I have already mentioned ‘community’ and the scope for using online technology to develop a sense of community. However, although we are all familiar with the idea of a community, it is a difficult concept to pin down. A community is often associated with a geographical locality, perhaps a town or village, where people interact with neighbours, and may be involved with local schools, societies or religious groups. But in the modern world some people interact with others online more than they do locally face-to-face. So the concept of community has been broadened to encompass the online world. However, the issue of whether community can develop online has been much debated (Rheingold, 1993; Jones, 1995; Haythornthwaite, 2007). Some argue that people cannot truly get to know each other without meeting face-to-face. Others argue that the face-to-face element is not essential. For example, Wellman (2001, p. 228) has described community as:

networks of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging, and social identity

This definition emphasises the connections, or ‘ties’ between members of a community, but does not preclude the possibility that these ties might be created and maintained through communication technology.

Other common features in definitions of community are:

• a shared purpose or purposes;

• shared values or beliefs;

• shared practices or ways of interacting.

None of these features implies that being a member of a community is always a comfortable experience, but they do imply that community members are connected to each other, and interact on some kind of common, shared basis. There is therefore the potential for mutual support, shared working and shared learning.

These ideas have led educators to consider how the concept of community could apply in a learning context (Palloff & Pratt, 2007). In this context, what would be shared? On what would the sense of community be based? Lave and Wenger (1991) have developed the idea of a ‘community of practice’, where a group of people share and develop a set of practices, and hence learn together. Garrison and Anderson (2003) described an online ‘community of inquiry’ where learners and teachers work together online to develop shared understanding and learning. Thus ‘community’ is an important concept for learning, whether online or not. It lends a social dimension to learning.

Tools for Online Communities

Online learning communities can be supported by many different communication tools. For example, a simple email list allows a group of students to contact each other easily, and discussion forums provide more structured environments for group communication. For real-time communication there are chat rooms, instant messaging and videoconferencing. To help a group of learners work together on a shared document, and keep track of progress, a wiki can be used. To support reflective learning, students can keep a blog, and others can comment on the blog entries. All these tools, together with ways of using them for learning, will be discussed at greater length later in the book.

Over the years, a number of educational institutions have created their own online learning environments, to support group discussion and collaborative work. Examples include: the Virtual-U for adult learners (Harasim, 1999); and CSILE (computer-supported intentional learning environments), aimed at younger students (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1996a). There are also numerous commercial and open source products, known variously as virtual learning environments, course management systems, or learning management systems. These include Blackboard (www.blackboard.com) and Moodle (moodle.org). Virtual learning environments are widely used by educational institutions, and typically include:

• facilities for delivering course materials online;

• tools for managing assessment;

• discussion forums;

• other communication tools, such as chat rooms, wikis and blogs.

Wikis and blogs are examples of the range of relatively recent communication technologies described variously as ‘web 2.0’, ‘social software’, ‘social media’ or ‘social interaction technologies’. Other examples include microblogging tools such as Twitter (twitter.com), real-time communication facilities such as Skype (www.skype.com), and social network sites such as Facebook (www.facebook.com).

In view of the range of communication tools available, either within virtual learning environments or on the web, educators need to consider carefully which tools to use for supporting online learning communities. How should educators choose or create suitab...

Table of contents

• Open and Flexible Learning Series
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Case Studies
• Series Editor’s Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Theories of Learning in Online Communities
• 3 Tools for Online Learning Communities
• 4 Benefits and Problems of Online Learning Communities
• 5 Too Much Information
• 6 Feeling Connected
• 7 In Real Time
• 8 Assessment for Learning in Online Communities
• 9 Supporting Online Learning Communities
• References
• Index