Communities of Practice: This Summer's Class!

Already a week in to Communities of Practice, a course I was thinking of taking, decided I wasn't going to take, and in which I'm now enrolled.

It is working out for the better, though, because creating a CoP for faculty development purposes is something about which I've wanted to learn ever since I learned about CoPs a few years ago. Presenters from Penn State spoke at EDUCAUSE about the CoP they had created for faculty, to provide support for educational technology use and integration, and it was fascinatingly informative. The presenters strongly suggested we read Etienne Wenger's Digital Habitats, which is our textbook for this course.

So, I'm pretty hopeful and positive about what we're learning in this course. I have only five classmates though, but sometimes that is actually better, because it's easier to converse online with fewer people. You read everyone's postings and have more time to provide an in-depth and thoughtful response.

I'll let you know how it's going!

Last Week of Class )-:

This class has been the most active one I've been in, discussion-wise, in the seven courses I've taken so far. It was a diverse class of folks with so many things to say!

One thing that was great for me was to have so many folks who look at OLEs from the technological point of view. These classmates had interesting contributions, although I didn't always understand what they were talking about, or necessarily agree, because of my limited perspective and experience.

Other classmates had great insights that were similar to my own (that's not the only reason the insights were great, but it helped. Lol). I was somewhere to the extreme on the non-techie side in that I think I really wanted to concentrate on being gentle and communal, and didn't feel a need to be overly intellectual. I can read my own stuff on my own time and geek out in private. Learning from everyone else was where it was at in this course. There is more that I didn't say than that I did say to folks, about which I'm a little regretful. There are a few days left.

What I wanted to try to do this time was to help other students feel ok and not be overwhelmed, so they would contribute more to the discussion boards because maybe in part they thought one of their classmates cared, which was true! I do care about my classmates. We're all in this together.

For me, that was the biggest takeaway.

A very rewarding comment from one of my techier classmates referred to their point of view as being technological, and that they learned about all the other perspectives and complexities of  teaching and learning in an OLE. I have to thank that person for being who they are, and helping expand my horizons with their specific perspectives. It was that kind of class. I hope everyone is OK and had a positive experience.

Oh, and I read a whole lotta stuff about embedded librarianship too. It was so back to the future-esque: basically, if you are not collaborating well with faculty and with your IT folks, if you are not teaching in the OLE yourself or if you do not have your own course in the OLE, you are not going to get too far.

Collaboration. What's old is new again.

My circa 1981 Frye boots  need some polish....

Embedded Librarianship

It will be embedded librarianship.

That's final. I've committed. Yet still.......
Oh, never mind. There are discussion boards for that.

How can embedded librarianship be made sustainable? I have a great example from Nova, the distance education librarian, the team of librarians reaching out to us in our Bb course sites. Am I jealous? Yes, of course I am. Would I like to do the same thing? I'm going to try.

 

Still no idea what to research

Maybe I want to research everything. Is that bad? I guess so.

Ok, I'm going to settle on "online pedagogy" and see how much of the other topics I want to research I can stuff under that umbrella. Subtopics, I think they're called, right?

Thinking in circles, I've simply come back to the same conclusion: what goes in to being an effective online instructor? Through what lens or which lenses should I view this question? How can I avoid researching MOOCS, because although indulgently interesting, they are not as close to my practical reality as they are for other people?

I'll leave the MOOCS for the future research or discussion part.

Social constructivism's progression to MOOCish connectivism. What a strange word. It seems to need a lot of technology to work, putting the technology front and center again, as a cure-all for learning. I just read an article that used the word "ironic" in reference to connectivism, because the OLE members in the MOOC were more disconnected than connected.

Back from hiatus

OLE!

Back into the ring, for the final push to June 2014.

Online Learning Environments this term, complete with a new version of Bb, a new research proposal to devise by Feb 1, and lotsa new readings.

I have no idea what to research.

Or, better stated, I have a lot of ideas for what to research, but I don't think any of them are going to work.

What do I want to know? Let's see:

• How can an instructor using an OLE allow undergradute students who hate to write express their learning and growth without having to write on a blasted discussion board all the time?
• How do learning preferences affect the ability of people to learn effectively in an OLE, assuming the OLE is a good OLE? (found a couple of things on this topic)
• What faculty development issues are the most important in relation to effective teaching in an OLE?
• Can an OLE be used effectively for faculty support and development? I know that Penn State made a community of practice.

What about my own asynchronous communication behavior?

• If I don't like to write early in the week on the discussion board, but prefer to first read what the early posters write and then respond to it on say, a Wednesday or Thursday, it that selfish of me?
• Am I  therefore a bad classmate because I'm not a blurter and am incapable of thinking quickly, and prefer to learn from everyone else's posts without contributing right away? (Assimilator)
• What if I do my best to compensate for my selfishness by sharing resources I've found through the reading and researching I've been doing, while not posting to the discussion board?

codec, codec, who has the codec...

Yes, that was a learning experience. I think it went ok, and I like the end result, but need more time to practice making stuff that works.

I'll try to load it all on a server somewhere so you can see it. Right now, it's on a CD.

Wow, this summer term is hurtling to an end...

Just finished the research paper (30 points), and have one more discussion board posting (6 points) and the final multimedia project (35 points) to finish!

Yes, 70% of the graded work is falling in the last half of the class, but hopefully the different parts of the project will give me a chance to do ok. It will probably be the best-documented project ever, even if it doesn't run. If only I could get Netscape 7 to download properly, I could edit my webpage so I will have somewhere to launch the project from...

Locked and Loaded

OK, so I bit the bullet and bought my own copies of Camtasia and SnagIt. In terms of business models, I missed the freemium boat on JingPro and its $15 price tag. I was all ready to pony up, and bang: no more JingPro.

I guess the TechSmith folks just have my best interest in mind, and want me to produce better screencasts, using their sophisticated tools. Right.

Anyway, yes, I am freaked out by all the stuff I don't know regarding my latest class, Introduction to Multimedia Systems. My instructor is really nice, and said of the two main concerns he has for the final project, one is that it must be playable on his computer. After so many years of seeing how things folks create don't play on computers other than their own, I'm investigating the lowest tech solutions I can get away with for the project.

Yes Flash, your coolness will not be mastered by me this summer. Or ever, maybe. You may or may not be right for me after all. Sorry. I've been wanting you for so long. And that bouncing ball thing we made together was so nice....

Learned a lot about learning!

Learning Theories is done, and it was a good class. I am now motivated to learn more about motivation, that's for sure! What an interesting and complex topic. Many of the things I learned helped me to better understand workplace learning and motivation, since being a student is not my current full-time job. I think that if more students were given the opportunity to explore their learning styles, they'd be better able to metacognate some self-help measures.

My daughter was fortunate enough to attend a middle and high school that had the luxury of being able to take the time to help students reflect on their learning. It is sad that teachers in K-12 are not all in a situation or position to be able to help students in this way, and work together with students on a more individualized basis. By the time the students get to college, content experts take over, and learning how to learn seems to take a back seat. I see many instances where pedagogy is just not cutting it.

I wonder if technology can help more students in this way, by first helping them explore their personality and learning style strengths and weaknesses.

Almost done....

Writing the final paper today, reviewing the other 8 papers written this term. This class prompted me to read the Susan Cain book Quiet, and it has been a terrific book so far (IMHO). I've also learned that if I don't get a smartphone soon, I'll be even more of a techno-idiot. I look forward to seeing what Bb mobile looks like!

An Assimilating INFJ

This term has been quite interesting, as I become renewed in my awareness regarding learning preferences, personality type, and more.

As in the past, my Myers-Briggs resulted in the INFJ personality type. Coincidentally, I recently downloaded Susan Cain's "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking." http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/  Needless to say, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. (-:

More dryly and seriously, though, this term's journey of the mind has been helpful both personally and professionally. Being reminded of differences in the classroom, and the challenges of designing effective instructional activities to provide everyone--regardless of personality or learning preference--an opportunity to shine has given me a renewed sense of purpose that is likely to last forever.

On a related topic, my Kolb Learning Style Inventory results did change, since the last time I did the Kolb LSI in 2001. My classmates and I had an intriguing discussion about experiential learning, and how the past decade of work has changed me. Some of my classmates' scores have also changed over the years. We discussed that, too.

At the moment, I've moved so solidly into the quadrant of an Assimilating learning style preference that I'm concerned! I need an opportunity to move through the cycle to the Active Experimentation and Concrete Experience phases. Abstract thinking and reflection are great, but I have to do something too!

Halfway there: 5 1/2 classes to go....

Wow, I forgot to publish that last post in December! It was a tough class. I'm still recovering! But  I did learn a lot. My research papers for CMC focused first on asynchronous communication in an educational environment, and then on synchronous communication.  Now that I'm in the Learning Theories class, I've been able to apply some of things I learned in CMC, which has been great.

The topic of interest that has sprung out of the CMC class is the progression from e-learning to m-learning. I have to get a smartphone ASAP so that I can be mobile and learn how to do cool stuff.

Something interesting I read included a re-vistation regarding task-technology fit.  Amid all the e and m-learning hoopla, the article was a nice reminder to stick with the essential questions regarding whether or not a tool actually enhances the situation, and allows for more efficiency, economy, and effectiveness regarding task completion.

Fuller, R. M. & Dennis, A. R. (2009). Does fit matter? The impact of task-technology fit and appropriation on team performances in repeated tasks. Information Systems Research, 20(10), 2-17. doi: 10.1287/isre.1070.0167

CMC

The last class was CMC: Computer Mediated Communication.  Mostly, I read a lot of items that I think better pertain to the class I'd originally wanted to take this term: OLE - Online Learning Environments. In trying to learn how to be a decent online instructor, using both asynchronous and synchronous CMC, I made the class worthwhile anyway.

A couple of interesting topics we covered related to the online persona and its development. I wish we had spent more time devoted to this topic, and that it had come earlier in the course.

Now that THAT's over...

Sorry for the delay, been finishing up a class. So, what did I learn?

I read a great deal about Library 2.0, and what that means. I read that there is insufficient evidence to date regarding the efficacy of Web 2.0 to further information literacy learning outcomes.

My conclusion: back to basics, mainly, librarian-faculty collaboration. In a vacuum, without a credit-bearing stand-alone course and/or faculty status, without a context within which to place it, Web 2.0 technologies might not further information literacy beyond marketing, location and access.

Each purpose has its place. Marketing is extremely important, to get an IL program off the ground as well as to sustain it. But real learning? Real, measurable improvement? Librarians are hard-pressed to achieve that on their own. Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 need faculty and staff support, and administrative buy-in as well, to provide infrastructure support--both technological and personnel-wise--for exploration and development of these tools, to fully realize their potential to improve student learning.

It's fun to use snazzy tools, and say "look what I made!" It is crushing to hear "so what?" I ask myself that all the time, "so what?" as a reality check before spending time on making something, provided I've also invested in sufficciently marketing my creation.

Using the tools to help market the tools...need to look into that!

Crawford, W. (2006). Library 2.0 and library 2.0, Cites and Insights, 6(2), 1-32.

Crawford, W. (2011). Five years later: Library 2.0 and balance, Cites and Insights, 11(2), 1-26.

Crawford, W. (2011). Five years later: Library 2.0 and balance (cont.), Cites and Insights, 11(3), 1-22.

Nesta, F. & Mi, J. (2011). Library 2.0 or library III: Returning to leadership, Library Management, 32 (1/2), 85-97.

Mystery and Rediscovery

So, after three weeks of mystification, I finally found out from a wonderful person on the WWW that IE9 installs itself as an update to IE8, hence, you can't uninstall it from the Programs menu, but from the Updates folder. After all these days trying to figure out why IE8 was "not compatible with my system," and wanting to strangle Bill Gates, and discovering all the things Google Chrome does and does not like to do, a savior. Thank you so much, person I have to look up again, even though I didn't need to use the screenshots of Windows 7 you also so kindly provide to the world, with your information.

The best experiences I've had on the web have been ones like this, especially the one that showed me how to remove a worm that was going around the world. What a feeling of empowerment, to be able to do it yourself, with a little help from people who aren't even your friends.

I need to thank that person personally. And all this talk (and reading) of "social constructivism," isn't that what just happened today, to me? And don't it feel good? I'm walkin' on sunshine. IE anynumber is a necessary evil for me (32 and 64 bit), as I check website work in three different browsers, just to see what happens. So yes, people, I do know of Firefox, Chrome, Safari et. al. What are all the kids using today? Most likely IE, though.

Rediscovery: I found my Wikispaces account from 2009, when I was trying to learn how to make a wiki. Soon: dryseriouswiki might be ready for you to join!

Google docs and Skype

Things to do ASAP, courtesy of one of my current classmates and his tale:

• learn how to use Google Docs more proficiently
• learn how to use Skype more proficiently
• put them all together and voila! instant online collaboration

Is this a dry, serious blog?

Why, yes, it will be, if you help me to make it so.

After years of being excluded from the "what's your second masters in?" club--a favorite of academic librarians everywhere--I finally embarked on the journey to club membership. So, almost 9 credits into the 36 needed for the degree called "Masters in Instructional Technology in Education with a Concentration in Instructional Design" (minus the 6 credits that transferred from the first masters), my mind is starting to get full. To empty some of it, I need to wonder out loud here, with you.

Getting a second masters has prompted me to read some things--a lot of things, actually. Some of the things I read were about blogs, along with many other technologies with which I've not had direct experience. I now have to get a smartphone, participate on the wikis to which I belong, learn a bunch of web authoring and multimedia tools, create an e-portfolio and figure out how to use e-portfolios for authentic Information Literacy assessment, step up the librarian - faculty collaboration....well...the blog seemed like a good first step.