Learning+Communities

=**//Learning Communities// Key Component #5:** The Master of Education candidate is an effective leader within the various learning communities.=

=Component Reflection=

In recent months, the importance of learning communities in education has become more prominent. Indeed, leading educational advocates have repeatedly emphasized the significance of these networks to aid in the creation of a more effective educational environment.

Yet, despite this attention, the notion of a learning community remains somewhat amorphous; to some, learning communities represent a way for teachers to maintain their connection to a community of educators and thereby improve their craft of teaching. To others, learning communities are a technique for teachers to publicize their contributions in the field of education. It is my belief that learning communities provide both these benefits, yet the advantages extend far beyond these two examples.

First and foremost, learning communities represent a way for teachers to utilize recent technological advances (including RSS feeds, social bookmarking sites, and blogs, among others) to build, maintain, and strengthen ties to the larger field of education. In developing relationships between educators of all levels, information, techniques, and strategies are disseminated, which dramatically benefits the quality of education. Moreover, through the process of collaboration, teachers greatly improve their personal skill in the craft of teaching.

I believe learning communities also provide profound opportunities for educators to inspire and be inspired to hone their craft of teaching. It is far too easy for the isolation of traditional classrooms to engender a malaise and entropy, sentiments that run counter to improvements in educational technique. Further, rapid advances in technology demand that teachers become lifelong learners, dedicated to their art of teaching. Ideally, through collaboration and emotional investment, educators of all levels will work together for the betterment of education in general.

Yet it seems to me there is another significant benefit to learning communities: through collaboration, educators are able to present a “united front” when it comes to educational policy. Educators of all levels frequently maintain independent classrooms that are virtually hermetically sealed off from other colleagues; this isolation breaks down the consistency of education. Moreover, in the absence of a consistent educational vision, outside political forces surreptitiously attack the foundation of public education (one need only look at the last ten years of educational policy: the arbitrary withdrawal of funding sources, the dictation where monies would be spent, and the requirement that all schools implement a series of bogus and invalid assessments). It would be my hope that in the process of collaboration teachers will rediscover one of our most significant and vital roles: vigorous advocates and defenders of teaching.

I have had a number of experiences with learning communities in my career. One such experience was with Johns Hopkins. In 2002, I was part of the Johns Hopkins Maryland Technology Academy (MTA). The MTA was a three-week long technology immersion program designed for technologically savvy educators to develop their skills in using computer technology. Teachers were introduced to the notion of “backward design,” an educational philosophy that emphasizes the explicit identification of a fundamental purpose when developing instruction; teachers then employed this philosophy to identify an educational goal and then to create technologically enhanced instruction. Despite the significance of these aspects of the MTA, the element that had the greatest impact on my own teaching was the MTA’s emphasis on each participant developing a learning community. Collaboration was fundamental in the MTA’s structure, and much of the experience hinged on the interrelationship between participants, previous participants, and instructors. Upon completion of the MTA, participants created online portfolios, which were accessible by all MTA graduates.

In addition to my experience with the MTA, I also had the opportunity to work in an organization that recognized the importance of learning communities: the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Department in Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) in Maryland. In 2002 I was promoted to Technology Integration Specialist by the ESOL Department in PGCPS. The purpose of my position was to foster the effective use of educational technology by the ESOL staff. I had the pleasure of collaborating with several exceptional teachers, and it was our goal to create a technology driven learning community. Although we did not have access to many of the Web 2.0 tools that define contemporary learning communities, we did utilize many technologies to promote the integration of technology. Specifically, we employed Blackboard discussion boards and file sharing systems and email, along with face-to-face workshops and training sessions, all of which created a powerful learning community.

Technology has certainly advanced since I was working for the ESOL Department or when I was attending the MTA in 2002! Recent Web 2.0 tools are amazingly powerful assets in creating learning communities. While I would not claim that my efforts in creating a learning community for York City schools are complete, I do have a specific example of technologies that I am currently employing to foster such a learning community. This summer, several colleagues and I conducted a technology academy for York City teachers. One tool we used was Google docs. The site redefines real-time electronic collaboration and it provided the backbone of our planning and collaboration sessions. We also used its survey features to create feedback forms that every participant could access. Another powerful tool for us was Wikispaces, a free wiki creator and hosting site. Every tool and site we explored in the summer technology academy had pages dedicated to it on our wiki. iGoogle also helped us consolidate all our collaborations into a single location (Google docs, RSS feeds, Google Chat, Gmail, etc. all were on my iGoogle page, expediting the collaboration process).

Many Web 2.0 recourses could be extremely beneficial for creating learning communities. I could easily imagine using Moodle (as an alternative to the very expensive Blackboard) to host training sessions and tutorials, as well as discussion board chats. Webspiration is a superb online visual thinking tool. MySpace or Facebook are both great tools that encourage collaborative learning. Diigo and Delicious are also powerful tools that promote collaboration; having one setup to support a technology program would be a great boon for harried teachers as it eliminates the need to build and maintain lists of educational websites. Blogger is a great blog tool that would encourage self-evaluation and reflection, much like our own class blogs promote self-critique.

Interestingly, I have always considered the creation and maintenance of a learning community one aspect of my current position as Technology Integration Specialist for York City Public Schools. I have known from the first day I started in the position that an active learning community was essential to my role. Yet, ironically, I have been slow at building such a community. Perhaps I was intimidated by the process. Or maybe the effort seemed overwhelming. In any case, my work at Clarion University has greatly emphasized my belief in the importance of creating and maintaining a learning community; indeed, the course has thrown the reality into stark relief: either we create active learning communities or technology initiatives fail.

As such, I am going to redouble my efforts of reaching out to teachers within my district. We must not only attend conferences, we must present at those conferences. By creating technology teams and collaborative groups, a true learning community can develop. In addition, I now recognize just how vital it is that we create our own voice to share with the larger educational community. It is not enough to merely hear the words of our colleagues; we must also speak back, using the tools of mass publication: wikis, blogs, glogs, among other technologies.

Some of the technologies I believe are powerful in creating viable learning communities include (in no particular order):

[|www.mywebspiration.com] [|www.moodle.com] [|www.glogster.com] www.wikispaces.com [|www.google.com] [|www.blogger.com] [|www.wikipedia.org] [] (a fun video detailing the importance of PLNs) [|www.animoto.com] [|www.youtube.com] [|www.voicethread.comwww.diigo.com]

Interestingly, though, this list is not only far from exhaustive, I would argue that just about any website could help foster learning communities—when used properly. Even the most apparently frivolous site could be employed to promote collaboration.

A few months ago I created a short PowerPoint presentation about how learning communities could evolve in the years ahead. This presentation is below:

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