Building Collaborative Online Environments uses a number of techniques to build a learning community. After the field test last summer, instructor Lee Anne Morris had great ideas for really pushing the community-building to the next level.
Wikis
One piece of student feedback we received during the field test was that people wanted to see everyone else’s lesson plans that were created during the course. BCE talks about using wikis as professional collaborative spaces, and sharing lesson plans allows students to practice that kind of collaboration. You can see examples of both individual and group lesson plans on the wiki from the September BCE session. When individual lesson plans are posted, the wiki becomes more of a gallery to showcase individual work. Peer feedback can be provided through discussion within the wiki.
However, group work is where the real collaborative power of wikis is seen. Everyone in the group can edit a page. There’s no need to send documents as attachments to email or post them to a discussion board, and no worries about whether you have the most current version. The most up-to-date version is always available on the wiki. The revision history is also automatically stored so students and instructors can see the progress of each document. Look for the History tab to see how a project evolved. Students can also share messages and talk to each other through the discussion feature. At the top of each page, click the Discussion tab to see how the students collaborated.
Blogical Discussions
One of Lee Anne’s ideas for the course was to give students the opportunity to lead discussions. Each week, selected students picked a topic and posted a discussion starter on their blogs. The students themselves were primarily responsible for guiding the discussions. Giving students the opportunity to take ownership of discussions and to choose topics of personal interest helped them build a learning community. We called these “blogical discussions,” and they really seem to have helped students make connections both with the content and each other.
Read a few for yourself, and don’t forget to read the comments below the posts:
- Does technology promote individual freedom?
- Teachers as Leaders
- Assistive Technology
- Breaking down cultural barriers
- Special Education or Segregation?
Learning Community
The changes to BCE as a result of the field test feedback were primarily focused on increasing the learning community, and I think we’ve been very successful at that. Kudos to Lee Anne for her great ideas!
What have you tried in your classroom to build learning community? Was it successful?
Christy, thanks for spotlighting the participants in this class. They really were an extraordinary bunch. And, thanks for asking the question, “What have you tried in your classrom?” I’m always curious how Web 2.0 tools are being used to expand the learning environment and create learning networks for students and teachers.