Reflective Summary 1

The growth and evolution of the Internet has changed the boundaries of communities. What once was defined by physical boundaries or cultures, are now obscure and knows no physical boundaries, the boundaries instead are now contents and interests (Renninger & Shumar, 2006). With increased access to the Internet, virtual communities allow for a new medium for teaching and learning. These communities are referred to as virtual learning communities or VLC.
My concept of an ideal VLC would be a virtual learning community designed to provide training and support to new nursing instructors employed with Oklahoma CareerTech, “OKCTNNE.” Nursing educators for Oklahoma CareerTech are required to be Registered Nurses (RN), preferably at a Bachelors level or higher. But, because of the need for educators, there are times when an RN is hired with an Associate’s Degree and begins to work toward a Bachelor’s Degree. Now, with that said, an RN is familiar with nursing information and clinical information, but the skills and knowledge needed for teaching are lacking. Skills and knowledge such as classroom management, learning theories, curriculum development, and item writing are not covered in nursing school. These new educators need support and additional education; what better than a hybrid VLC?
A hybrid VLC would combine a face-to-face component with online community activities and information. Each year the community will expand to include new nursing instructors hired in July. The first face-to-face meeting would be in July at New Teacher Orientation. The group will attend a two-day conference that will offer several learning opportunities including an introduction to the VLC and instruction for navigation within the community. In addition, attendees will receive information concerning community expectations. New hires after July will be offered the opportunity to view the streaming video of the conferences and some additional instruction from staff then join in the group activities.
According to Reil and Polin (2004) practice-based learning communities can be built around a field of endeavor, with the members having a shared goal and recognize the responsibility to learn for and from the community. By recognizing these traits, the OKCTNNE community would be considered a practice-based learning community. The members will have the shared goal of learning or gaining skills needed to be successful in teaching nursing. The leadership of the community will share the goal of the members by providing learning activities, guiding discussions, and being available for support.
Members of OKCTNNE will be paid staff development educators with Oklahoma CareerTech, the newly hired nursing instructors, and members who have had membership greater than one year who wish to serve as volunteer/mentors. Membership requirements will encourage the attendance of the July face-to-face conference and the bi-monthly meetings and participate in the learning activities and discussion boards on OKCTNNE. The bi-monthly meetings will provide hands-on activities and learning opportunities in addition to the learning activities online. The discussion boards will be utilized for asynchronous learning activities and also will provide an area for a reflective journal of the first year of teaching. Members who are unable to attend the face-to-face conferences will have the opportunity to view the speakers on streaming video and have handouts electronically available, although attendance is encouraged.
Referring back to the example of the Tapped In community, the tools available to encourage a learning environment included a white board, sharable text documents, wiki’s, and human presence (Renninger and Shumar, 2002). Office hours will be scheduled to allow access to the paid staff development educators for assistance with activities or questions in general.
According to Renninger and Shumar (2006), learning communities are diverse and can be compared to organisms in that they evolve and change. This change will take place as new members join, previous members leave, and technology evolves. The developers and administrators of the VLC must accept this as inevitable. An evaluation tool will be used at the end of the year for all members to complete in order to assure that the needs of the members are being met, and to make necessary changes to prevent extinction of the community.
Prior to the readings, I had not thought of the websites that I visited as virtual learning communities. They were just sites that I could go to, to research a topic or learn a craft. I had not thought of the planning, developing and interactions of members keeping the community alive and thriving. We discussed being a member of a community and merely “lurking” and the importance of the lurker as well as the participant who contributes to the discussions. With this understanding, I continue to “lurk” but I find I contribute a little more than I previously did. I think I did not realize that there might be someone out there that may learn something from my post, just as I do from theirs. I find myself looking at the sites a little differently now, trying to determine the purpose and needs of the community.

References:
Renniger, K. & Shumar, W., (2002). Building Virtual Communities: Learning and change incyberspace. Cambridge University Press.
Riel, M. & Polin, L. (2004). Learning communities: Common ground and critical differences in designing technical environments. In S. Barab, R. Kling & J. Gray (Eds.),Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning. Cambridge, MA:Cambridge University Press.

Case Study

You Tube Case Study:

I decided to visit the You Tube virtual community because I was a little more familiar with accessing the videos available there and was interested in looking for some educational videos to use as resource material for my nursing students. Before I decided on You Tube, though, I was torn between observing You Tube or Second Life. I did go to the Second Life web page, but was overwhelmed and a little insecure about joining because I was unsure of my technological skills. You Tube was less intimidating to me. I joined You Tube and began the experience by viewing the You Tube handbook and then clicking on the pressroom then on a link named [just the facts]. This page gave me information about the community and as the link was named, I received just the facts.
After reading the facts, I went to the home page and clicked on the videos tab and from there; I observed what videos were the most viewed for the week. Then I did a search for education, this brought various types of videos so I narrowed my search to Nursing Education and was truly amazed at the various types of information available. I will use this community as a resource for my students, as there are some very good videos available. But, as with all information available in this medium, the videos will need to be previewed very well before recommending them to a student.
It was ironic though, that there are several videos on preparing an online educational opportunity using Second Life. I took the time to view a couple of the videos, just to see how that VLC could be used in teaching. I found an interactive hospital ward and also several different types of nursing theory classes. I think that much of what I saw of Second Life could provide more interaction learning experiences for the student as opposed to viewing a video and commenting.
The purpose of this community, You Tube, is multifaceted in that it could be used for communication, education, entertainment, or just about anything. The members of the community guide the environment. Membership in this website offers the opportunity to publish videos for anyone who wishes to view it, or the videos can be kept private, and only shared with the people the member wants to view the video. In addition, a member can subscribe to any channel and receive newly uploaded videos from their favorite You Tube video producer. The possibilities with this community are endless. The community offers assistance to teach members tips and tricks to shooting video and uploading it to the website as well as instructions on how to search for and view videos. You Tube makes it easy for people without much technical education to enjoy the community.
Communication within the community is through the videos and comments given by people viewing the videos. At first I had a difficult time following the discussion or comments, then I realized that if I clicked on the [view all __ comments] link, I would be able to follow the comments in order. This made reading the comments much easier. I watched one video on “A day in the life of an ER nurse” and was amazed at the locations from the people who commented on the video; one was from Australia, another from Italy and many from all across the United States. The majority of the comments were just that, comments. Not much communication between the producer of the video and the individuals commenting. Nor did I see much communication between the people commenting; out of 36 comments, only two were responses from the producer. Also, I did not see the people talking to each other, only commenting of their view of the video or message.
The design features that I found that would support, sustain, and develop You Tube as a virtual community is the ease of use in uploading video and also accessing and viewing the videos. The medium can be shared easily through email, blogspots, and linking on other online communities. You Tube also allows people to do what they like best, be in the limelight and share what they enjoy in life with others. The name says it all: “You Tube – Broadcast Yourself”.
You Tube can be used as a virtual learning community in a variety of ways. People, like me, can search and review videos that would be appropriate to use to reinforce information for students, or an instructor could tape a presentation or a lesson, upload it to You Tube, and link it to a web page, post a link on a different VLC, or even email the link to students. The ease of access to You Tube to view videos adds an added dimension to the community as a virtual learning community.

Tapped In Case Study

After visiting Tapped In, Math forum, Knowledge Forum, and Webquest’s home pages, I chose to observe the Tapped In virtual learning community. This community was easy to join and navigate. The home page, prior to logging in, offers many links for information about Tapped In and what to expect from the community. I reviewed this information before logging in to help me understand what to expect. This did help me feel a little better once I arrived in the Reception room. I chose this community for the features it offered, peer support, educational opportunities and the virtual office. After logging in, I set up my virtual office and then went browsing through the site. I entered a room on collaboration just as a class was ending and was greeted by the instructor who offered to email me the information that was covered during the class. He also invited me to his next class on setting up a K-12 class. I did set in on that class for a short period of time just to see the format. During that time I learned about some of the tools in the chat/class rooms that will allow you to see the information better or save it until you can use the information.
The Tapped In VLC is a practice based community; according to Reil and Polin, a practice based learning community is a larger community with a vast membership with shared goals that are supported by the community. Tapped In (TI) is an online learning environment that offers Teacher Professional Development opportunities in addition to collaboration and peer support from other educators.
TI is a virtual community that is text based, there are no video or animation plug ins, but additional technology can still be used. During a learning activity, a link to sites, such as You Tube, can be typed in to the discussion board; then after the class watches the video it can be discussed in the chat/classroom. Knowledge is constructed through collaboration and discussion among members of the community. Activity in the community is through either offering a learning experience or attending one of the many classes available. The classes are conducted in a synchronous format with the option to also discuss a specific topic privately with anyone in the class. Following the discussion, if a member is logged in, they will be emailed a transcript of the discussion while that member was participating. This is an added feature that allows for review of the information discussed.
One of the design features of TI that helps sustain the community over time is the human feature. This VLC has staff and volunteers that are available to assist members and to welcome new members to get them started. In addition to the human feature is the ability to make the community be what you need it to be. This can be using the site for online meetings, teaching opportunities, or online storage of projects needing collaboration. Another feature is the calendar on the home page that allows members to see the learning opportunities available. It is easy to join a class through the calendar; the member simply clicks on the open door and is taken to the classroom. I read through some of the transcripts from previous classes and the human feature was again prominent as each class began with an introduction of participants, and a welcome from the mediator and guest speaker.
Tapped In is a virtual learning community that I will use in a couple of ways, I plan to attend some of the classes on technology use in education to begin with, but I will also use the community’s feature of a virtual office. The virtual office is a feature that would allow a place for a teacher or student to upload files for a project they are currently working on, and have them available from any computer that has Internet access. This tool, in addition to the learning opportunities and peer support makes this community valuable resource to educators.

Blog 2 - virtual learning communities

The increase in computer mediated communication (CMC) and virtual communities have changed and are still changing the societies we live in and how we gather information and knowledge. Renninger and Shumar discuss how CMCs and virtual communities reinforce the reflexive modernization theory. One way is how individuals use their experiences to guide and advise others, often on difficult topics such as health, which in the past was saved for the medical professional, through the internet. Another is through the explosion of information found on the internet, people are beginning to question authority more now than in the past. People in positions of authority are no longer just accepted as a part of their position but instead are required to earn the respect of the position.
Renninger and Shumar discuss a few examples of information seeking communities, or discussion groups. The first example is a parenting group where individuals can discuss issues they are facing and ask for advice or give advice when needed. The information or advice given can be from personal experience, some without scientific background. This information may be accurate and based on experience or evidence, or it may be an “old wives tale” that may cause more harm than good.
Information shared in this manner can increase anxiety when the advice given conflicts with what the individual has experienced or has been advised by a care provider. This anxiety-producing environment can also be seen in the example given on the MMR “jab”. The people reading the posts are getting multiple opinions and viewpoints on the vaccination subject; so much so, that the information can become confusing and anxiety producing.
The upside of the CMCs and virtual communities is the amount of information available and the ease and convenience of receiving or providing information through virtual communities and CMCs; as with the online classes offered by many universities. The online learning communities or classes provide an education opportunity to many who would have difficulty attending a class physically. In addition to the convenience, the virtual communities and CMCs also allow time for reflection on topics and possibly more student interaction.
Technology can support knowledge-building communities by providing access to people who share the common interest or desire to learn or gain knowledge in a specific field. In addition to providing access to people, technology also provides access to needed tools and activities for gaining knowledge. Renninger and Shumar mentioned in chapter 12 that the three elements mentioned above, people, tools and activities, are interdependent. One cannot be altered without affecting the others. This is good to remember when building VLC's, because as tools, activities or people are added or removed, the environment, motivation, or membership may change.

In another class I am currently taking, I am planning/designing a type of a virtual learning community; this community will be for a specific population of nursing students in a specific clinical class. After reading chapter 10, I have learned that there will be phases during the lifespan of the class; the phases that Renninger and Shumar mention include:
1) the proposal stage 2) the refinement stage 3) the organizational stage 4) the pursuit stage 5) the wrap-up stage and 6) the publication stage. The proposal stage and refinement stages will be completed before bringing students into the VLC. Once the students enter, the organizational stage will begin with providing information to the members, defining roles, and describing the activities that will be required. The pursuit stage will take place as the students participate in the discussion groups following the clinical education experience. The wrap-up stage will come toward the end of the semester as the students are completing the clinical experience, during this time, the students will also complete an evaluation of the experience to assist with the next class. At the present time, there is no plan for the publication phase, but hey, who knows, there is a need for studies on online format clinical postconferences.
The clinical setting is an ideal area to use the cognitive apprenticeship theory as a framework since it is a learning experience that the student must learn thinking skills that can be applied in different contexts; therefore, it would be a good framework to base the online clinical postconference VLC. Using the principles of content, method, sequencing, and sociology, mentioned in Collins, Brown, and Holum’s article, Cognitive Apprenticeship: Making Thinking Visible, the VLC will use the knowledge gained in the classroom prior to the clinical experience as a base knowledge to build on during clinicals. By using discussion boards beginning with some guiding questions following the clinical experience, the student will have time to reflect on the clinical experience, respond to the discussion and reply to other students in the VLC. As the students continue through the class, the instructor will post less, and toward the end of the class will mainly be a support/mediator of the discussions. By using the discussion boards and reading and responding to fellow classmates as they post their reactions and issues to the clinical experience, other students will be able to take that information and apply it to their situation, allowing them to learn to think critically in the clinical setting.