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.