Community of Practice

1
Community of Practice

• Karen Day
• Pat Red
• Sue Goodrich facilitating Elluminate
• November 30, 2007

2
Agenda

• Introductions
• Discussions
• Building Community
• Browsers
• Open Forum 330-400

3
Introductions

• Name
• Where/what teach
• Experience with On Line Teaching
• 1-little or none.5-extensive

4
Experience Tally

• 1 little
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5 extensive

5
Discussions

• Define discussion
• How does this fit with what you expect with face
  to face discussions
• What are your goals in your on line discussion
• Discussion Rubric (handout and next slides)

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Discussion RubricResponds to discussion prompt

• EXCEEDS The participant contributes
  well-explained, thoroughly addressed, thoughtful
  and reflective ideas which have substance/depth.
  Includes pertinent questions, and additional or
  referenced resources. Discussion Prompt posts
  refer to the readings and are used to support the
  writers position. The entry stimulates and
  opens discussion. Entries include references to
  one's own experiences.

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Discussion RubricResponds to discussion prompt

• MEETS The participant contributes moderately
  well-explained ideas which have some
  substance/depth. May include questions and
  additional or referenced resources. Discussion
  Prompt posts do not refer to the readings -
  instead they copy or restate content verbatim.
  The entry results in some continued discussion.
  Entries include references to ones own lived
  experience which may not support the topic.

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Discussion RubricResponds to discussion prompt

• BELOW The participant contributes poorly
  explained, weakly addressed ideas which lack
  substance/depth and reflection. Discussion
  Prompt posts do not refer to the readings at all.
  The entry does not stimulate discussion.
  Entries lack references to one's own experiences.

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Discussion RubricCommunity

• EXCEEDS The participant is central to the
  discussion. Posts are made across 3 or more
  non-consecutive days, spanning the discussion
  period (beginning, middle, end). Posts indicate
  "listening" to others' positions, ideas, and
  questions by responding reflectively and with
  substance. Contributes multiple interactions and
  responses that foster a sense of community.
  Participant has more responses of substance than
  those of short comment or praise.

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Discussion RubricCommunity

• MEETS The presence of the participant is
  noticeable. Posts are made over 2 or more days
  which may be consecutive. Posts indicate
  "listening" to others' positions, ideas and
  questions. At a minimum, the participant
  responds to 3 or 4 posts. Responses include
  items both of substance and of brief comment or
  praise.

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Discussion RubricCommunity

• BELOW The presence of the participant is barely
  noticeable. All posts are made in one day thus
  leaving no time for reciprocal conversation and
  commenting. Posts do not "listen" to others and
  respond. Participant at a minimum responds to 2
  others' posts. Responses are mostly brief
  comments or praise statements and contain almost
  no posts of substance.

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Discussion RubricProfessionalism

• MEETS Entries are free of misspellings and
  grammatical errors. Entries use "People First"
  language and maintain respectful language, tone
  and content. Maintains confidentiality.
  Electronic "Netiquette" (below) is consistently
  practiced.
• BELOW Entries have misspellings and grammatical
  errors. Entries do not use "People First"
  language and may include disrespectful or
  offensive language, tone or content. Adherence
  to electronic Netiquette (below) is not
  consistently practiced.

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Netiquette

• Netiquette, or network etiquette, is the
  contemporary term for the proper way we
  communicate and interact with each other using
  email over the Internet.
• http//www.library.yale.edu/training/netiquette/
• Spelling and Grammar
• Use capitalization, punctuation and properly
  constructed and grammatically correct sentences
  in the same way that you would in any other
  written, graduate level document. Sending an
  e-mail in all UPPER-CASE is the equivalent of
  shouting in some one's ear. ONLY use upper-case
  words when trying to make a point (such as I just
  did). I might add that typing the entire message
  in bold may be interpreted the same.
• Flames
• What is a "flame"? Flaming is a virtual term for
  venting emotion online or sending inflammatory
  emails to a person(s) that has caused that
  person(s) to respond in not-so-nice words,
  defensively or flamingly. It's basically a verbal
  attack in electronic form.
• Flames are unproductive and injurious to the
  parties involved.
• Things to consider before venting electronically
• Would I say this to this persons face? or
  Would I want this students parent(s) to read
  this?
• Am I putting the reader(s) in an awkward
  position?
• How would I feel if I got this email message?
• Resources http//owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/
  pw/p_emailett.html and http//www.iwillfoll
  ow.com/email.htm

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Discussions

• Group size
• Group selection/set up
• Groups by common interests or questions
• Others

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Discussions

• Posted questions
• Student generated questions
• Managing Participation
• Others

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Student Generated Questions

• At least once during the semester, at times
  agreed to in advance, students
• Submit an open-ended question to the faculty for
  posting to the discussion board
• Facilitate the discussion of their question
• Post a summary of the discussion at the close of
  the week
• Teacher models these expectations

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Advantages

• Energy
• Engagement
• Sharing
• Perspectives

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Here is one example-

• Laird states that Training Development managers
  can avoid the "firefighter" trap by monitoring
  the ongoing operation of the organization (p.
  67). Share an example of a "firefighter"
  situation that could have been prevented. What
  sources of information were available and how
  could that information have been used
  proactively? How does your prevention strategy
  connect to the suggestions in Chapter 5?

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Start Small

• A good way to get your feet wet before jumping
  into the pool of on-line teaching
• Set up an opportunity to run a discussion in your
  face to face class
• Take the CTEL course
• Sit in on an on-line course
• Others-

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Browsers

• Mozilla Firefox
• Internet Explorer

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Building Community

• Personalizing your platform
• Class portrait and creative connections
• Introductions with individual student pictures
• Others

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Creative Connections Icebreaker

• Asks participants to find connections to as
  many others in the class as possible utilizing
  the online introductions and to make these
  connections explicit in writing.
• Here are some possible examples
• I have something in common with Susan, because we
  both have dogs.
• I have something in common with Steve, because he
  works at Portland Adult Education and I taught
  GED classes there in 2005.
• I have something in common with Debra, because
  she carves wood and I like to refinish furniture.
• Be creative and have fun with this!

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Building Community

• Instructor participation
• What does it look like
• How often
• How much

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Closing

• Open forum
• Ideas for future COP meeting
• Next meeting date, next host/hostess

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Open Forum

• I've found it surprisingly easy to build
  community and get WONDERFUL participation, but at
  this point in the semester, the students AND I
  are suffering from so much online reading of each
  other's postings. Ideas on efficient use of
  online time or some such title would be most
  welcome by me!
• Betty D. Robinson

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Open Forum

• I'm particularly interested in learning how to
  spend less time responding to
• discussion board posts (I already have 1 student
  assigned to write a
• synopsis of a given discussion forum, and I write
  a response to that
• synopsis)
• Who has wiki experience, so I can talk to them
  off-line?
• Eventually, I would like the COP to discuss a
  collective request that
• CTEL set up a sound proof room for narration and
  have equipment
• for creating and editing MP3 files.
• Nancy Artz

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Ideas for future COP meetingNext meeting date,
next host/hostess