This is a great examplar! It illustrates well what we are talking about as regards the possibilities of the Internet to bridge university-school practices (research and teaching) and bring more coherence along the professional development continuum.
Let me share with you that a have a doctoral student who will present his final doctoral hearing today, one that put forward the concept of sociodigital affordance in the design of hybrid learning environments, ones that could extend beyond pre-service education. His name is Stephane Allaire, and he is a young professor at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi which is located in the northwestern part of Quebec.
Therese Laferriere
Posts made by Therese Laferriere
Faculties of Education have new means to build bridges with schools. The possibility is there, and a few individual attempts are in progress. In an upcoming publication with UNESCO (Resta, Ed.), there is a whole chapter on Networked Communities. I would add that such development follows the innovation curve, and there are early adopters willing to go ahead. If we take Seidel & Perez's (1994) three innovation phases (adoption, implementation and institutionalization), we are still at the adoption phase.
Sylvia wrote : "I think we simply didn't get to the stage where they could see the value for themselves." And she also pointed to the importance of participative design. I fully agree with this condition for a teacher community to exist.
Building on the idea of ownership as a knowledge management issue, yes there are organizations who may want to limit their workers as far as open web-based communications go but they are creating or maintaining a restrictive atmosphone unlikely to facilitate collaboration within their organization, be it a school or a business. I would add that a virtual teacher community may be salvation for a teacher working differently from others within a school. At the same time this person will be expected to some "sameness" within her school. In other words, minimal cohesion is expected in an organization, and found relevant and effective. See the professional learning communities movement (Dufour & Eakes; http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/currclum/cu3lk22.htm ). An important article pointed to the issue of having on-site and on-line teacher communities co-habitate. See Schlager, M. S., & Fusco, J. (2003). Teacher professional development, technology, and communities of practice: Are we putting the cart before the horse? The Information Society, 19, 203-220.
I suggest that a creative tension between on-site participation and on-line participation is the best as it allows an on-site teacher community to move beyond its current limits while it allows an on-line teacher community to be locally grounded.
When both contribute to an emancipative approach to teacher professional development, we have the best of the two worlds.
Back to the basics, for an online teacher community to exist, a few teachers have to be involved from day one. The design must be participative as serious teacher professional development is hardly something one does to another. This is not to say that others are not important to one's professional development.
Building on the idea of ownership as a knowledge management issue, yes there are organizations who may want to limit their workers as far as open web-based communications go but they are creating or maintaining a restrictive atmosphone unlikely to facilitate collaboration within their organization, be it a school or a business. I would add that a virtual teacher community may be salvation for a teacher working differently from others within a school. At the same time this person will be expected to some "sameness" within her school. In other words, minimal cohesion is expected in an organization, and found relevant and effective. See the professional learning communities movement (Dufour & Eakes; http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/currclum/cu3lk22.htm ). An important article pointed to the issue of having on-site and on-line teacher communities co-habitate. See Schlager, M. S., & Fusco, J. (2003). Teacher professional development, technology, and communities of practice: Are we putting the cart before the horse? The Information Society, 19, 203-220.
I suggest that a creative tension between on-site participation and on-line participation is the best as it allows an on-site teacher community to move beyond its current limits while it allows an on-line teacher community to be locally grounded.
When both contribute to an emancipative approach to teacher professional development, we have the best of the two worlds.
Back to the basics, for an online teacher community to exist, a few teachers have to be involved from day one. The design must be participative as serious teacher professional development is hardly something one does to another. This is not to say that others are not important to one's professional development.
We now have a few analyses to build on. I suggest that we prepare to do so but leave until Monday to participants to bring more CoP using Engeström's model.
Hi,
You wrote:
From Re: Let's begin with one virtual community of teachers in mind-And in response to your work in tourism
"[Participants] view is that they dont have time for training." As you mentioned earlier, informal learning has some appeal!
"Another issue has to do with their expectations (...) a vicious circle, once they share they see the value, but until they share they don't. So they are sceptical about getting involved, "Why should I share my secrets ?", they say."
In the above quote, you are touching upon the cutting line of what makes a networked CoP a successful one. Yes, until participants get a sense that they save time in their practice by going online and engaging into sharing their practice. Here is a little study J. Benoit did a few years ago. Participants in that CoP understood that they could save time solving problems by going online.
The other issue that you are pointing out, competition and cooperation, is also a critical one. Not sure the education world is better in this case that the business world!
In response to your following request: "Meanwhile I would like to ask about resistances, passive or active, that people have encountered to the idea of a virtual community.", if you read French you may like to go at the following site which reports on a twe-year study in the workplace done a couple of years ago: http://www.cefrio.qc.ca/projets/proj_30.cfm
You wrote:
From Re: Let's begin with one virtual community of teachers in mind-And in response to your work in tourism
"[Participants] view is that they dont have time for training." As you mentioned earlier, informal learning has some appeal!
"Another issue has to do with their expectations (...) a vicious circle, once they share they see the value, but until they share they don't. So they are sceptical about getting involved, "Why should I share my secrets ?", they say."
In the above quote, you are touching upon the cutting line of what makes a networked CoP a successful one. Yes, until participants get a sense that they save time in their practice by going online and engaging into sharing their practice. Here is a little study J. Benoit did a few years ago. Participants in that CoP understood that they could save time solving problems by going online.
The other issue that you are pointing out, competition and cooperation, is also a critical one. Not sure the education world is better in this case that the business world!
In response to your following request: "Meanwhile I would like to ask about resistances, passive or active, that people have encountered to the idea of a virtual community.", if you read French you may like to go at the following site which reports on a twe-year study in the workplace done a couple of years ago: http://www.cefrio.qc.ca/projets/proj_30.cfm