Unit 4 - Individual and Group Reflection

I really enjoyed the readings this week, and how easily they are applicable to almost all facets of life in general. As a teacher I found Whitesel's article to be very applicable to my own classroom and even more so as I continue to work with my team for this class. To date we continue to report to each other on a regular basis and seek out ways to infuse our virtual collaboration with skills and tools that make the process feel seamless.

Individually I made the first post on what I believe our team charter and objectives should be. This was a first as I am not one to hit the ground running, I prefer to lurk as they say and see what the other's have to say. For me this was putting the whole team concept into action, I got the ball rolling so to speak and feel like I really contributed to the group effort.

This weekend since all members seem to have some disposable time, if there is such a thing I believe that we will further progress and hone our guidelines. It's a wonderful thing to be part of such a thriving process.

Group Process

Please place an individual interpretation of the team process and final decision in your personal blog. During your reflection, my suggestion is to consider elements of culture and community found in your readings. When this is completed, email the instructor your blog address and notification that the assignment has been completed.

I have had nothing but positive group/team experiences throughout each of my classes. So in this case it was refreshing to again still experience the same euphoria. What was interesting about this experience though was that John and I were approached. Ah to be wanted. To be invited makes the initial part feel very welcoming and immediately put me at ease. We instantly built our community by meeting each other on BB. Once the group was formed we voted on a name (I must say we are a very democratic group) and then we were off. We have now formed our own group in Blackboard in which I respond to daily. I feel that as we continue with this process we are each stakeholders investing in a successful outcome. We are using various forms of technology to accomplish our goals. I believe soon we will delve into using a wiki which allows us continue to build our online community as we create our guidelines for Unit 5. In looking back on the readings I found this sentence applicable to the experience thus far with a little modification.. I am "developing and practicing skills with my virtual community. As I proceed this experience will allow me to extend them to the real world one that is comprised of social, educational, political and commercial communities. This will enable me to enhance and create programs that will reach individual needs.

Week Three - In my initial post I outlined why I felt we need some form of online environment in our district. In re-reading the post, the scope is too vast, one which may be unmanageable without additional suppport. Thus, I have narrowed the scope an attempt to create a forum that will create opportunities for teachers who in turn may want to create opportunities for their students. Thus, my proposal is to create an online forum for teachers to exchange ideas, collaborate and share their classroom experiences. Forecasted are huge budget cuts which would possibly eliminate Staff Development days thus minimizing if not eliminating opportunities to collaborate. . In creating this forum teachers would find supportive and added approaches in assisting their student’s learning projections. Increasing attention has been given to the ways in which technology can be used to facilitate and support collaborative knowledge building. (Li, Q. 2004). Online forums can meet this challenge and provoke sustained knowledge generation because they provide a space not only to develop ideas and questions but to also store these ideas and questions so that they are always available for further discussion and revision (Scradamalia & Bereiter, 1994).
The objective of the forum would be to: (a) establish a friendly, open environment; (b) encourage teachers to give feedback and suggestions (c) use discussions to address sensitive and prickly issues which may emerge in education today, (d) encourage regular reflection and share it.

Looking for My Place

After reading A Place for Everyone I went back and highlighted areas that will have optimal benefit not only to my continuation in this class but for my course project as well. The reading allowed me to venture outside of my confines and see things outside of my f2f classroom, where a community should not limited by the confines of four walls. This approach implemented whole-heartedly will work in all arenas home, classrooms, churches, and neighborhoods.

When done effectively and keeping all learning styles in mind "participants have a much richer environment, where they could more easily relish the learning experience." In reflection of this phrase, I find that it unfortunetly does not encapsulate what is happening in many classrooms today. Instead too many would rather forget about their learning experience since it does not feed their individual desire or need to learn. We need to fix that however daunting it may be. We need to find that fit for everyone, so learning becomes a passion, a zest to uncover the unknown and a constant journey of exploration.

"Social capital can be conceptualized as a community resource that builds from groupmembers’ acquired knowledge, from the networks established through cooperative activity that might include situations designed to promote learning, and from identity resources developed from engaging in social activity such as trust, increased competence, or developing voice (Balatti & Falk, 2002)."

In reading this statement I feel the need to go back and think about the question Datta Kaur posed to us.

To add to this I am posting Datta's question to see if I want to add to my previous post.

Based on your personal experience, discussions and readings, choose a topic or title that may be of interest to you, personally. Be prepared to present this topic/title to your new team members during Unit 3. When consensus on topics and titles is reached, you and your team will develop a research and/or writing project that will become your final paper for this course.

Creating an Optimal Online Learning Community

As a student in online courses I have researched and learned a lot about the many ways interaction occurs. Promoting interactivity and connectivity amongst participants is an integral part of online learning. It is through interaction that students will gain valuable learning experiences.

Currently, my district offers no online courses, yet as a whole we are extremely driven by technology. Bonds have passed, we have state of the art equipment yet have not considered or formulated a plan to offer any courses. Consider that I am currently at a K-8 site, where online learning maybe benefical to many. In our reading Finding a Place of Everyone it states that online community will include learner of all types, background, preferences and personal goals. We as teachers are always trying to improve our programs and methodologies to create optimal environments for students. Yet constraints into creating a successful program continue to surrmount.

Reasons why it is not offered:

• direction or education about online learning is a vague concept to many - education about online learning needs to discussed in the from of meetings, forums etc.
• lack of funding - facing a $4 million dollar deficit in the next two years.
• unfamiliarity with computers
• unwillingness to adapt to new programs
• changes the way collaboration may be viewed
• do online communities/classrooms benefit students in the same way a f2f classroom does
• less personaliztion
  
  Solution - create an action plan that will outline the benefits, how it will be implemented, who it will benefit, determine who the need exists for.
• Create surveys to check the receptiveness of parents, teachers, administration, district sups
• set goals for student
• involve the community to create a community of online learning