Month: January 2022

Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning 

This week’s readings provided a detailed emphasis on the types of virtual communities. Several ways to design these virtual communities for the learners were also described. Virtual communities are playing a key role in promoting learner-centered models of instruction. The learners along with their individual choices and preferences have become a part of various virtual communities. They share their knowledge and ideas with their peers and mentors. It is also worth noting that these communities are working despite any racial, gender, geographical, religious, or cultural differentiations. Most of the learning communities have established their ethical and moral codes which everyone is bound to follow, otherwise, they cannot be a part of that community.  

Online communities have made students more autonomous and independent. Both teachers and students from all over the world get together and develop innovative designs and content. As far as the designing for the virtual communities is concerned, more emphasis is placed on the participation of members. Participants’ collaboration, teamwork, interactions and providing feedback to each other help in developing research in various areas. These communities are also designed to promote inquiry based and problem-solving pedagogical practices. Through such platforms, teachers can introduce several techniques and ways to solve different problems of students. These inquiry –based and problem-solving approaches motivate students to learn effectively and more autonomously. I liked the fact that now girls are more actively participating in these virtual communities. It is the bright side of designing for these virtual communities that how linking and contrasting strategies are sources of evaluating sociability of learning environments.  

Online Learning Communities 

People co-construct knowledge by building on the ideas and practices of group members (Riel& Polin, 2004). Online learning communities are a source of building mutual relationships. The role each participant plays has a paramount value in maintaining the decorum of these communities. I liked the authors’ standpoint where they say that a community may be dysfunctional or troubled, stemming from a failure to accommodate change or variation (Riel & Polin, 2004). The reasons for a scattered or unsuccessful community are ineffective participation of the members, poor strategies, lack of cooperation and much more. There is no denying the fact that members are the backbone of any community. They should be the focus and communities must be designed keeping in view the participants/ members’ needs.  

This chapter has thrown light on three types of communities. They are Task-based, Practice-based, and knowledge-based learning communities. Then designing a technical environment for each community has been elaborated. Task-based learning communities are established to help participants perform such tasks that resemble real-life scenarios. These communities help students forget about the traditional styles of learning. Group learning is the major focus of these communities where participants get together, share their perspectives, and try to solve problems through mutual consensus. Task-based learning communities are designed keeping in view the purpose of a common learning goal where members from diverse backgrounds can work on a common task.  

Practice-based learning communities is more about applying knowledge and skills that participants got in their learning phases. Math Forum is an immense help for participants to polish their knowledge and skills and solve various problems successfully. Through these communities, participants interact and practice their knowledge and skills keeping cooperation as a priority. The problems associated with practice-based learning communities are real. It is hard for new participants to learn new skills and knowledge. Now a days these communities are designed to help newcomers and they assist them in learning various skills to practice a task. 

Lastly, knowledge-based learning communities emphasize the importance of advancing collective knowledge in a particular field in such a way that each member of the community. Students are encouraged to engage in different knowledge building activities. Different software and web learning tools are playing an effective role in building the knowledge of the participants. Technology has a pivotal role in advancing the efficiency of all three learning communities. This chapter provides a clear picture of how all three learning communities are playing a key role in making this virtual world a better place to share, learn, create, explore, and make.  

References: 

Riel, M., & Polin, L. (2004). Online learning communities: Common ground and critical differences in designing technical differences in designing technical environments. Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. 

I still remember when I saw a computer for the first time in my life. I was in class 4. Everyone used to talk about it. People described it in many ways. Some used to resemble it with a TV, and some named it a box-like machine. I was really excited to see it. Frankly speaking, as a kid I had no idea that it was such a marvelous invention. We were offered a computer course during summer vacation. I was so excited to join that course that I refused to go with my siblings to my granny’s place for the holidays. Tell you what, that course was all about typing and painting. There was no internet at our school during that time, but you cannot imagine how excited the girls were to attend that course. It is the same time when MediaMOO was getting hype and computer was gaining momentum in my home country.  

After going through the first chapter, I can realize that some countries like mine are almost half a century behind in building online communities. This is the first time ever that I have heard of MediaMOO. The progress and decline that it faces are relatable to any invention and how it loses value with the passage of time. It will not be wrong to say that platforms like MediaMOO do not really lose value, they just take different shapes with more possibilities and offerings. The reasons for MediaMOO’s decline are understandable. Loss of leadership, people leaving groups and forming their own, change in audiences’ preferences, and technical obsolescence were the causes of its decline. The ideas shared at the end are smart remedies to build MediaMOO on new grounds.  

While going through this chapter, I recalled an article about less representation of women in STEM fields. The name of the article is Amazon Scraps Secret AI Recruiting Tool That Showed Bias Against Women, written by Dustin J. Women possess immense potential regarding STEM careers, but they are not offered as many opportunities in these fields as men are. Even the biggest brands are practicing the same bias. The following chart from Dustin J’s article (2018) shows this discrimination well. The blue color shows male participation and red indicates women’s part.  

Another example can be extracted from a video presentation named Thinking about Making in Eyeo Talk show and Leah Buechley is the presenter. The second chapter is an interesting journey of young girls which was full of transformative steps. First, the increase in their interest in MOO is well presented. Second, their anxiety related to technology started decreasing once they showed tremendous interest in interactive sessions through virtual learning. Third and most important, they started developing their technical skills. This chapter is an inspirational story to promote learning via virtual communities. I am glad that we see a lot of women working for various online communities but still, they have genuine concerns which need attention.  

Finally, the Math Forum is another brilliant source of community building. It is “a unique group of individuals who are committed to using computers and the Internet to enhance what they know about learning, teaching, and doing mathematics” (Renninger and Shumar, 2002) Like other learning and teaching based communities, this community is also an amalgamation of interaction, assistance, making, communication, guidance, feedback, creativity, problem-solving, collaboration and much more. One of the good things about this community is that teachers treat students as their colleagues or team members and let them explore more than one specific solution for a problem. They are not judgmental and let students explore wider horizons through their imagination and ideas. Lastly, sharing and interaction are the strongest pillars of online communities. It was an interesting set of reads this week. I especially enjoyed reading about the participation of young girls in virtual communities like MOO. For me all these communities are new. It was nice getting familiar with them.  

References: 

Dustin, J. (2018). Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women| Reuters. Hentet fra https://www. reuters. com/article/us-amazon-com-jobs-automation-insight/amazon-scraps-secret-ai-recruiting-tool-that-showed-bias-against-women-idUSKCN1MK08G. 

Renninger, K. A., & Shumar, W. (2002). Community building with and for teachers at the Math Forum. Building virtual communities: Learning and change in cyberspace, 129, 158. 

The World is Open has opened a window into the past and presented an interesting journey of technological development. We are all aware of how the world evolved from the stone age to the modern technological world. I think all of us have experienced newness in one way or the other. I liked the way chapter one is divided into various parts and each part represents a transformation. It is amazing how we can multitask without much trouble and get connected to so many people at one time. The author’s experiences of attending various conferences and taking classes online at the same time relate to every one of us. When I was reading this chapter, I really felt that whenever something interesting showed up, I also felt the same way as the author felt despite all the tiredness and fatigue in life. The writer expressed it well by saying how she turned from “butt dragging tired to highly inspired.” This is exactly how technology motivates you.  

Web technologies have brought revolutions and still, more is coming our way. We have become more connected, interactive, and innovative by publishing our lives. It is a world that never sleeps. People from all occupations, speaking numerous languages and practicing diverse cultures, come on one single platform and share their knowledge. We can help each other while sitting on our comfortable couches and can connect according to our needs. I think 90% of the world population is a part of the Internet community now. All we need to do is to turn on our devices and explore with just a click.  

The Web of Learning is a section in chapter one that enhances the value of teaching and learning through web communities. Keeping the need of the hour in view, we must accept the importance of technology and its usage to promote online learning and teaching. We must become creative and innovative to utilize these online platforms in a purposeful manner. To achieve this target, a healthy relationship between teachers and learners is required. Technology by itself will not empower learners. Innovative pedagogy is required (Bonk, 33) 

Other parts like Flat, Spiky and Open, The Web, Declaring the World Open for Education, and Now We-All-Learn describe the value of creativity, innovation, collaboration, and interactive learning through web communities. These communities help us share our knowledge and ideas. They promote inspiration, motivation, and learning. There is no denying the fact that the world of the web is a game-changer. We can get maximum benefits from it. We can seek help from it for all matters of our lives. It is the fastest and easiest way to educate ourselves. So why not delve into it? 

References 

Bonk, C. J. (2009). The world is open: How web technology is revolutionizing education (pp. 3371-3380). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).