The New (2002) Online Educator:

Practice and Research Toward Collaborative Learning Communities

Jeremy J. Shapiro

Shelley K. Hughes

Copyright Jeremy J. Shapiro and Shelley K. Hughes 2002. This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational

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Major themes:

• From solutions to problems

• Context

• Impact

• Self-reflection

Situating ourselves

• Fielding Graduate Institute• Adult learners, professionals• Distributed learning model, online and face-to-face• Learner centered• Doctoral and masters programs• Not for profit• Schools: Psychology, Human and Organization

Development, Education• Online seminars/courses, community, mentoring,

library, and administrative functions

Twigg notes trend

• From teacher-driven to learner-centered, individualized education

• Five methods:• Initial knowledge and learning-style assessment• Array of interactive materials and activities• Individualized study plans• Continuous assessment• Appropriate, varied human interaction

Collaborative learning communities

• In education• Public discussions, spaces, cafes• Seminars/courses

• In larger social trends • Virtual organization (Mowshowitz) with

virtual workgroups• Learning organizations (Senge)• World of loose social networks (Wellman)

Our view

• No “wave of the future” vs. “ashcan of history”

• Not here as advocates for any particular method of online learning

Multiple contexts - In fact, contexts within contexts

• Undergraduate / post graduate• Youth / adult• Face-to-face / remote• Campus-based / distributed• Liberal arts / technical scientific / professional• Monocultural / multicultural• Course / community

Unstable, postmodern cultural context

• Changing ideas about• Knowledge• Self and identity• Reality (constructed or otherwise)• Public / private

• Pace of change and role of technology in it

Value contexts:Where… on these continua?• Hierarchy --- Equality

• Community --- Individualism

• Collaboration --- Competition

• Risk taking --- Risk avoidance

• Emotionality --- Emotional neutrality

• Task oriented --- Process oriented

• Self-disclosure --- Self-concealment

Uniqueness of each online environment

• Every environment is a specific configuration of multiple contexts and values – sometimes in conflict

• Online educational methods are local to the configuration

• Problems and challenges must be solved within the local context

Contexts for technology and online learning

• Courses/classes to communities/spaces• Bodies of research

• Outcome measures and subjective descriptions of online classes (Twigg, EDUCAUSE 2002)

• Community informatics (e.g. Keeble and Loader)

• Learning communities and communities of practice – a feature of contemporary life

Problems and challenges

“The Net is only one of many ways in which the same people may interact. It is not a separate reality. People bring to their online interactions such baggage as their gender, stage in the life cycle, cultural milieu, socioeconomic status and offline connections with others.”

Barry Wellman

But baggage is altered and reconfigured by online technology in two ways

• Role of biology

• Specific properties of media and tools

Role of biology

• “We’re hard-wired for face-to-face communication.” (Turner)

• Context and cues

• Emotional body communication

Specific properties of media and tools

• Examples• Text medium• Asychronicity• Bandwidth• Multitasking

Problems and challenges

• Cultural diversity

• Lack of context for participants

• Ignorance of norms, roles, and rules

• Visibility and presence

• Giving and handling critical feedback

• Expectations about response and participation

Problems and challenges -continued

• Interpersonal conflicts, e.g. flaming

• Sensitive topics, e.g. sex, politics, religion

• Intimacy vs. publicity

• Identity, e.g. false

• Rumors and misinformation

Solutions and approaches

• Many problems have been dealt with in specific ways in specific contexts• Examples: Handbook of Online Learning,

Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom

• BUT need to be developed within your context• Need for awareness, planning, policy,

training

Example: Need for boundaries

• Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) eliminate all boundaries

• Creates overload, infinite demand, artificial scarcity, anomie

• Need to set boundaries of space, time, availability, participation, feedback, membership, privacy

Example: Need for norms

• In online environments norms can be difficult to discern or establish

• FANQ (Frequently Asked Normative Questions)• In classes• In communities

Information literacy as a liberal art

• Tool

• Resource

• Social-structural

• Research

• Publishing

• Emerging technology

• Critical

An additional skill: Online community literacy,

communicative competence

• Impact of communication + impact of technology

• Reciprocity of perspectives (Schutz)

• Metacommunication

Communicatively competent educator

• Aware of group process

• Aware of online environment and its technology – appropriate use of tools and media

• Interpreting the context and its values

• Personally self-aware

Conclusion

• Context

• Impact

• Self-reflection

References

• Bentz, Valerie Malhotra, and Jeremy J. Shapiro. 1998. Mindful inquiry in social research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

• Keeble, Leigh, and Brian D. Loader, eds. 2001. Community informatics: Shaping computer-mediated social relations. New York: Routledge.

• Mowshowitz, Abbe. 2002. Virtual organization: Toward a theory of societal transformation stimulated by information technology. Westport: Quorum Books.

References - continued• Oravec, JoAnn. 1996. Virtual individuals, virtual

groups: Human dimensions of groupware and computer networking, Series in Human-Computer Interaction; No. 11. New York: Cambridge University Press.

• Palloff, Rena M., and Keith Pratt. 2001. Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: Realities of Online Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

• Rudestam, Kjell Erik, and Judith Schoenholtz-Read, eds. 2002. Handbook of online learning: Innovations in higher education and corporate training. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

References - continued• Schutz, Alfred. 1973. Common-sense and scientific

interpretation of human action. In Collected papers of Alfred Schutz, Vol. 1, edited by M. Natanson. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.

• Senge, Peter M. 1990. The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency Doubleday.

• Shapiro, Jeremy J., and Shelley K. Hughes. 1996. Information Literacy -- Technical Skill or Liberal Art? Enlightenment proposals for a new curriculum. EDUCOM Review 31 (2):31 - 35.

References - continued

• Shapiro, Jeremy J., and Shelley K. Hughes. 2002. The case of the inflammatory e-mail: Building culture and community in online academic environments. In Handbook of online learning: Innovations in higher education and corporate training, edited by K. E. Rudestam and J. Schoenholtz-Read. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

• Smith, Marc, and Peter Kollock. 1998. Communities in cyberspace. New York: Routledge.

References - continued• Turner, Jonathan H. 2000. On the origins of human

emotions: A sociological inquiry into the evolution of human affect. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

• Twigg, Carol A. 2001. Innovations in online learning: Moving beyond no significant difference. Center for Academic Transformation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 2001 [Retrieved Oct. 14, 2002].

References - continued

• Wellman, Barry, ed. 1999. Networks in the Global Village: Life in Contemporary Communities. Boulder: Westview Press.

• Wellman, Barry, and Milena Gulia. 1999. Virtual communities as communities: Net surfers don't ride alone. In Communities in cyberspace, edited by M. Smith and P. Kollock. London: Routledge.

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