creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

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Creating sustainable digital communities for students and teachers Dr Shirley Reushle Associate Director Australian Digital Futures Institute University of Southern Queensland, Australia [email protected]

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Page 1: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

Creating sustainable digital communities for students and teachers

Dr Shirley Reushle

Associate Director

Australian Digital Futures Institute

University of Southern Queensland, Australia

[email protected]

Page 2: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

What is a digital learning community?

Guiding principles for building and fostering

digital learning communities

Examples of digital learning communities

It's difficult to stay current and informed in a climate where everything is changing (George Siemens)

Page 3: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

A digital learning community is defined as a group of

people who come together in an online environment

to conduct focused and scholarly dialogue,

collaborate with their peers, share resources and

practices, and build and deepen knowledge and

expertise.

Page 4: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

McLuhan, M. (1968). War and peace in the global village. Bantam, NY.

“we live in a global village”

34 years later:

Ohler, J.B. (2010). Digital community, digital citizen. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Corwin.

“learners have two lives”

Page 5: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

PURPOSEFUL

requires leadership

engaged

social

about PEOPLE

has structure

connected

Page 6: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

Do people feel sufficiently attached to the online

environment?

If so, which people and why?

At some level, leadership may fail if those who

are to be part of that digital community are not

in tune with the modality of interaction, even

while agreeing to its importance.

Page 7: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

Do digital communities bring members

closer or, for those less experienced in the

digital environment, can the very tools

being used lead to a greater sense of

separation?

Page 8: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

What is the “fit” between engaging in a

digital community and the learning to be a

member of that community (where learning

may be the sense of becoming adept at its

modes of operation)?

Page 9: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

3 Cases…

Page 10: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

ae-j's photostream

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0

There are few

experiences as

powerful as

connecting with other

people who are united

by the need to work

collegially and to

resolve mutually

shared problems

Page 11: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

Collaborative activity

+

Mentoring

+

Digital environments

+

Community of Practice model….

=………………

Page 12: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

Community of Practice theory

applied to the USQ Higher Education

context, with three elements

providing organising

structure

Domain

knowledge Community

building

Sharing of practice

1 2

3

McDonald, J. (2010) adapted from Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Page 13: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

A domain of knowledge that creates a common ground and sense of common identity (builds member capacity)

A community of people who care about the domain and create the social fabric of learning (grow a learning community)

A shared practice developed to become effective in the domain (innovations noted and this saves reinventing the wheel)

Page 14: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

Domain

knowledge Community

building

Sharing of practice

1 2

3 4 A missing

link?

Page 15: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

…the power of learning partnerships to motivate and excite us in our work.

…the importance of flexibility and adaptability …

…access to four mentors, rather than just one adds to the breadth and depth of advice

Page 16: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

…but… I need more clarity of purpose and process in the digital environment. I found difficulty making the program a high priority …Although I felt fully supported, I was not fully committed… it's something I want to do, can be fun, but gets put aside because I have too much "real" work to be getting on with…

Page 17: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

Follow the Sun Learning Futures Festival

Page 18: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers
Page 19: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers
Page 20: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

The combination of synchronous and

asynchronous features is considered to be

the ideal online conference format

(Murphy, A., & Reushle, S.E. (in press). Following the sun: Sustainable conferencing in a climate of change. ascilite conference, Wellington, New Zealand)

Page 21: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

This was a truly collaborative endeavour. I was intrigued

by the 24-hour format and the calibre of hosts and

presenters. Excellent speakers and panels, who know

how to conduct themselves in synchronous

environments, and well trained moderators.

Enlightening and thought-provoking.

This has been extraordinary and probably the best single

experience in my 10 years in Higher Education. So

much breadth and depth and such a sense of

connectedness.

Page 22: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

Candidate 1

Candidate 1

Candidate 1

Candidate 1

Co-supervisor 1

Co-supervisor 1

Candidate 1

Honeycomb model of collaborative PhD supervision

Page 23: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

To sum up…

Page 24: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

Put “community” at the heart…

It’s a

collaborative

process

Members are

PEOPLE…

Needs structure &

purpose, yet

flexibility & fluidity

Needs effective

leadership &

facilitation

…and should feel they are

part of something special

Page 25: Creating sustainable digital communities for students & teachers

Questions