Material matters for learning in virtual networks: a case study of a professional learning programme hosted in a Google' online community (original) (raw)
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Computers & Education, 2012
This article presents findings related to the sociomaterial agency of educators and their practice in Norwegian education. Using actor-network theory, we ask how Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) negotiate the agency of educators and how they shape their teaching practice. Since the same kinds of VLE tools have been widely implemented throughout Norwegian education, it is interesting to study how practices are formed in different parts of the educational system. This research is therefore designed as a case study of two different teaching contexts representing lecturers from a higher education institution and teachers from primary schools. Data are collected by means of interviews, online logging of VLE activities and self-reported personal logs. From the analysis of the data, three main networks of aligned interests can be identified. In each of those, the sociomaterial agency of the teaching practice with VLE is crucial in shaping and consolidating the network.
Postdigital Science and Education
Networked professional learning: Emerging and equitable discourses for professional development (Littlejohn et al. 2019) is the latest addition to the Research in Networked Learning book series 1 originated by Drs Vivien Hodgson and David McConnell of Lancaster University and Curtin University, respectively. The book positions networked learning as a sustainable pedagogical and design-approach for understanding and effectuating change within a complex world of 'wicked' (i.e., highly complex) problems (Littlejohn et al. 2019: 241; see also Levin et al. 2012). The book reflects the current research and practice of the networked learning community in the area of professional learning. Within this context, professional learning refers not only to 'the provision of service to a client for a fee' but also to a 'broader array of knowledge work' (Littlejohn et al. 2019: 241). Networked learning, in the early years, mostly focused on higher education (Hodgson et al. 2014: 2) and was originally defined as 'learning in which information and communication technology is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners, between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources' (Goodyear et al. 2004: 1). Chapters within this book also advance emergent perspectives on networked learning such as those by Hansen and Bonderup Dohn, who propose that networked learning can also be understood as a 'resituation of knowledge, perspectives and ways of acting across.. .contexts' (Littlejohn et al. 2019: 129). The incorporation of differing perspectives and approaches is matched by the criticality and reflectiveness with which the community engages with such perspectives.
Professional Development Through Social Network Communities
EDULEARN proceedings, 2017
Professional development has change thanks to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the adoption and proliferation of the Internet. Social networks contribute to professional development through open experiences and communities or through more restricted and specific groups. In this paper, we analyze multiple forms of communication in social networks and argue that professional development is based on the construction of shared knowledge. Taken into consideration different types of online communities, we focus our study in massive online courses (open and massive networks) and in virtual communities (more restricted and closed groups), in order to answer the following questions: In what extend social networks are influencing individuals and promoting professional development? Are individuals managing the information and experiences from social networks for their professional development? By exploring the main changes that social networks provide for professional development we expect to contribute for further research and actions in this field of expertise.
Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 2003
This article illustrates how through participation in virtual communities, teachers can progress in making sense of their practice of working with online technologies. These communities are described as reflective of a creative-interpretive and socio-constructivist approach to teachers' professional development. The article reports on a study in which teachers came together as a community to engage in collaborative, reflective practice through participation in an online discussion. Excerpts from the discussion highlight how teachers make sense of their practices by viewing problems from multiple perspectives and contexts and by adapting and reorganizing existing conceptions of their practices in the light of new experiences. Cet article démontre comment la participation des enseignants aux communautés virtuelles peut les aider à comprendre l'emploi qu'ils font des technologies informatiques. On y décrit les communautés virtuelles comme reflétant une approche créative, interprétative et socioconstructiviste au développement professionnel des enseignants. L'article décrit une étude qui a rassemblé des enseignants pour créer une communauté engagée dans une pratique réfléchie et collaborative par le biais d'une discussion en ligne. Des extraits de la discussion expliquent la façon dont les enseignants en viennent à comprendre leur pratique en envisageant des problèmes à partir d'une multitude de perspectives et de contextes et en adaptant et réorganisant leurs idées à la lumière de nouvelles expériences. The classroom is a place where order prevails. The infusion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) creates a zone of uncertainty for both teachers and learners, engaging them in a process of risk and exploration for some time to come. (Bracewell, Breuleux, Laferrière, Benoit, & Abdous, 1998) De Kerckhove (1997) argues that the Internet constitutes the most comprehensive, innovative, and complex communication medium in existence, representing the mega-convergence of hypertext, multimedia, virtual reality, neural networks, digital agents, and even artificial life. The ecology of such a network Elizabeth Murphy is an assistant professor of educational technology and second-language education in the Faculty of Education. Her research interests lie in the use of online discussions in the context of workplace learning and in the design of online learning experiences that reflect a socio-constructivist perspective. Thérèse Laferrière is a professor and teaches classroom organization and management in regular and networked classrooms. Her theoretical perspectives are grounded in group psychology and socio-constructivism.
A Cross-organizational Ecology for Virtual Communities of Practice in Higher Education
International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 2019
This work investigates Communities of Practice (CoPs) that support social learning in higher education. While most CoP research has taken place in single-stream contexts (e.g. in a university), this study reports on the ecology of a cross-organizational community (university and industry stakeholders) in the context of the formal curriculum. The work examines the role of technology configurations in supporting CoPs in Design and related studies. It also reports on the type and level of technology adoption, focusing on the learner perspective. This study's CoP is made up of 21 third-year university students and ten external stakeholders (mentors, clients and industrial experts). The study concludes with a set of guidelines for the design and evaluation of similar CoP technology configurations. Key guidelines suggest a) supporting enhanced awareness of identity, space and time, b) enabling roles and permissions on-demand according to the requirements of the activities carried out in shared spaces and c) facilitating fluid interoperability between the domain-specific and mainstream/generic productivity tools used by the community. The outcomes of this work can assist instructors, researchers and practitioners in the design of similar technology configurations for CoPs in the formal curricula of their respective Design or relevant fields.
Learning in virtual communities: perspectives in the feld of sociological and pedagogical research
Joirnal of e-learning and knowledge …, 2010
This article aims at implementing its theory and methodology to the debate on virtual communities used as learning communities. We shall therefore submit a research hypothesis that is yet to be verified empirically, in order to share the theoretical construction and the methodological set-up that form its foundations. The pedagogical vision is filtered through the lenses of sociology where the individual and the academic and technological community can face a final wider project: the construction and generation of knowledge through the use of open and transitional communities, in which each of the individual identities has the possibility of recognizing itself at the same time as a single and as a collective project. This will be addressed to a new social exchange where it will take place in an open context, a transitional one, of exchange and of webs in which the word community takes on a broader and less limiting meaning. No community is in fact "naturally" drawn to high levels of formative objectives like reflective thought, relational capacities, individual and social empowerment, but can nonetheless be manipulated pedagogically, working Learning in virtual communities: perspectives in the field of sociological and pedagogical research
Facebook or fail-book: Exploring “community” in a virtual community of practice
ReCALL, 2020
Creating collaborative working and learning experiences has long been at the forefront of computer-assisted language learning research. It is in this context that, in recent years, the integration of social networking sites and Web 2.0 in learning settings has surged, generating new opportunities to establish and explore virtual communities of practice (VCoPs). However, despite the number of studies on the concept, research remains inconclusive on how learners develop a sense of community in a VCoP, and what effect this may have on interaction and learning. This research project proposes to use social network analysis, part of graph theory, to explore the configuration of a set of VCoPs, and presents an empirical approach to determine how interaction in such communities takes shape. The present paper studies the concept of “community” in two VCoPs on Facebook. Participants (Group 1: N = 123, Group 2: N = 34) in both VCoPs are enrolled in English as a foreign language courses at two ...
Interconnecting networks of practice for professional learning
The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2011
The article explores the complementary connections between communities of practice and the ways in which individuals orchestrate their engagement with others to further their professional learning. It does so by reporting on part of a research project conducted in New Zealand on teachers’ online professional learning in a university graduate diploma program on ICT education. Evolving from social constructivist pedagogy for online professional development, the research describes how teachers create their own networks of practice as they blend online and offline interactions with fellow learners and workplace colleagues. Teachers’ perspectives of their professional learning activities challenge the way universities design formal online learning communities and highlight the potential for networked learning in the zones and intersections between professional practice and study. The article extends the concepts of Lave and Wenger’s (1991) communities of practice social theory of learnin...
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