Writing
Since writing is the major way we communicate on line at this time (!), and since we're all basically solitary sitting at our computers, not in a face-to-face (F2F) class together, how we write to each other is essential. On the other hand, taking risks is important, too, in order to really communicate. So empathy and positive communication are essential parts when playing on the online stage.
This is a discussion post I wrote about creating community online.
Green Group Discussion 1/22/15
Wow. What a great spread of questions. I appreciate the choice from such a wide array. I choose this question:
Explain ways that online learning can foster community and how it can redefine community. Analyze and describe the ways that Moodle and Discovery Education tools go beyond traditional learning.
They go beyond traditional learning because participants are required to actually create a conscious online community in order to be assessed! Creating community online is part of the grade. Netiquette is part of the grade, too, because inviting tones and positive language are necessary for discussion groups to be productive. Moodle and Discovery Education tools require the conscious community to work properly because of this written discussion factor.
Online learning fosters community because it must have community in order to work properly. The same could be said of any enterprise; however, online learning will not work without a community! Therefore, the community must be consciously created. This necessity requires the people involved to collaborate on an intentional online community. This working together fosters community not only because of its necessity, but because the process of working together itself creates community.
Community is being redefined, not just online but in general. Palloff and Pratt (Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace, 1999) write that “In the past . . . communities were generally considered to be place-based. The small town or neighborhood in which you lived was your community” (21). They continue, “Our communities and neighborhoods are now virtual as well as actual, global as well as local” (25). And, they say, “Our communities today are formed around issues of identity and shared values; they are not place-based (Palloff, 1996)” (25). They follow up with: “Involvement in community today takes a conscious commitment to a group. Shaffer and Anundsen refer to this as conscious community” (26). “Community” has evolved from a time when it was almost automatic, because everyone was in the same location together, to now, when it must be consciously built together because of a shared sense of identity and values.
Online learning redefines community as well, for the same reason, because we need it in order for it to work. In many cultures around the world, the people involved need community in order to survive. In some cultures, community thrives not because of economic necessity, but because of pure enjoyment. In American culture, community is not necessarily economically necessary, nor is it even intentional. Therefore, we don't always have a sense of community in our work, our neighborhoods, or even our families.
But often we do, and that is because people have consciously created their communities through their families or friends or work. Community becomes necessary not so much because of economic necessity but because of emotional or spiritual necessity: Humans are community-oriented beings. We need community in order to survive socially. But because all of the culture does not always acknowledge the social necessity, community does not always manifest in our culture. Online learning redefines community because of its necessity - because we as online learners and teachers really do need the community in order for online learning to work. Therefore, our American culture has another pocket where community is necessary and therefore redefined.
