Reflective Summary 1

Reflective Summary 1
Summary of module:

Throughout this module’s readings, discussions, and blogs there is one theme that I feel is dominant in the unit and that is the set up, design, purpose, and functionality of a virtual learning community. One of the things that I seem to keep coming back to in reflecting upon in the module is that a virtual community, just like a regular community, has to be well planned and developed. The scope of planning and development must meet both immediate as well as future needs of the community and its members. Communities that are not well planned out tend to sprawl and meander without a clear purpose or direction and are difficult to navigate. Along with a well thought out design, communities must have stable and responsive leaders, as lack of leadership can lead to the demise of the community. It is the leaders who are charged with carrying out the mission and purpose of the community as well as providing insight and direction to members. Another concept related to both leadership and design which concerns the members is support which includes help and safety features. Members are the heartbeat of the community, therefore their roles and activities must be clearly stated and the appropriate help and support provided so they can carry out their mission. By incorporating all of these same elements into a virtual community we can create the foundation for a virtual learning community where knowledge construction is both process and product.

Option 1: Building a virtual learning community
(a) Describe your conceptualization or the model of a virtual learning community you are going to design and create; including the context, the subject matter, the target audience.

Virtual Learning Community Model: The virtual learning community that I will design and create is in conjunction with a project I am currently involved in with College of Education and the National Rural Educators Association. I will be designing and building an online Spanish course for educators.

Rationale for development: Oklahoma and other states in the south and southwest have experienced a large increase in the number of English Language Learners (primarily Hispanic students), in recent years. The increase is seen in both urban and rural districts: Tulsa public schools reported 30% of student populations are ELL; Oklahoma City public schools reported that the number of Latino ELL has doubled in the past year; and up to 1 in 5 students in rural schools is ELL. In contrast to urban school districts, rural schools districts do not have the programs in place or local practitioners with expertise to assist ELL students. Compounding this is the fact that rural schools have fewer state, local, and federal financial resources per pupil to develop and maintain educational programs of any kind, including those for ELL students. Due to the fact that this trend, increased numbers of ELL students and fewer state, local, and federal financial resources for rural schools is not anticipated to change anytime in the near future, there is a desperate need to assist and educate rural teachers in order that they may assist the large Hispanic populations in their schools.

Target audience: Educators and administrators in rural areas.
Context: The VLC will function as a knowledge acquisition area, a knowledge application/practice area and a support/community building area. Educators will begin with an intensive language preparation program (ILLP) via the VLC. The goal of the ILLP is to prepare teachers for an intensive five-week language study and culture immersion experience at Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) in Puebla, Mexico. Following their returning from Puebla educators will be engaged in the development of pedagogical skills that will utilize their language and culture understanding to address ELL students in their classroom via VLC and OU campus meetings.

Subject matter: The subject matter will be designed to focus on three specific outcomes:
• Experiences to develop an understanding of Hispanic culture.
• Experiences to develop pedagogical skills for addressing ELL.
• Experiences to develop Spanish language skills.
Each of these outcomes are interrelated are key if rural educators are expected to make a difference in the learning of all students in their classrooms.

(b) Specifically describe the strategies you will use to build or create the virtual community, addressing the contextual factors, such as the needs, interest, leadership, etc.

The online course will be a task-based learning community, which according to Riel and Polin (2004) has a shared goal which “is the communal use of diversity to achieve a deeper understanding of issues, find a solution to problems, or to complete a task in a away that is beyond the capabilities of any single person”(21).

The task is to make a difference in the learning experiences of ELL students. In order to do this, educators will need a rudimentary knowledge of the Spanish language and culture, to practice this knowledge in an immersion setting and finally the application of skills, knowledge and attitude beyond the program. In other words, the end goal is the transfer of all knowledge, skills and attitudes accumulated during the program to be demonstrated through evidence of their application in the public school setting. As pointed out in my opening reflection, the initial planning and development is key in successful virtual communities. In order to determine the success of learning in VLC’s a proper evaluation has to be developed. For this reason I have selected the accountability process, developed by Paula Berardinelli and Jim Burrows (1998) as the theoretical framework for the course. The framework encompasses all elements of a program from planning to evaluation including: purpose of the program; learner skills, knowledge and attitudes to be developed; educational program design decisions; learning that occurs- tasks and materials; anticipated changes in job performance; organizational improvement resulting from program (21).

While I have identified a theoretical framework for planning the course, there are still design challenges that are a work in progress. One of the challenges in course design will be to include ways for the authentic usage of the language and skills learned. As some of the educators may have beginning to intermediate experience in the language, another need will be designing the VLC with a contingency for those learners that do not need to start at 0 level in Spanish language acquisition. After returning from Puebla the needs of the learners within the community will shift from acquisition of the language to development of pedagogical skills for application of knowledge. This shift in the focus of the VCL will present new challenges both in content needs and application/discussion forums. To address these challenges I think Reigeluth’s Elaboration Theory (1999) is applicable as it provides guidance for designing holistic sequences of course content in an effort to make the learning process more meaningful and motivational. The use of spiral sequencing will prove beneficial as learners will be allowed to master grammar and vocabulary gradually through several passes of the materials (Reigeluth, 1999, p. 432).

(c) Explain how the literature (e.g., the reading materials), the class discussions, and personal reflections help you to frame your design ideas. In other words, how did the literature and the class activities help you come up with those ideas? Make sure you have cited all the important, relevant literature.

One of the things I gained from the literature and discussions was a greater understanding of the need for an interactive leader/instructor to make the learners feel part of the group especially in an endeavor like I am proposing. This same idea was pointed out by several members in Discussion 1 including Kim Puga, who stated, “If the user is made to feel welcome and their ideas heard, then most likely they will return.” I would also add that feeling part of the learning community can also lead to greater collaboration and engagement in an online course. The importance of a supportive leader is summed up nicely by Renninger and Shumar (2002), “That feeling of support needs to be there for someone to give their time to something that is not monetarily rewarding” (74). In an online course, an instructor who is available and responds to students questions in a timely manner can change the atmosphere and experience for the students.

The need to set up forums for educators to share stories and ideas or highlight their uses of Spanish to assist students and parents is an especially important concept to include in the VLC course design for use during the immersion and final course phase. The need to set up discussion activities including properly educating learners on what to expect can have a great impact on both sharing and interactions. According to Levin and Cervantes (2006) one of the factors affecting the Life Cycle of OLC’s is the discrepancy in how network interactions differ from face-to-face exchanges (p. 272). This is important as many of the educators taking part in the course may be unfamiliar with the time factor involved in asynchronous communications. As the authors point out, people see the internet communications as moving at the “speed of light” when in reality they can move in extremely slow motion. There is a lot of confusion caused by the “time elongation” involved in online exchanges of communication (Levin & Cervantes, 2006, p. 272). I am both overwhelmed and excited by the amount of ideas gleaned from these readings and the reading in last semester’s multimedia technology course that can be applied into the design of this OLC. My task now is to begin to commit these great ideas to paper using Berardinelli and Burrows theoretical framework of accountability process to see which theories and ideas should be incorporated in each area of the course.

References
Levin, J. & Cervantes, R. (2002). Understanding the life cycle of network-based learning communities. In K. A. Renninger & W. Shumar (Eds.), Building virtual communities:Learning and change in cyberspace (pp. 269-292). Cambridge University Press.

Reigeluth, C. M. (1999). The Elaboration Theory: Guidance for Scope and Sequence Decisions. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory (pp. 425-453). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Renninger, K. A. & Shumar, W. (2002). Community building with and for teachers at The Math Forum. In K. A. Renninger & W. Shumar (Eds.), Building virtual communities: Learning and change in cyberspace (pp. 60-95). Cambridge University Press.

Riel, M., & Polin, L. (2004). Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. In S. A. Barab, R. Kling, & J. H. Gray (Eds.), Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning (pp. 16-50). Cambridge University Press.

Vella, J., Berardinelli, P., & Burrow, J. (1998). How do they know they know? Evaluating adult education. San Francisco: Josey-Bass Publishers.