Assignment 1.2

What is EdTechTalk?

EdTechTalk is a learning community started by Jeff Lebow and Dave Cormier two active educational technology specialists. Cormier would describe the community as a ‘rhizomatic‘ knowledge community, a community whose roots spread in complex and intangible ways using a variety of media.

Wenger (1999, pg 254) states one of the challenges of building online communities is in the duality of participation and reification he says ‘opening up a public economy of meaning and creating reified commitments that participants can refer to, it can restrain domination by specific interest groups – but it can also become the instrument of such domination.’ For EdTechTalk to ensure organic growth it will need to address the two key issues that appear to be it’s greatest strength, the power of the individual voices within the community and the enormous amount of content collected by it’s members.

The People & Technolgy

Approximately 20 committed individuals provide the social energy and drive to create learning experiences for a community of at least 1000 Twitter followers and a large audience of lurkers.  It’s one of the larger sites for educational technology content.The main site is built with Drupal a content management system designed to support online community based web-sites. It contains links to over 500 podcasts (recordings of live discussions hosted on Ustream) covering a range of topics ranging from interviews with small rural schools using Twitter to photographers discussing the use of Flickr.

Each show has links either posted either on the site itself or in Deli.cio.us or Diigo.  It also has the functionality to support forums and commenting on individual shows, however these are only used in limited ways.

It’s is interesting that as the community develops so does the technology used and this provides both an opportunity and a challenge for developing the community within a historical context.

My Experience

Over the past six weeks. I have participated in the following ways:

  • Listened to weekly broadcasts (3)
  • Listened to shows including EdTechWeekly, It’s Elementary, Teachers Teaching Teachers (6)
  • Subscribed to Delicious feeds (RSS everyday)
  • Subscribed to Diigo feeds (email everyday)
  • Twitter (check a few times a week)

I have read articles and found tools both of which have been useful in terms of informing my practice. My sense of competence is extended through this participation.  Through just a couple of months of lurking I have improved my understanding of the complex topic of teaching using the read/write web and have extended this to my work with classroom teachers blogging.

Live Shows

‘As a context for learning, engagement is not just a matter of activity, but of community building, inventiveness, social energy, and emergent knowledgeability.’ (Wenger, 1999, pg 237) Engagement through the use of live conversations is certainly a key factor in the success of this community.

Most of the conversation is directed by the 20 or so higly engaged participants (probably more a ‘fat belly’ than the usual 1% regular contributors). They achieve this through providing a fairly open space in which participants are able to build a strong sense of identity the result of which is the weekly live audio discussions under topic bannes such as:

When asked why they participate in this Voicethread, participants responded with positive comments about the human aspects eg ‘you can’t get the smile in an asynchronous environment’. Another member stated ‘Going back to something that was said a week ago is not going to be as engaging as something that’s happening right now.’ Paul Allison. Humanness and immediacy seem to be the foundations of this engagement.

However as Wenger (1999, pg 256) explains ‘Communities of practice are learning assets through the depth of engagement they develop, but the locality of engagement entails the liability that useful connections beyond the boundaries of any given practice may not be apparent or sought.’ Finding the right balance of engagement is important and perhaps on this level the cognitive load placed on new participants is a deterrent to participation therefore reducing the diversity of the group. Perhaps the humanness and immediacy provide an environment that places boundaries that are too impermeable for growth. However it may be that diversity is respected and works within the design but is just less obvious.

Social Bookmarking

The very nature of the type of knowledge they are building almost defies riefication because tomorrow it may be wrong. This illustrates Wenger’s (1999, pg 231) idea of the duality of participation and reification. Both within the podcasts and particularly the bookmarking it is clear that by having a high level of autonomy and participation you can collect an enormous resource and this provides more opportunity for having the right resource available. However the other side of this is that because of the high level of participation it is also less likely that the person looking for a particular piece of content will find it.

For example, if you go to their community on Diigo and find all articles tagged ‘internet safety‘ topic you get a constantly updated list of many resources, covering to various extents the available knowledge on a topic. However it may be that none of these address the topic of internet safety in a cohesive easily applied manner. Agreed processes on cataloging of resources and criteria for selection could be implemented ‘reifying’ (Wenger) some of this knowledge whilst still providing the flexibility of the social processes of collection.

Twitter

I have noticed that Twitter is useful about half the time I check it. For example today I noticed the Sue Waters has created a Comment Challenge. I’d already thought this was a good opportunity to further extend the kids blogging experiences, then I saw a comment from another teacher and thought that would be a good opportunity to work together. This is the system at it’s best, relationships and knowledge coming together to improve practice.

Also the use of Twitter highlights the significance of the global context. For example some of the ideas they talk about regarding the read/write web are impossible because of policy for example in one session they are talked about Youth Twitter and we can’t access Twitter in the classroom. Rather than viewing this as an either or situation it is perhaps an example of the opportunities to be explored by building an awareness of what is happening at the periphery. I know a lot of teachers who would be keen for information about how to facilitate a similar experience perhaps using a different tool.

Webcast Academy

The community leaders suggest that the idea of ‘competence’ is an important issue. They themselves discussed these elements as part of their Spring Community Assembly suggesting the importance of ‘a community that’s built on responsibility… and shared experience.’ The Webcast Academy provides a clever mechanism for scaffolding experience in terms of participation in the community and at the same time an opportunity to experience collaboration in a secure environment. ‘In brief, the stronger, more secure, and better built your scaffold, the more ‘robust’ (Calderwood, 1999) your social dynamic and the more opportunities for learning.’ (Woods, 2003)

However by only providing one way of mentoring newcomers there is a risk that learners will either be turned off or the community will become stale. As Kehrwald (2007) states ‘There is a need to understand the developmental progression of relational states and the effects of this progression on productive learning activity.’

Additionally they are thinking about working on a professional development credit for participation in the Webcast Academy. At it’s best this could be a positive step towards accepting collaborative education as of equal value as traditional learning at worst this could turn the current collaborative focus into something more institutionalised.

Conclusion

‘We need to think of learning as an experience that happens when we connect with others.’ (Guhlin, 2008). This is important in terms of who we connect with. EdTechTalk is a learning community of growing importance, by recognising it’s place in the community it is better placed to capitalise on it’s capacity to change the social context within which it operates.

Extending the collaborative learning environment to help others find their voice in ways that are comfortable for them will mean providing and supporting varied learning experiences. Some ideas that could facilitate a more inclusive community include:

  • Providing a diversity of scaffolded experiences that demonstrate historical context eg a playlist of ‘must listen’ podcasts
  • Providing some basic policy around creating a folksonomy for Del.icio.us and Diigo. Eg Here’s what it’s for. Types of links we want. How to tag them. How to join us on Diigo.
  • Encourage participation from outside the core group by providing advice as to the type of content in the upcoming talks where possible. Eg Asking for links. Discussing those most valuable.
  • Providing a show that is based on questions posed. Possibly in the forums. A show that is about collaborating with the wider audience.
  • Providing some activities that indicate a sense of future time. Eg Longer-term projects that invite collaboration from a wider audience.
  • Providing a free space such as the voicethreads to collaborate and build on ‘emergent knowledge’. Eg After a show build a voicethread based on experiences applying the knowledge.

By providing these slight shifts in control from the show producers to audience you can build an atmosphere of collaboration by providing multiple ways to raise your voice. Within this atmosphere it is possible that things might go in unintended directions but this ultimately contributes to a fuller conversation. The additional benefit of incorporating more diversity into their conversations would ultimately produce deeper knowledge for those outside the EdTechTalk community and also those within it.

References:

Cormier D, 2 Feb 2008, Rhizomatic Knowlede Communities http://davecormier.com/edblog/2008/02/29/rhizomatic-knowledge-communities-edtechtalk-webcast-academy/ (last viewed 3 May 2008)

Downes S, Educause Review Vol39, No5, Sept-Oct 04 (pg14-26)
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/EducationalBlogging/40493http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/onlinelearning/courses/sdownessept.html (last viewed 3 May 2008)

ETT Podcast, Discussion on Images in the Classroom and Flickr, Recorded Feb <insert date> 07, http://www.edtechtalk.com/node/1511http://www.webcastacademy.net (last viewed 3 May 2008)

EdTechTalk Spring 2008 Community Assembly, 23/4/08
http://edtechtalk.com/node/3130 (last viewed 3 May 2008)
Guhlin, M, Build Your Own Personal Learning Network, 2008 http://www.edsupport.cc/mguhlin/share/index.php?n=Work.Pln (last viewed 2 May 2008)

Karrer T, 28 April 2008, Elearning Technology: 90-9-1 Rule in Collaborative Environments
http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2008/04/90-9-1-rule-aka-1-rule-in-collaborative.html (last viewed 3 May 2008)

Kehrwald, B 2007, The ties that bind: Social presence, relations and productive collaboration in online learning environments. Proceedings Ascilite

Ochoa X, Duval E, 2008, Quantitative Analysis of User-Generated Content on the Web Web EvolveSchinker J, <insert date published> http://staff.bbhcsd.org/schinkerj/etech-2008/ (200* (last viewed 3 May 2008)

Wenger, E. 1999, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, Cambridge University Press, USA.

Woods R, 2003, Becoming a ‘Communal Architect’ in the Online Classroom – Integrating Cognitve and Affective Learning for Maximum Effect in Web-Based Learning; Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, V6, #1, Spring
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring61/woods61.htm