Welcome to Week 2 of“The Theory and Practice of

WebPedagogies”

Our theme: Varieties of Community

Agenda Part 1: class session (2 hrs)

• Last week’s Re-cap (10 minutes) – From our distance students– Local students

• Overview of three articles • Social Theory and Community (Brint)• How online networks benefit Organizations

BREAK

Part 1- cont

Learning Communites

• Three examples:

• Knowledge Building

• Fostering Communities of Learners

• Inquiry Math

Individual Work: Notes towards “Community Memo”

• BREAK (10 min)

Part 2: Lab (1 hour)

• Brief Reading Preview for week 3

• Break into CCDT groups.

• Overview of CCDT "blank pages" &

“collaborate” > “manage team”.

• Go over learning communities memo first draft due next week.

Last Week’s Recap

From our far students: Aha’s and questions

• Read from weekly feedback form and e-mail

Local “Ahas” and questions

• (board)

General connection between the three readings

• On the Board

First Reading: Social Theory and

CommunityBrint Article

Social Theory and Community

ab

What general outcomes might you think are associated with person ‘a’ compared with person ‘b’?

Social Theory and Community

What do rituals do for community and its members?

Social Theory and Community

Size matters: how?

Social Theory and Community

Actually, opposites don’t usually attract.

Worldviews or belief systems influence communities

Social Theory and Community

• Need for Rethinking Community– Shift from tightly bounded geographies– Technologies of connection– (refer to Brint’s Figure 1)

• Different Structures, Different Outcomes– (refer to Brint’s Table 1)– Expressions of probabilistic relationships

Second Reading : Networks and Organizations (TBD)

On-line Networks: Knowledge Communities in the Workplace

• Webs of relationships computer mediated discussions

• Enhance collective knowledge: how?– Similarities with learning community– Timeliness of distributing knowledge– Provide spaces for discussion– Multiplies recipients of useful knowledge

On-line Networks: Knowledge Communities in the Workplace

• Mix of virtual and community of place• Not a true community in Brint’s sense

– Why not? Does it matter?

• Issues remain of: – Personal obligation – Status inequality – Environmental context (corporate culture)– Community building mechanisms

An Affordances Analysis

• How can we do the analysis?

One strategy: Challenges Meet Affordances

Aspect of the Situation, task

Challenge Affordance

What did groups find?

BREAK

Third Reading: Learning Communities

1. Reading questions

2. Why learning communities?

3. In depth view of the three cases• Knowledge Forum (Classrooms/schools/districts)

• Fostering a Community of Learners (schools/district)

• Inquiry Math classroom (school/program)

Reading Questions

See handout from last week

Whole class dialogue

Going through the structure of the article

Why Learning Communities?

• Social-constructivist argument.

• Learning-to-learn argument

• Multi-cultural argument.

A Framework for Viewing Learning Communities

1. Goals of the community

2. Learning activities

3. Teacher roles and power relationships

4. Centrality/peripherality and identity

5. Resources

6. Discourse

7. Knowledge

8. Products

Comparative analysis of Three Learning-Community Classrooms

Knowledge-Building

Fostering a Community of

Learners

Inquiry Math Classroom

Goals of the community

Learning activities

Teacher roles and power relationships

Centrality/peripherality and identity

Resources

Discourse

Knowledge

Products

First L.C. Example: Knowledge Building

Welcome View

Who we are

What we bring to the community

What our goals are

The Purpose of this View

Nested Inquiry Cycles

Some Conclusions on K.F.’s Affordancs

• The Software supports meeting an “objective”

• Such “objectives” emerge of common interests

• Overall K.F. affords knowledge building• What else?

Second L.C. Example: Fostering Communties of Learners

Ann Brown’s work

Third L.C. Example: Inquiry Mathematics

• Maggie Lampert’s Classroom

• Google “Lambert, mathematics”

• http://mathforum.org/~sarah/Discussion.Sessions/Lampert.html

Principles for the Design of Effective Learning Communities

• Community-Growth Principle

• Emergent-Goals Principle

• Articulation-of-Goals Principle

• Metacognitive Principle

• Beyond-the-Bounds Principle

• Respect-for-Others Principle

Principles for the Design of Effective Learning Communities (cont.)

• Failure-Safe Principle

• Structural-Dependence Principle

• Depth-over-Breadth Principle

• Diverse-Expertise Principle

• Multiple-Ways-to Participate Principle

• Sharing Principle

• Negotiation Principle

• Quality-of-Products Principle,

Conclusions, anyone?

Before the break, each student writes down one, two or three conclusions/“aha’s” drawn from this lecture.

Also note one key unanswered question.

BREAK

Next Week’s Preview

• Discussion of research

• Readings are meant as background

• Core issues– Choosing and focusing a topic– Finding and evaluating sources

• Need for critical thinking

• Role of learning styles

• Affordances of on-line research

– Citing sources

Lecture Bibliography

• Kristin Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. U of California Press, 1985.

• Peggy Leavitt, The Transnational Villagers. U of California Press, 2001.

• Lampert, M. (1986). Knowing, doing, and teaching multiplication. Cognition and Instruction, 3(4), 305-342