LEARNING IN COMMUNITIES

Constructivism is a learning theory found in psychology which explains how people might acquire knowledge and learn. It therefore has direct application to education. The theory suggests that humans construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences. From this perspective, Learning is a social activity - it is something we do together, in interaction with each other, rather than an abstract concept (Saul McLeod, 2019 in Dewey, 1938)I too believe that, learning is a social activity.  For example, Vygotsky (1978) believed that community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning." Thus, all teaching and learning is a matter of sharing and negotiating socially constituted knowledge.

The concepts of community learning reflects how human being  depend from each other in a learning process, the need interaction and collaboration with each other in a well networked environment and this what happens through the ONL 192

Topic three was very interesting, we discussed and learn so many things such as the importance of collaborative learning, how to constructive knowledge collaboratively, how to manage collaborative learning (Pedagogical approach), skills needed for effective community learning, and challenges of community or collaborative learning.

Sources of challenges of students involved in online collaborative learning can be

•          Perception of an asymmetric collaboration among the teammates   
•      Lack of shared goals among the team members
•     Imbalance in the level of communication
•     Difficulties in communicatio

•     Lack of instructors’ support/orientation and

•      Problems in reaching consensus (Capdeferro, N.,& Romeo, M. 2012)

Emotion words listed by academic writers; words size is proportional to frequency (n 1223)

These challenges can be avoided by supplying a learning environment that facilitate social interaction, collaboration, effective support in technology and should be provide with enough information about the online learning models in general in order to allow them to adjust their expectations, preferences and decision making concerning their enrollment in online learning.

Despite of all the challenge of online collaborative learning, it should be noted that learning communities has been marked as key feature of the 21th century in schools especially higher learning institutions. Lichtenste and Wakings (2005) pointed those significant outcomes of student’s participation in learning in communities, such as higher retention rates, integration of academic and social skills experiences, higher intrinsic motivation, lower risk of withdrawal, increased cognitive skills, gains in multiple areas of skills and overall satisfaction with the college experience.

In conclusion, I would quote one of colleague contribution during the brainstorming session of topic three "Failure, errors, and mistakes can be very important not only in the group's socialization process, but also as a way of dealing with power asymmetries that can otherwise be hidden in effective groups. the process of failure can be important when you learn in cooperative ways- because you learn new things, unlearn and rethink about things that are taken for granted" consider that online collaborative learning is dynamic, there variations across communities, culture, belief, understanding and so forth.

I SUPPORT LEARNING IN COMMUNITIES BOTH ONLINE AND BLENDED MODE.

Reference

ennett, J. M. (2015) ‘Learning Communities’, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Intercultural Competence.

Bolliger, D.U. (2004). Key Factors for Determining Student Satisfaction in Online Courses. International Journal on E-Learning, 3(1), 61-67.  https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/2226/

Capdeferro, N., & Romero, M. (2012). Are online learners frustrated with collaborative learning experiences? The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13(2), 26-44.

Lichtenstein, M. (2005). The importance of classroom environments in the assessment of learning community outcomes. Journal of College Student Development, 46(4), 341–356.

Watkins, C. (2005). Classrooms as learning communities: A review of research. London Review of Education, 3(1), 47–6

Saul, M,,(2019). “Constructivism as a theory for teaching and learning” available at https://www.simplypsychology.org/constructivism.html

Wu, J. H., Tennyson, R. D. and Hsia, T. L. (2010) ‘A study of student satisfaction in a blended e-learning system environment’, Computers and Education. Elsevier Ltd, 55(1), pp. 155–164

Sharing and Openness in Education a way to go?

Sharing and Openness in Education a way to go?

The issues of sharing and openness were discussed in details with colleagues in my group.

I personals feel that, Sharing educational material and research works is a way to go now; it makes material and research works available to broader community, reduces the barriers to collaborative learning through data sharing, transparence and attribution, reduces duplicates in educational materials and helps to remove bias in our understand of a particular subject, enables others to build upon new ideas right away, whenever and whoever they are.

When I Read about openness and sharing research in a blog post by so called, F1000research which is platform for open sciences/open data, they discussed some reasons as to why researchers are reluctant to share research data openly; A common explanation is there is a limited academic benefit to them in sharing, plus curating data takes time and money, so beyond a public good argument, they feel there is little incentive to share. Furthermore, for the researchers who work in low-income countries, they have said that they feel that by sharing their data before they have had a chance to fully analyse them, makes them open to exploitation by researchers in high income settings. To put it bluntly, they feel like data exporters.

The pressures of research assessments are also another limiting factor. For example, in the UK, the Research Excellence Framework places much burden on researchers to seek high impact journals, with limited focus on the implementation and benefits to the public. If assessments were more about the implementation, making better use and re-use of data and collaborations across disciplines, then we may start to see a greater demand for sharing research data in its entirety

(https://blog.f1000.com/2019/10/24/challenges-and-solutions-to-sharing-health-research-data/)

Way Forward….

If we want to eliminate the challenges brought about by sharing and openness some action are to be takes by every stake holder like researchers, public, funding organizations, charities, academic institutions and industry.etc.

We need to look at changing the culture to support and embrace openness, transparency and inclusivity. If the value and kudos of sharing are equal to the demands of institutions and/or research assessments then we might begin to see a change outside of academia as well.

Everybody has a responsibility to ensure that materials and research works are shared in a robust, safe and efficient way. If we can ensure and demonstrate that works are protected in a secure way, then the boundaries on withholding are weakened. Creative common policies are best way to securely share resources.

Finally, funders have a key role to optimize the value of material and research works  sharing and institutions can enable academics to enhance the movement for sharing and openness  to be or part of normal practice. 

Reference

(https://blog.f1000.com/2019/10/24/challenges-and-solutions-to-sharing-health-research-data/)