Week #3: Blog 1: Virtual Learning Communities

Chapters one and two of Richard Schwier’s e-book, Connections: Virtual Learning Communities, takes an in-depth look at what learning communities are, who or what makes them tick, and considers the parallels between interpersonal (face to face) and virtual communication.  I strongly agree with Schwier that people by nature want to be connected with  others and learn survival through learning and adapting with others.  Clearly the adolescent children in my classroom are social creatures and enjoy learning most when it is collaborative and interactive.  Schwier argues that community can be just as strongly developed in virtual settings and has many of the same elements as face to face communities: hospitality, authenticity, resilience, and are multifaceted.  These communities’ shift and change as the participants develop trust, connections, and determine the amount of personal investment they are willing to make. 

These virtual communities are growing as technology continues to bring people together. Teachers, such as George Siemens, are opening their classrooms not only to students who are registered for the class, but also to learners beyond the classroom, creating layers of learning communities. Siemens argues that structured learning is irrelevant if learners aren’t involved and considered in the development of the content outcomes, otherwise deeming the learning meaningless and thus graduating students only capable of answering questions designed for the test.  A You Tube video, A Private Universe, where Harvard graduates are asked to explain the changing of the seasons demonstrates his point.

Schwier challenged my thinking as a teacher to remove myself from the “front of the classroom” where typically knowledge is dispelled to the students instead of trusting the students to explore and discover content knowledge on their own through teacher guidance, prodding, and pushing.  This can be done face to face, but the Millennial learner needs to be challenged in ways that only technology can deliver – to increase learning by customization, convenience, and collaboration (Raised Digitally) – a hypertext style of thinking verses the old linear book format.