Facilitating Online Communities

Attitude

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:02:00 -0400

Somehow, for Communities of
Practice to be ‘successful’, we need to encourage learners to develop
an attitude where they value their own thinking and believe that it
deserves to be shared with others

Several things I liked of John’s post. First of all, the somehow, I guess he doesn’t say somehow out of lack of knowledge on the how, rather, on the contrary. I don’t think there is a magic formula to encourage the development such an attitude, so you have to use all your resources. What I mean is: if this fails, try that.

Secondly I liked the choice of the word attitude. Attitude is related to action, and it’s attitude what moves us to communicate. Moreover, it’s a person’s attitude what we first notice about them. It’s people’s attitude rather than knowledge what creates links within a community.

And finally, believe that it deserves to be shared.I think belief is related to validation and it is sharing our thoughts the way we validate them.

"The role of the Facilitator could be that of providing the atmosphere where members can optimally..."

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:35:28 -0400

“The role of the Facilitator could be that of providing the atmosphere where members can optimally interact with one another (i.e., with as many members) and subsequently benefit according to their own needs.”

- Still learning… «

Webbed Feat: Organized Communication through Blogs

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:25:00 -0400

Webbed Feat: Organized Communication through Blogs:

I had been thinking on the preasure a facilitator receives from the participants to act as a teacher.

While reading this post, hightighted and annotated by Illya I saw the other side of this situation.

How does a facilitator deal with their lack of control?

Questions to Questions

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:09:00 -0400

clipped from wikieducator.org

Many people either don’t understand the differences, or too easily confuse the different roles of a facilitator, moderator and teacher. Some teachers believe that teaching is an act of facilitation. Some facilitators see their main role as moderating discussion and keeping order. Over these two weeks we will consider the differences in these three roles and attempt to describe situations where they might be mutually exclusive from one another.

Before reading, even before thinking.

When does the act of teaching compromise the role of a facilitator of an online community?

If a facilitator just explains, shows, demonstrates.

When does the act of moderating online discussion compromise the role of a facilitator of an online community?

If a facilitator interferes in a participant’s contribution without providing a meaning for this interference.

When does the act of facilitation compromise the role of a teacher or moderator in an online community?

A feature I think both teachers and moderators have in common is the power to set limits. Does a facilitator limit participants in any way?

When are these three roles appropriate in an online community?

Is it apropriate/desirable/useful/essential for the same person to assume these three roles? Or is it just the opposite?

Technorati Tags: FOC08 facilitation online_communities

Undefined definition

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:52:00 -0400

So what’s an online community? The question has been spinning in my head for two weeks. Actually, that’s not the only question that has kept me musing. But what’s an online community is what I’m supposed to have answered by now.

I thought that would be very easy. Had I written this post two weeks ago I would have been able to provide a definition. Yes, that’s what happens when you start to learn. You doubt.

First of all, what is a community?
I’ve been reading lots of definitions stated (or doubted) by experts or non-experts and the limits of those definitions are always uncertain.

Maybe communities are defined by their members and their sense of belonging.

Maybe some cohesive elements hold members together in the shape of a community. These elements may be:

identity
shared goals
shared interests
rituals
sense of belonging
a meeting place

What if this meeting place is a virtual environment? There should be some differences.

The first and obvious one is the breaking of time/space limits.

Both in physical and virtual environment community members are linked to nodes outside the community. However, in an online community these links are more conspicuous. This might blur its boundaries.

Ok, I’m stuck here. I’ve decided to move on…

Technorati Tags: FOC08 facilitation online_communities

Communities and Networks

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:59:00 -0400

Tribu virtual runs on Ning. It’s creator calls it a social network. However, he named it tribe.

The first forum question posed to the members was: What is a tribe today? (11-05-08)
Rituals, identity, sharing were some of the words used by the members to define a tribe. Other words: big group, consciousness of presence, support, territory to inhabit, shared interests.

I think rituals and identity are key features to distinguish a community from a network. Both features need time to be developed.

Technorati Tags: Tribu_Virtual Roman_Mazzilli foc08 virtual_community online_community networks

Where is the centre?

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:20:00 -0400

clipped from groups.google.com

We’re coming up against the one significant challenge that faces us online:
decentralization is vital for allowing individuals to create their own
context of learning…and centralization is vital for making sense of the
larger whole (at least for most people).

clipped from tribuvirtual.ning.com

Una de las situaciones que me parece mas compleja, es la falta de un ámbito centralizado para la comunicación. Lo que tienen las listas de correo, foros y grupos virtuales por mail, (del tipo yahoo, egrupos, etc) donde todos reciben cada mail que se envia, donde toda la comunicacion y los intercambios llegan al conjunto. Claro que esto crea otros problemas que casi todos hemos experimentado: saturacion de mails, mensajes con simples saludos que se multiplican, reenvios de cadenas, etc.

Is it possible to centralize information when it’s horizontally distributed?

Technorati Tags: Tribu_Virtual Roman_Mazzilli foc08 virtual_community online_community,

Tribu Virtual- facts & figures

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:39:00 -0400

Members:151

104 women
46 men
1 ?

92 with profile photos (9 landscapes.animals. flowers)*
59 no profile photos

99 live in Argentina
8 live in other countries
44 don’t provide information**

*Members without a photo have active participation.
**These are members who joined in earlier. I assume they know the organizer face to face, maybe that’s why the don’t provide that information.

Forums: 13
6 started by the creator/administrator

Most active:
Creating a collective story: 101 answers
Started: june 9- Still active
20 members participating

Groups: 3
not active

Videos: 103
between 25-50 views each

Photos: 290

Technorati Tags: Tribu_Virtual Roman_Mazzilli foc08 virtual_community online_community,

Tribu virtual

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:01:00 -0400

Tribu virtual:

Field work

I’ll be reading and discussing theory during the next two months. I think it will be easier and more profitable for me if I do all that while observing a community.

I’m sorry the community language is Spanish. I’ve been living with this Spanish/English dichotomy since I started to take action online. Some months ago I decided language was not going to condition any decision I make.

Technorati Tags: Tribu_Virtual Roman_Mazzilli foc08 virtual_community online_community,

Technorati Profile

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:50:43 -0400

Technorati Profile

Communities of Practice

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:44:00 -0400

CoP: Best Practices

self organizing systems
emphasize the learning that people have done together
defined by knowledge
have an identity
internal leadership with intrinsic legitimacy

Different degrees of participation with value (it determines life cycle) to its members: outsiders/newcomers (new insights) and core members (expertise) who engage in a collective process learning>shared practice

Technorati Tags: foc08 communities_of_practice Etienne_Wenger

Week one

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:39:00 -0400

I’ve been drinking from the fire hose and it’s time I let some drops fall here.

Week 1 had promised to be an easy one. We had to start a blog, complete our introductions, and subscribe to participant’s blogs. It sounded quiet, well…it wasn’t.

My thougths

On the active google group:

This first week, as far as I understand, has been about getting organized to start the course. If this was a face to face course and took place back in time we would have gone home, bought folders, paper, highlighters, books and we wouldn’t have discussed which pen is better to take notes and which one to write a report. That’s not the case of this course.

Rss, tagging, bookmarking and blogging were the recourses we needed to handle the huge amount of interchange we all suspect is approaching. Participants didn’t act in isolation, but shared their resources as well as their opinion and expertise on them.

This has risen a technological talk and there is some concern about how newbies feel about this techie outburst.

It’s reassuring to see the way Leigh and the whole community are dealing with this, encouraging both techies and newbies.

On diversity:

70/80 people with different expertise and academic/cultural/backgrounds.

How to turn these individualities into a community is quite a challenge. Interesting to observe and to be part of.

I think it is in this diversity that the richness of this experience lies.

On the amount of information:

google group + participants’ blogs + reading material

Another challenge. Maybe the first step is to admit we cannot read all, we’ll surely miss quite a part of the content.

I’ve learnt to rely on my network, I suspect it is my network within the community which will help me process and choose the content so that I don’t feel overwhelmed.

Looking forward to Week2.

Technorati Tags: foc08

Magic

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:46:00 -0400

clipped from darylcook.com

Facilitation is an art of creating space for groups to naturally share their innate wisdom. — Steve Davis, FacilitatorU.com

I found this definition at Daryl’s blog. Short and meaningfull.

My online experience is quite short. On the contrary (contrary?), I’ve been teaching face to face for more than 30 years. There have been those moments in which I got a glimpse of that magical space defined by Steve Davis.

Maybe due to my academic training, I’ve never been able to really conquer the skill of creating such a space, and -just for lack of knowlege- I’ve always attributed its existance to magic.

I hope I get to know the wizard’s secrets.

Technorati Tags: Daryl_Cook facilitation online_communities wikieducator elearning media_literacy Otago_Polytechnic foc08

"Understanding how technology works is by itself insufficient. Tools by themselves are static, it’s..."

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:29:00 -0400

“Understanding how technology works is by itself insufficient. Tools by themselves are static, it’s the way they’re used and implemented, the interactivity that’s established, and the communities that evolve that make the most difference in a learner’s journey.”

- TechTicker » Blog Archive » Professional Background and Personal Learning Objectives (FOC08)

Technorati Tags: Mike_Bogle FOC08 facilitation online_communities wikieducator elearning media_literacy Otago_Polytechnic

Personal Intention

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 10:32:00 -0400

Facilitate is a word I love. It has to do with:

making things easier and possible
helping forward
assisting the process
contributing
processes rather than result
causing something to happen.

I tend to do (and push) more than facilitate. Consequently, learning how to step aside and at at the same time be there, will be my personal goal in this course.

Technorati Tags: FOC08 facilitation online_communities