This quote sums up virtual learning communities for me and I believe to some degree, Richard Schwier. The virtual learning community needs to be self-driven – even more so than learning in a classroom. In a classroom the peer pressure to do well and perform could be stronger, whereas the pressure to do well in the virtual community is heavily intrinsic. Many of us are online learners because we want to learn but do not have the time or the proximity to our desired institution to physically attend classes. Based on this, online learners are learners because they want to be…now THAT is community.
In the first two chapters of Connections we read many comparisons of “vitual” learning communities (virtual meaning online as we come to find out on page 21, but I think we all knew that) and learning communities where we are all present in the same physical space. Two words used in the first two chapters that I would like to dive into are “Hospitality” and “Forgiveness”.
Hospitality:
Early on in my experience earning my master’s degree I was amazed at the ways my classmates were there to help. While at first, I think we start to help each other as a way to do exactly that – help. We all begin to get a sense that there is a certain degree of online karma in the virtual learning community. We start to realize that if we help our fellow classmates with links to articles, personal insights, etc. we start to see it come back to us. Ironically enough, I do not believe I ever received this type of treatment from my fellow classmates with whom I shared a classroom or lecture hall. The mantra in the physical classroom that seemed to be much stronger was the concept of “keep your head down at get YOUR OWN work done.”
Forgiveness:
I would like to take the liberty to change this word to “flexibility”. The good news and the bad news of any online/virtual community is the sense of immediacy. The online learning community is moving and shaking, living and breathing 24 hours/day 7 days/week. The ongoing nature of the virtual community is relentless - again, good and bad. If you blink you could miss something and if you are in the community to learn, missing anything can be very frustrating.
This is where flexibility comes in to play; the learner and the community needs to be flexible. The learner needs to understand that he or she must always check in and the community needs to understand that this may not always be a possibility.
This week I am a prime example of this. I find myself in the back seat struggling to catch up in all of my classes this term due to the abnormally social characteristics of my life recently; good and bad. I know I need to be flexible and work all hours of the night to catch up in all off my classes this term, but hopefully everyone will keep an eye in the rearview mirror for me to reappear.
So there you go. Somehow I have informally thanked you, my classmates, for your hospitality and begged for forgiveness in your ongoing flexibility.
I’d like your comment on the difference between a traditional classroom and an online classroom. I believe that in a traditional classroom where the students are sitting near one another, there is more collaboration with their friends and the students sitting next to them. But, in an online environment the students are really all sitting next to each other. I feel that they tend to reach out to all students.
ReplyDeleteThe power of personal choice. That's all I could think when I was reading through your post. People taking charge of their own learning, choosing what information to research and digest and how to do so. VLC classmates choosing to create relationships and community bonds that do not rely on physical proximity. I've probably gone on and on about this before, but I love this idea of giving agency back to learners and making them responsible for (at least part of) their own educational experience.
ReplyDeleteYou offer and interesting point about classmates helping each other in virtual versus physical classes. I have found during my M.Ed. pursuit, classmates are more helpful and collegial in general than during my undergraduate program. I have taken most of my course online but not all and I can recall several instances of this aspect of community in both my online and physical classes. I tend to think this is the case because more graduate students have experience working in collaborative work environments and hopefully appreciate the benefits of a culture of reciprocity. On the other hand, maybe people are also more willing to help others when they can do it from the comfort of their own homes, as they do in an online course.
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