Chapter 9, Why would members rather listen to the experience (or so-called evidence) from non-professionals than the professionals? How did these people view credibility? What are the possibilities for learning and change in this case study?
I was intrigued with the thoughts about “end of tradition”, the fact that we as a society have lost faith in figures such as doctors, fathers, teachers and scientist. As a nurse I can say that I am not surprised by the above fact; I think there are many reasons for our loss of faith. Going to the physician in today’s world consist of waiting for sometimes more than 2 hours to see the Dr., once you do see him he spends maybe 5-10 minutes with you, hands you a prescription, that he may or may not explain and says see you back in 2 weeks. In today’s world of malpractice insurance and the high overhead for the physician, practicing medicine consist of a drive through mentality. I believe that today’s lay person, has many more resources at his hand, the internet being number one. Say you go to the Dr. and he tells you to loose 20 ponds before you come back. You ask him for some pointers and he answers you well you just need to eat salads. If you are like me that is just not going to cut it. You get home and go online and find many chat rooms, or support groups with specific ways to loose weight, you are able to interact with others who are experiencing your same problem. You can share ideas and get support, much like face to face support groups but in the privacy of your own home. I am a Diabetic Educator, and teach patients about their diabetes, but I myself do not have diabetes. I think that if a patient can relate to another who has had the same experiences they have, it will make the self-management much more meaningful.
I think that one of the concerns about all this self-help is credibility. There is just as much bad advice as there is good advice in the World Wide Web. It is up to the consumers to do their own research before one makes up their mind whether to trust information or not. I liked the ideas from Burrows and Nettleton, that although people are better informed, it doesn’t mean that they are any more able to make the choices that they must make.
I believe that we are able to learn and teach in these case studies, but we must give the learners choices, we must present them with the facts, and the potential side effects. I believe that by having support groups that are maybe ran by a person with expert knowledge, they would be able to guide, inform and rebuke false information. I believe that the facilitator should be open to new ideas and explore the ideas with the group.
Chapter10-12 and Riel & Polin. How are the online communities structured and how was the technology designed to facilitate community activities, knowledge building, and learning and change? What are the implications for your design and delivery of the course, if you are the instructional designer, trainers or an instructor?
Chapter 11 in our readings for this week covered four different virtual communities. It dealt with the ways that members of a community encounter, engage, master, use, and transform the knowledge-in-use in the community. It reiterated our readings from last week and the fact that a community has certain purposes and is organized in specific ways to accomplish the expectations or tasks. The chapter covered four examples of on-line community using diverse examples. Each of the different communities was structured in a different way and used different technology to facilitate community activities. The Kindred Spirits (KS) looked for a cultural situation which they identified with the works and life of Lucy Maud Montgomery (LMM); the founders were looking to create a space in a social environment reflecting the world LMM wrote about. KS is an example of a virtual community that was formed with a purpose, its fonder was knowledgeable about the technology, but with the expansion he lost control of the site. It is an example of a community that began with one purpose, but that evolved and changed or time, leading to a splintering off of the original members into other forums. I believe that if I were to design a course, first of all I would enlist help in the technology part; I would also consider the reason for the course, what are the needs of the users. I would make it an easy to follow format, with lots of prompts and help hints. I would try and design the course in a way that novices could negotiate the site without much technical difficulty. My personal experience from last semester showed that there is a whole different learning curve with on-line education and community. Not only did I have to get used to being a student after 10 years, but I had to acquire a new technical skill.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Week 1 Communities
What is a community (How is it defined)? What is a virtual /online community? What bring people together and what motivate them to stay together as members of a community? Cite examples from the recent issues of the Time magazine and/or from your personal experience with a real or virtual community you belong to and discuss the concept of a community.
A community can be defined many ways, it can be defined as a group of people who hold something in common, who share a common sense of identify, they share concerns, resources, quality of life, help and so forth. A virtual/online community is also defined as a group of people who have something in common, but without the constraints of the physical, they do not need a defined physical space, such as a city or town. Virtual communities may be considered more flexible, individuals can make their own, or join their own personal communities. I believe what motivates people to stay together as members of a community is the fact that they have a need being meet. It may be a need for shelter, or a need for education. Online it may just be a need for entertainment or companionship. An example that I have recently been involved in is the community of on-line learning. I feel that I have come to know many of my fellow students, even though I have not had a face to face meeting with them. While I was reading on-line bio's the other night, my husband commented that, " In a real class you don't know that much about each other."
How are the real community and the virtual community similar and different at the same time? How do the emerging technologies, specifically the Internet, “alter our sense of boundaries, participation, and identity” of a community (p. 14, Shummar & Renniger)? For some of you who took my EIPT 5533 course last semester, you should be familiar with Pea’s article to answer this question: “Does the virtual community augment people’s thinking, reform their thinking, or do the both? Why?
Real communities and virtual communities are similar in the fact that a need is being met, and people have things in common. In a real community people are joined together, because of where they live or what they do. I am part of the soccer mom community, because I have children that play sports and I am there to support them. During each sport I will become a member of that sport, it may have a diff rent set of people or the same people depending on which child is playing what sport. Whereas in a virtual community I choose where to belong, because of one of my interest, whether it be on-line education or something like my-space or face book. The virtual comm unties differ in the fact that I can stay in Durant and still have a teacher from Ohio, I do not have to be in close physical contact. I do think that the main differences between virtual and real is the boundaries and the possibility of false identities. It is really easy to pretend you are someone you are not if the people in the virtual communities don't know who you are. We warn our children over and over again not to trust strangers in real life, but we must also worry that the person on the other end of the my-space or the WOW is really the person they say they are. I think that people do feel more free to type or write something than to say it. I think that can be good and times and bad at others. I have known of teens to get kicked off the cheer leading squad due to what they wrote in my-space.
From your own experience or other people’s experience of an online community, do you think people learn and construct knowledge by participating in the community? If so, what are the implications of a virtual community for learning and change?
My own experience of an online community is rather limited. I base my knowledge of online communities from that of on-line educational opportunities from a college that I could not physically attend due to distance problems. So I do think people are able to learn and construct knowledge by participation in an online community. I feel very fortunate to be able to complete my masters program online and feel that on-line educational opportunities will only continue to get better.
A community can be defined many ways, it can be defined as a group of people who hold something in common, who share a common sense of identify, they share concerns, resources, quality of life, help and so forth. A virtual/online community is also defined as a group of people who have something in common, but without the constraints of the physical, they do not need a defined physical space, such as a city or town. Virtual communities may be considered more flexible, individuals can make their own, or join their own personal communities. I believe what motivates people to stay together as members of a community is the fact that they have a need being meet. It may be a need for shelter, or a need for education. Online it may just be a need for entertainment or companionship. An example that I have recently been involved in is the community of on-line learning. I feel that I have come to know many of my fellow students, even though I have not had a face to face meeting with them. While I was reading on-line bio's the other night, my husband commented that, " In a real class you don't know that much about each other."
How are the real community and the virtual community similar and different at the same time? How do the emerging technologies, specifically the Internet, “alter our sense of boundaries, participation, and identity” of a community (p. 14, Shummar & Renniger)? For some of you who took my EIPT 5533 course last semester, you should be familiar with Pea’s article to answer this question: “Does the virtual community augment people’s thinking, reform their thinking, or do the both? Why?
Real communities and virtual communities are similar in the fact that a need is being met, and people have things in common. In a real community people are joined together, because of where they live or what they do. I am part of the soccer mom community, because I have children that play sports and I am there to support them. During each sport I will become a member of that sport, it may have a diff rent set of people or the same people depending on which child is playing what sport. Whereas in a virtual community I choose where to belong, because of one of my interest, whether it be on-line education or something like my-space or face book. The virtual comm unties differ in the fact that I can stay in Durant and still have a teacher from Ohio, I do not have to be in close physical contact. I do think that the main differences between virtual and real is the boundaries and the possibility of false identities. It is really easy to pretend you are someone you are not if the people in the virtual communities don't know who you are. We warn our children over and over again not to trust strangers in real life, but we must also worry that the person on the other end of the my-space or the WOW is really the person they say they are. I think that people do feel more free to type or write something than to say it. I think that can be good and times and bad at others. I have known of teens to get kicked off the cheer leading squad due to what they wrote in my-space.
From your own experience or other people’s experience of an online community, do you think people learn and construct knowledge by participating in the community? If so, what are the implications of a virtual community for learning and change?
My own experience of an online community is rather limited. I base my knowledge of online communities from that of on-line educational opportunities from a college that I could not physically attend due to distance problems. So I do think people are able to learn and construct knowledge by participation in an online community. I feel very fortunate to be able to complete my masters program online and feel that on-line educational opportunities will only continue to get better.
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