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Teacher professional development in groups, communities, and networks
Tumblr, help! I have been invited to speak at the Network to Support Trainers in Europe’s first annual on-line conference on “the Training of Trainers” on 6 November, 2008 http://www.trainersineurope.org/conference/programme/. The organizers are aiming to have four speakers in each session and have asked for a title for my contribution and three or four lines describing it. I suggested: Teacher professional development in groups, communities, and networks.
At the second WiAOC conference, Etienne Wenger (2007) gave one of our keynotes and I asked him if his ideas on CoPs had changed at all as a result of his interactions with Webheads. Surprisingly, he said that they had, especially regarding the nature of space occupied by the community. He said that we knew who we were in terms of domain and practice but that we had freed ourselves from constraints on space in spanning so many available spaces in distributing ourselves, and that this was a revelation to him in that we were clearly a CoP, but with very loosely defined boundaries.
Our conversation with Etienne was recorded here: http://streamarchives.net/node/56
At that same online conference, Stephen Downes (2007) spoke to us about the distinction between groups, communities, and networks. A YahooGroup characterizes that first level of interaction, where a group forms to disseminate information, but might not necessarily be a community. A community implies greater interaction where members are impacting one another, and a community of practice suggests that this interaction is directed toward the professional development of all concerned.
Stephen Downes characterized the evolution of this model in the talk he gave at WiAOC 2007 (<http://wiaoc.org> and <http://webheadsinaction.org>), entitled Personal Learning the Web 2.0 Way:
• Slides:
http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/personallearning-the-web-20-way
• Audio Part 1:
http://streamarchives.net/node/84
• Audio Part 2:
http://streamarchives.net/node/83For some time Webheads have considered themselves a CoP but with so many more opportunities for connectivist knowledge to be disseminated across many groups and communities (Siemens, 2004), Downes’s notion of individuals interacting as nodes in a complex and interlaced distributed learning network is the one that I think best fits Webheads in its current configuration. I think this is what Etienne was getting at when he said that Webheads had freed themselves from constraints on spaces in which to meet, and thus his notion of what characterizes a CoP might be merging with the connectivist network model (Stevens, 2007).
Stevens, Vance. (2007). The Multiliterate Autonomous Learner: Teacher Attitudes and the Inculcation of Strategies for Lifelong Learning Independence, Winter 2007 (Issue 42) . Retrieved November 9, 2007 from http://www.learnerautonomy.org/VanceStevens.pdf
Some quotes from this article:
The “expert system” model doesn’t work because “in Downes’s view, knowledge does not derive from algorithmic processes but from connectionist ones. That is, apart from the most discrete learning goals (how to perform long division for example) knowledge is not linearly derived in series of if/then junctures but is
pattern driven, as embodied in networks. In other words, instances of knowledge reside at nodes which online comprise distributed learning networks, and to
become knowledgeable is more a matter of developing competencies for accessing those nodes and systematizing the information available there than of mechanically following algorithms down pre-scribed paths.”“The expert model is intuitively understood by a generation brought up on western scientific logic, and such logic does not readily suggest nor accept network solutions. To Cartesian-logical minds, network solutions might appear counter-intuitive until experienced. How, for example, can a wiki work unregulated and ‘bottom up’ to create an encyclopedia that is in many ways superior to the traditional ‘top down’ authoritatively published ones. Yet wikis and other social networking tools have had startling impacts on constructivist learning when applied appropriately in educational contexts. Their benefit to learning, says Downes, is beyond articulation or description, but is rather, ineffable.”
“There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that teachers who do not model appropriate uses of technology predispose their students to avoid technology in turn, whereas teachers who use technology in their classes positively influence their students to experiment with technology in finding solutions requiring them to apply their skills as autonomous learners and problem-solvers.”
“Teachers who explore and exploit the many opportunities for interaction with peers in the online environment are much more likely to adapt the techniques they themselves use for professional development in their own classes and thereby MODEL these practices for students. As Downes notes in slide 22 of the presentation that has sounded the tonic chord for this article, “To teach is to model and to demonstrate. To learn is to practice and reflect.”
“It is possible to conclude that teachers who practice autonomy in their own professional development formulate heuristics for harvesting knowledge within their personal learning spaces, and thus stand a better chance of inculcating the desired
behaviors in their students, thus increasing the likelihood of producing potentially autonomous and lifelong learners. But it is a percolative process. In order to teach (to model and demonstrate) one must constantly learn and re-learn, and this means that one must practice the behaviors one models (how else to model them?) and reflect on the ramifications of those behaviors, as we do in writing and reading this article, from each of our nodes connected to one another through our interlaced learning networks..”
Vance hits the nail on the head again! I guess that’s what I’ve been experiencing. My connections to my network, getting more intense and deep, lead to another kind of thinking, changes in my practices that have been reflecting on the way I teach and reason with others. Just had a skype conference with two of my bosses and instead of solving some quick issues, I ended up asking questions and messing all up! but it felt good to bring important issues into the talk, and it seems that they agreed that what I mentioned werer important considerations.
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Braziiiil
As I proud Brazilian, just loved to see a Jeep with the Brazilian flag license plate in Key West! Far from home…
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