Learning Technologists Virtual Community Practitioners Linda Jorn Director

Learning Technologists - Virtual Community Practitioners Linda Jorn, Director, Digital Media Center, Office of Information Technology Dr. J. D. Walker, Instructional Technology Consultant, DMC, OIT

Copyright Statement Ø © Linda A. Jorn and J. D. Walker, Digital Media Center, Office of Information Technology, University of Minnesota, 2003. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on this reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the authors. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the authors.

Objectives Ø To reflect on our experience with virtual communities and learn to: l identify types of workplace virtual communities l understand the properties of virtual communities l l identify management and evaluation issues in working with virtual communities use our expertise as learning technologists to help faculty to design virtual communities

DMC Community Mission

DMC Community Organizational Structure Ø University of Minnesota l Executive Vice President and Provost Office • Office of Information Technology l Academic Computing and Network Services • Digital Media Center

DMC Community Public Space

DMC Community Staff Space

DMC Community Virtual Space Email (DHCP, Wireless, Kiosks) Ø Cell phone Ø Work phone Ø Home phone Ø AIM Ø Listservs Ø l l l l l Webct admin DMCconsult DMCstaff Flash Web. CTadvis CIC NMC ACTL OITmanag ADCS

DMC Community Individual Identity (Virtual and Physical)

DMC Community Individual Virtual Identity Ø Email addresses l Ø ‘boutique’ scott@umn. edu; kurtis@umn. edu Email language l Duffman says: XXXX the video-man has got it under control. oh-yeah!

DMC Community Individual Virtual Identity Ø DMC Email signatures (N=14) l l l Contact info. =11 Title = 10 DMC url = 4 Longest signature = director Phrase = 2 • Education is not preparation for life, it is life itself - John Dewey • "When it's not necessary to do something, it's becomes necessary NOT to do it. ”

DMC Community Group Identities Ø Trainers Ø Consultants Ø Support specialists Ø Evaluators Ø Project Managers Ø Media Specialists Ø Virtual Community Practitioners or Specialists

Virtual Communities Ø NLII broad working definition Ø Types of virtual communities l l l Virtual teams Learning communities Communities of practice

Reflection Ø Take a moment to reflect on a virtual community you have taken part in. Ø What’s interesting about this community? l l unusual methods of communication? unusual membership? advantages/disadvantages of virtuality? differences from face-to-face communities?

Web. CT Support: A Virtual Community Ø Current role and purpose l l l Gang of Eight core team members support University of Minnesota faculty and students in their use of Web. CT about 30, 000 students, 1500 instructors, 2000 Web. CT sites per term

Web. CT Support: A Virtual Community Ø Spaces: communication tools used l l webct@umn. edu (150+ messages per day) webctadmin@software. umn. edu AIM and irc face-to-face

Web. CT Support: A Virtual Community Ø Membership Faculty Dept/college support Sysadmins Faculty Admin team DMC

Web. CT Support: A Virtual Community Ø Identity l l intragroup: some roles mandated, some evolve extragroup: increasing anonymity

Web. CT Support: A Virtual Community Ø Tone and atmosphere l extragroup: friendly jocularity • “Many thanks for troubleshooting, Alex. I want to thank you for you very "user-friendly" message as the end of each email exchange with me. It makes me feel good that you are very happy to help us!” • “Thanks so much Walker - Bless all of your Web. CT souls, you've made all of our Web. CT courses go very smoothly so far and I think the students are really benefiting. Thanks again!”

Web. CT Support: A Virtual Community Ø Tone and atmosphere l intragroup: cyber-cynicism, in-jokes and humor

Web. CT Support: A Virtual Community Ø Virtues of virtuality? l l l the good: dissemination of information, conflicts prevented the bad: conflicts caused the ugly: unwieldy, organizationally difficult

Web. CT Support

Web. CT Support: A Virtual Community Ø Evolution: from virtual team to community of practice

Reflection Ø Consider again a virtual community you have taken part in. Is it a: l l l virtual team? learning community? community of practice? a hybrid? none of the above?

Case Study: Teaching with Technology Forum Ø Community of practice l l l l History Purpose Membership Group identity Leadership Relation to organizational structure Spaces

Case Study: Teaching with Technology Forum Ø Management and evaluation issues

Application: Online Learning Communities Seminar Ø How can we use our expertise as learning technologists to help faculty to design virtual learning communities?

Online Learning Communities Seminar Ø Guiding idea: teach a subject by modeling it in the teaching process Ø Participants learn by experience

Online Learning Communities Seminar Ø Hybrid structure: l l different modes of online communication one face-to-face meeting

Online Learning Communities Seminar Ø During interactions, we model: l l l good and bad netiquette (and its effects) setting tone and atmosphere projection of identity different kinds of structure facilitation of online discussion

Open Discussion Ø How can we help faculty to design virtual learning communities? Ø Other questions?

Thank You! Linda Jorn, Director, Digital Media Center, Office of Information Technology (ljorn@umn. edu) Dr. J. D. Walker, Instructional Technology Consultant, DMC, OIT (jdwalker@umn. edu)