For the week 3 activity, I read chapters 9 & 10. I am amazed by the amount and types of virtual communities that exist and that I did not know it until now. I have surfed the net a million times, but guess I looked past them. The only ones I knew anything about were Facebook and MySpace and that knowledge was limited to what my nieces and nephew told me. As far as thinking about the web as a replacement for self and/or social support, I definitely had not made it to that point until this week. It makes perfect sense; I guess I just needed it pointed out. As far as a summary of the readings, here goes.
Chapter 9 discusses how society has switched its way of thinking, from worrying about natural occurrences and how they will affect us, to how we have affected nature and what we may have caused through science and technology. This idea means we have become a risk society. Reflexive modernization is a process of modernization that is characteristic of a risk society. In this type of society, progress is achieved through reorganization and reform by re-evaluating what is already being used by society. According to Renninger and Shumar (2002), a risk society feels the need to assess for and calculate potential risks in their lives. Individuals will seek out information for varying issues by way of self-help guides, manuals, and other guides for living. The authors believe that the internet has accelerated the spread of such activities and virtual discussion groups. With this change, individuals are researching issues on their own and asking advice from various sources, no longer relying on the “expert”.
Chapter 10 discusses the life-cycles of learning communities and states that learning communities go through a series of phases. The phases are:
· The first phase-idea is proposed to network-people respond or the life cycle for this
activity dies.
· Refinement phase-people exchange ideas to refine the idea
· Organizational phase-exchange of time-schedules, procedures, and software tools.
· Pursuit phase-activity is actually carried out.
· Wrap-up phase-person who proposed idea thanks participants and if successful
participants congratulate each other.
· Publication phase-activity is published for people who have not been involved in the
process.
Knowing about the different phases allows participants to integrate them more effectively with other educational needs/roles, and it helps participants to understand their role in the group.
Thanks, Tomi
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Tomi, this is nice site and thanks for sharing your pictures.
ReplyDeleteI think you and I share the nursing community? Am I correct?
I enjoyed taking part in your process of sharing and making knowledge visible. Earlier today, I was able to understand more fully the concept of cognitive apprenticeship theory by reading Tamara Crosswhite's blog. Now, I am able to conceptualize reflexive modernization more clearly by your writings.
I can understand why people like taking risks and learning in virtual communities, because for some reason, asking questions seems safer to the psyche and the choice to explore, lurk and learn is highly individualized. No matter how hard you try as an educator to create a safety net for questions and knowledge exploration, some student's never feel that they are capable of taking a risk and asking a question or exploring knowledge on their own.
I read the same chapter as you and I also read some of the articles and by "Blogging" about this weeks reading assignment does motivate me as a student to read, explore, share and implement knowledge gained.
I also found the lifecycle of the VLC and the R2D2 models of VLC as tangible tools to begin the process of online education development. I also found the concept of using regional expert knowledge in education, that was described in the article Learning, Working, and Playing in the Digital Age by J. S. Brown a great idea.
I marvel at Dr. Ge's creativeness as an educator to be able to think of what she can do to drive home the important points that need to be mastered in the area of online learning.
Looking forward to the future of nursing education and education in general. Thanks again for your time and reflection. Cindy B.
Tomi, I agree that knowing about the different phases of the life cycle of learning helps me to re-think what I have been doing in the online courses of my graduate degree. In nursing education, we all have the same agenda. As we instruct, guide and nurture new minds towards our love of nursing, we can now encourage VC as a part of a new life of education.
ReplyDeleteGreat discussion, Tomi. Isn't it interesting how evident the information from Chapter 9 is in the health field today? Patients are more informed (some accurately, some not) and are more inquisitive of the care provider than in the past.
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