Elearning, efacilitation, ecommunities, epedagogies: aprofessional standpoint based on evidence

I currently work as the Director of Information and Communication Technology for Ringmer Community College, a small specialist school in East Sussex. I have beenteaching for the past seventeen years mostly in the fields of Design & Technology andICT. I also work as a co-ordinator across a local consortium of schools within aLeaning Skills Council funded Increased flexibility programme for the 14-19Curriculum. I have a strong interest in the collaborative nature of online learning andam currently studying at MA level in Education with research projects completed sofar on collaborative workspace environments and their use with students. I gained a best Practice Research Scholarship (BPRS) in 2001 which helped instigate a journeywhich I am happy to say is still continuing through fellowship of Mirandanet andsupport from Sussex University, Ultralab at the APU and IOE, London University.E facilitators are catalysts that can make online learning happen. The role of such a person is a difficult one to define initially and indeed could change dynamically if theonline context demands it to. E facilitators listen, draw out, pull apart and to someextent guide the e learner.An example of a recent post suggests the importance on online socialization withinany online group: (The original post contained a cartoon image of a giant mouseoperating a computer using a small man as an input device)

Sorry Tom just having a break (Half term). Sometimes computers (or their peripherals) start to takeover. Back soonUp to Snowdonia to sit on some high mountains and hang by flimsy threads off perilous cliffs.regards

Dai

Within this post I was merely adding some social skills to the conversation in the wayof both humour and visual imagery. I was amazed by the responses to this type of post. This use of both elements seemed to enable better socialisation and thereforehelped myself and others to share more knowledge.I believe that Salmons model has some merit used within the context of myexperiences of e facilitation. The group of fellow e learners that I became part of seemed to move well through the stages with others helping online with any stage 1access issues and moved through easily to stage 2 socialisation , helped by the use of metaphor and virtual cues , these are similar to visual cues except they are used withinthe virtual environment. They may be emoticon based or use strong imagery such ashyperlinked graphics.I believe that our group became a cohesive one but this very importantly was bolstered by face-to-face meetings. I felt that stage 4 knowledge construction stated to be reached during some of our more lengthy contributions and summaries. Thefollowing post extract shows a deeper level of communication and certainly for mehelped me to rearrange my knowledge construct of difficulties in efaciliatation:

Re: The Human Touch

Hello Chris, Mark and Dai, I see the beers did the trick then Chris! I'm interested in this thread that's developing about thinking out loud and reframing. I think Chris has pinpointed an important issue here that is - context and purpose. In reading the Preece chapters she notes that different communities have different characteristics and that challenging postings may well be productive within a professional communitywhereas they can be quite damaging in a community whose purpose is to support members as inmedical online communities. I think in this context as Chris notes where we have all met, I can think aloud. However, I had a go at engaging one of the contributors to the teaching assistants debate in themain forums and found myself thinking much more carefully about how I framed my contribution. The fact that I was engaging a complete stranger made it much more critical to choose the right words. I agree Chris that the context is critical. By the way I've been 'lurking' for a few days and then for some reason I couldn't log onto the site last night. I wondered if it was something I'd said!! Keith

The evaluation of the process as a whole is complex one. Did the group get what theyneeded form the process? Was the process useful with regards to learning? I think thatany course needs criteria to evaluate against. Online learning courses can be difficultto analyse and perhaps various types of evaluation can occur (Preece p300-340). I believe it would have been useful to have agreed a form of evaluation and somecriteria with the group before we started meeting online. I would like to collectfeedback from the group and ask if learning did take place. This would perhaps showthe differences in face-to-face and non face to face learning contexts. As a peer groupwith little intervention from any type of mentor or coach I believe the task is adifficult one. Perhaps face-to-face and non face-to-face learning has no differences inthis regard. All learners need feedback and guidance from time to time. The physicaldifferences are dramatic and as such can to some be alarmingly un user friendly. To

others it can serve to reduce barriers to learning by suiting lifestyle and work commitments and reducing travel.Efacilitation is indeed a complex role, which requires a range of interchangeableskills.My work so far has lead me to reach new levels of reflective thought about my own practice in education and especially my own and others methods of gaining continued professional development. The teacher who is a ‘life long learner’ is perhaps one thatis fully equipped to take on the complexities of modern education and the ever-changing nature of knowledge.At the heart of becoming a teacher is, above all else, being a learner, a life longlearner. To learn, one has to ask questions, of oneself and of others, and to know thatthis process is valued and shared across the school. Reflecting on teaching provides afocus for analysing and developing learning and teaching.(DENI 1999)The use of e-communities to generate reflective dialogue between teachers has been afascinating journey into a complex field. The very fact that I have been myself taking part in a community of good practice (Lave & Wenger,1991) and taken part in‘reflective action’ (Dewey 1933) has given me a better insight into a process which Ihave developed since starting teaching sixteen years ago. The advantages of e-learning for developing reflective processes are still being researched. There have been some important developments highlighted by recent research projects (Ultralab2002)The aim of my research was to see if my own experiences with e-facilitation within acommunity of practice could help to develop professional reflection. Teachers withintheir careers develop various states of professional competence as they move througheach stage of their experience this feeds the ‘constructive spiral or professionalcompetence’ (Pollard 2002)Reflective and collaborative activities are social by nature and have been studied for some years (Vygotsky 1978). This model of learning from others is one that I haveobserved in both students and teachers and is enhanced by extended thinking time inasynchronous discussion forums (Thomas 2002). The observations that I have madeduring the research period are not quantitative in nature and seem to be congruent