Blog #2 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 of The Connected Educator dives deeper into the "connected communities" idea and shows learners how to use online resources to relate to other professionals/colleagues. The three important learning communities include: professional learning community (local), personal learning network (contextual), and community of practice (global)...(pg 97). Knowing these approaches from one another helps individuals understand what position they stand in the connected learning community and what steps to take to gain experience and knowledge in a shared interest/profession. Now, this poses a question: what steps can one take to shift from a local community to a global environment when making connections?

One thing people must understand is that, "you must see yourself as a learner first and a teacher second" (pg 97). There is a lot of room for learners to improve in order to begin educating others. A psychologist with a pH D may know more than a student, but he/she still has a lot yet to learn in that field. By connecting with other individuals, he/she is humbling themselves down to a learner to become a better teacher. As a learner, the psychologist would reach out to other professionals and create a healthy community of shared history and culture, safe place to express honest opinions, self-managing and self-governing, a clear purpose, etc.

In a healthy community, you may see colleagues with different roles. This gives a clear idea of who is most committed to learning, engaging and leading. "Linking" educators are interested in a community, but visit once in a while; "lurking" participants are hesitant in expressing their thoughts, but listen more; "learning" individuals frequently participate in the community and bring as much to the plate as what they take away when learning; and finally, "leading" educators make a huge commitment in time and energy and are identified as the leaders. However for a community to grow and mature, they must take this into consideration: "Effective connected learning community members, who are learning and leading, should make it a goal-of any community design-to draw those linking and lurking participants into the action" (pg 102). People who are "beginners" in the community of practice need a little push sometimes and through time, they can move upwards in becoming leaders as educators.

As a physician as my future career, I would be able to relate to other physicians with the fact that we have responsibility over a patient's life. It would essential to create a healthy community with these individuals join forces and cancel out possible failures in the medical practice and single out solutions to problems, especially in a patient's life or death situation. "To build a knowledge of practice, as define in chapter 3, we need to design a community in which members engage in activity and discussions, help one another, and share information" (pg 98). One great website to use for  medical students is The Student Doctor Network. This includes many students studying in the medical field who share their experience and knowledge in med schools and even when beginning their residency. It is a great start to getting to know people who share the same interest and being able to see their stories, threads, and resources.

Question: If you were to create a community of practice, which role would suit you best (linking, lurking, learning, and leading)? Why?

Works Cited

Nussbaum-Beach, Sheryl, and Lani Ritter. Hall. The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age. Solution Tree Press, 2012.