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By  Gayle Cantrell July 5, 2005 -- 08:22 AM
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To address the ideas of making an online community more successful, I reflect on the information I collected at the NECC conference last week (June). I listened to a group of online trainers talk about collaboration and how they encourage participation. I know that sometimes the face to face work is very difficult and we struggle to get teachers onboard. I am going to start a couple of new groups this fall and am developing ideas that will encourage teachers to work with eCoach. Recently I found that I need to mail my participants each week and sometimes more often. If they are working steadily and use eCoach, this gives me more opportunities to reflect on their work and keep them going. For the teachers that are reluctant, I feel that I need to continue to email and encourage. I mail them weekly and comment on their most recent work and encourage them to look at others' work as well. I also like looking at their webpages to get new ideas about projects they can develop with the builders. Example: If they have several sites on a particular subject posted, I discuss how this could be an online lesson. I also have found it VERY successful to list a couple of options on times I could call them and talk with them as a one on one encounter. This has helped 'kick start' several of the teachers.
Gayle
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Reply to Gayle Cantrell
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By  Barbara Bray July 20, 2005 -- 07:34 PM
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In observing several of the ongoing teams, those that seem to be
working more effectively is where participants share ideas, strategies,
provide feedback online even though they are meeting face-to-face.
There is a fine line between asking teachers to do homework assignments
and not asking them to do any research or share online or co-authoring
projects. What is the right amount?
eCoaches:
- How many face-to-face meetings are enough to build community?
- Which online tools do you use during your F2F meetings?
- Do you give homework assignments? Why? Are they effective?
- How do you keep teachers coming back and logging in?
Teachers:
- Why do you want to be part of a learning community?
- How much online work is too much or too little?
- Has using discussion boards, chat, or blogs helped encourage collaboration with other teachers?
- How does co-authoring projects affect collaboration?
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Reply to Barbara Bray
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By  Linda Ullah October 23, 2005 -- 10:11 AM
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How many face-to-face meetings are enough to build community?
I’m not sure there is an exact answer to this questions. There are so many factors. I DO find value in building a f2f community prior to establishing the online community. However, this is not always possible. I’m using My eCoach with teachers who have met and built a f2f community first. We continue to meet f2f periodically. This is possible because of the nature of the program these teachers are in, and because of the proximity of these teachers to our center, or in the case of the Sonoma teachers, my willingness to drive up there periodicallyf or the f2f meetings. Having said this, I am part of some totally online communities, and have taught online classes where the entire community of learners has been totally online. It both cases (f2f and online) it is critical to build personal relationships between the community members.
Which online tools do you use during your F2F meetings?
I used f2f as a chance to teach the teachers in our program how to use My eCoach. We began using all the tools. I tried to give them tasks to do using each of the tools so they would become familiar with My eCoach while using it to develop their projects, etc.
Do you give homework assignments? Why? Are they effective?
I give homework when we are meeting f2f. Research on online learning has pointed out that online learning is effective for cognitive learning. I’ve found the discussion board effective for discussion and reflection on the "readings" assigned during our f2f institute. This allows us to maximize the f2f time for hands on learning.
How do you keep teachers coming back and logging in?
I post periodic follow up questions. I then email the group and ask them to visit the disucssion board. My experience is that the teachers will use the communication tools they are most comfortable with. Some will respond to my email, some will follow directions and post their responses in the team discussion board, some will go to the message center.. others will phone me. I’m trying to get them to understand that I prefer the threaded discussion for this because this way they can see where there are needs and issues in common and can help each other, and this way I can have a good record of what is happening in their classrooms, and what their needs are. I think there are some learning/working style issues that any coach needs to be aware of and work around. There is also a paradigm shift issue in that we need to help teachers rethink how they work. This will take time. I’m encouraged, however, by the number of teachers who are making this shift, and using My eCoach to communicate with me and to plan, and update their project plans, as well as use the resource library, etc. Slow and steady wins the race.. ;-)
Linda Ullah
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Reply to Linda Ullah
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By  Leilani Carbonell Pedroni October 24, 2005 -- 07:11 AM
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Thanks Gayle and Linda for sharing. Hoping that other eCoaches and
teachers will jump in and respond to Barbara’s questions as well.
I am also really curious to see what others think about strategies to
help teachers "rethink the way they work" (taken from Linda Ullah’s
comment under: How do you keep teachers coming back and logging in?) We’ve
built our community so that teachers could collaborate and share ideas.
As teachers, we know teachers do this all the time in and outside their
classroom. With an online professional learning community such as My
eCoach, teachers are able to share with others beyond their classroom
walls in a virtual enviroment. This, as Linda suggested, is a whole new
paradigm shift. What suggestions do the teachers and eCoaches out there
have to guide teachers to move along this shift?...don’t forget to
address Barbara’s questions too!
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Reply to Leilani Carbonell Pedroni
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By Leilani Carbonell Pedroni November 3, 2005 -- 08:03 AM
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I am putting together some tips for ensuring sustainability in a
professional learning community. This is more of a brainstorm, but I
would like anyone's feedback and input on how to best organize and if I
am missing anything or other suggestions.
Tips for Ensuring Sustainability
Environment Considerations
- Ensure that the PLC
environment remains safe, open, and respectful
- Ensure members
adhere to group norms
- Recognize
individual learning styles and group dynamics
Collective Leadership
- Maintain a shared
vision
- Involve community
in key decision making
- Maintain an Esprit
de Corps – sense of collective responsibility for the PLC
- Empower team
members
Relevant
Content
- Share new
information and updates
- Encourage
collaboration and sharing of ideas and resources
- Maintain discussion
boards and blogs that promote thoughtful discourse
- Promote for a critical
mass of content from community members
- Review and update
resources
Reflection
and Feedback
- Review benchmarks
and measures of success
- Reflect on individual
and collective practice
- Establish a system
for ongoing feedback
Ongoing
Support
- Provide ongoing
coaching and support
- Provide ongoing
learning opportunities
- Maintain
communication with players through a various avenues
- Model best
practices
Celebrate
progress-individual and collective
- Provide incentives
and rewards
- Showcase community work
and communicate results
Be aware of challenges and how to address
them:
- Stagnant discussion
boards
- Unresponsive
members
- Online etiquette
issues
- Loss of focus on
purpose/goal
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Reply to Leilani Carbonell Pedroni
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By Mathew Graham November 29, 2005 -- 02:47 PM
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I have been going through some training over the last few weeks about differentiated instructional strategies. I go again tommorrow morning and will learn some more tips. Baiscally what I have gathered from it is that teachers can multiple techniques such as cubing, jigsaw, and others to engage students in activities in classroom discussions instead of just getting to chapter 8 by Christmas break because that's what the pacing scale says you should do. We had a big arguement however about what students need to know and what do you do about the ones who don't grasp concepts (IE slow learners). Matt
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Reply to Mathew Graham
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By  Daniel Morgan July 12, 2006 -- 01:10 PM
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In my opinon, the best way to build community is by example, mirroring the old saying, if you want a friend, be a friend. So if you want teachers to participate in E-Mentoring, model to them the benfits of belonging and communicating with each other. Demonstrate the advantages of having an E-Friend contact. In doing this, both the E-Coach and mentored will benefit.
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Reply to Daniel Morgan
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By Barbara Bray July 16, 2006 -- 01:53 PM
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Dan,
Thanks! I agree - modelling is important. It was great working with you and the other teachers this week in Pinellas County. I found that sending email - replying to blogs, message center mail that also sends an email - knocks on their virtual door. It is so easy for teachers to go back to the daily grind and forget to log in. It will take time to build an online community and a little extra nudging in the beginning. 
Barbara
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Reply to Barbara Bray
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